Open

File → Open is your project library. It lists the robot projects saved on this computer and the projects saved to your Synthiam account, and lets you open one, look inside it first, or bring some of its robot skills into the project you already have open.

Use it to pick up a robot you worked on before, to open a project you saved to the cloud from another computer, or to copy robot skills from one project into another.

Where to find it: Side menu → File → Open. You can also reach it from the Open project buttons and the All projects link on the Home page.

Contents

1. Top of the page
2. This computer
3. Project cards on this computer
4. Project details
5. Merging robot skills into the open project
6. Project backups
7. Synthiam cloud
8. Project cards in the cloud
9. Password protected projects
10. What happens when a project opens
11. Troubleshooting

Top of the page

The top of the page has a Start a new project button, which goes to File → New, and an Open from card with two choices:

The page starts on Synthiam cloud if the open project came from the cloud, or if the last project you opened came from the cloud. Otherwise it starts on This computer. Just switching between the two does not change which one the page starts on next time.

This computer

This list shows every project file in the My Projects folder. ARCx reads the folder each time the page opens, so a large folder can take a moment. Placeholder cards are shown while it reads.

The heading under the search says how many projects there are, for example 12 projects in your project folder, or 3 of 12 projects when a search or tag is narrowing the list.

When a search or tag is on, the filters are shown as chips such as Search: arm and Tag: testing. Click a chip to remove that filter, or Clear all to remove both.

If nothing matches, the page says No projects match those filters with a Clear filters button. If the folder is empty, it says No projects on this computer yet with a New Project button.

Projects stored anywhere other than the My Projects folder are not listed. To bring in a project file from somewhere else, upload it into My Projects with File → File Manager.

Project cards on this computer

Each card shows:

The card's buttons:

A password protected project's card says The description, tags and robot skills of this project are encrypted. Open it with its password to see them.

Project details

The info icon on a card opens a details box, so you can see what is in a project before you open it. For a password protected project, you are asked for the password first.

The box shows:

• The project's picture, name, age and file size.
• Its description.
• Robot skills, Workspaces, Max servo position, and Startup script. Startup script shows No, or how many seconds after loading the startup script runs (for example 5s). The script can be cancelled during that time.
• Manual and Video buttons, when the project has those links.
• Robot skills, grouped by workspace, with each skill's window title and type.
• File details, folded away at the bottom: the file's location, last modified date, whether it is password protected, created date, size in bytes, file attributes and Unix file mode.

Press Open project to open it, or Close to go back to the list.

Merging robot skills into the open project

Merging copies robot skills, with their settings, from a saved project into the project that is open now. The open project is not replaced, and its own settings stay as they are.

To merge robot skills:

1. On the card of the project you want to copy from, click the merge icon.
2. If that project is password protected, enter its password.
3. In Merge into the open project, tick the robot skills you want.
4. Press Merge (n) skills. The button is disabled until at least one skill is ticked.
5. ARCx adds the skills and shows the first workspace.

Merged robot skills are always placed on the first workspace, whatever workspace they were on in the other project. A robot skill that is not installed on this computer is downloaded from the store first. If any skill cannot be merged, a Warnings box lists it and the others are still added.

Merging is only available for projects on this computer, not for cloud projects.

Project backups

Each time you save over a project on this computer, ARCx keeps the copy being replaced as a backup. Each project has its own folder inside Projects Backups in the ARCx Data folder, and each backup is named by the date and time it was saved, for example Projects Backups\My Project\2026-08-01-12-23-59.arcx. The newest 50 backups of each project are kept; when there are more, the oldest is deleted to make room. You can change the number, or turn backups off, in Options → Preferences → Backups.

One project's backups

The backups icon on a card, or the (n) backups count, opens Backups of (name). The line under the title says how many backups there are, how much space they use, and how many are kept. The backups are listed newest first, grouped by day (Today, Yesterday, the weekday, or the date). The newest is marked Latest. Each row shows the time it was saved, how long ago that was and its size. A lock icon means the backup is password protected.

If the project has no backups, the box says No backups yet. If backups are turned off, a note at the top says so, with a Turn them on link to Options → Preferences → Backups.

All backups

The Backups button above the list opens Project backups. The top shows how many projects have backups, how many backups there are, how much space they use, and how much space is free on the drive. A warning is shown when the drive is low on space.

Each project with backups is listed with its number of backups, their size and how long ago the newest was made. A project marked Project deleted no longer exists in My Projects, so its backups are the only copies left; they can still be opened or restored as a copy.

When the disk is low

When the drive the backups are on has less free space than the limit set in Options → Preferences → Backups (2048 MB unless you change it), ARCx shows Your disk is running low on space. It shows the free space and how much the backups use. It appears once each time a web browser connects to ARCx, and after a save when the drive has just dropped below the limit. It is only shown when there are backups to purge.

Synthiam cloud

This list shows the ARCx projects saved to your Synthiam account. It has the same search, Tags, Recent / Name and Cards / List controls as the This computer list, with these differences:

• The search runs on synthiam.com, so each change in the search box asks the server again. It waits half a second after you stop typing.
• Changing Recent / Name also asks the server again.
• The tag filter only rearranges the projects already fetched, so it is instant.
• The list fills in one project at a time. While it does, the heading says Loading (n) projects....

If your account has no cloud projects, the page says Nothing saved to your account yet with a Save a project to the cloud button, which goes to File → Save.

Project cards in the cloud

Cloud cards look like local cards. They show the picture, name, age, file size, how many times the project has been downloaded, the description and tags. A Public badge on the picture means the project is shared publicly on synthiam.com.

Version history of (name) lists every saved version at once, newest first and grouped by day. The newest is marked Newest. Each row shows the time it was saved, how long ago that was, its size, its version number and its change description, the note entered when it was saved (or No change description).

Press Open on a version to download it and open it in place of the project. A Downloading (name) box shows while it downloads. A password protected version asks for the password it was saved with. The project stays linked to the same cloud file, so saving it to the cloud makes it the newest version; the older versions stay as they are. A version saved by an older Synthiam program rather than ARCx cannot be opened, and an error says why.

Password protected projects

A project can be encrypted with a password when it is saved (see File → Save). When you open, inspect or merge one:

1. A Password protected project box asks for the password.
2. If you already used a password in this session, the box is filled in with it and says Filled in with the password you last used in this session. Press Enter or Open.
3. If the password is wrong, the box stays open and says The password is incorrect. What you typed is kept so you can correct it.
4. Cancel stops, and the open project is left as it was.

The eye icon in the password field shows or hides what you type. A cloud project's password is only asked for after it has been downloaded, because ARCx cannot tell it is protected until then.

What happens when a project opens

• Opening a project closes the project that is open now. ARCx does not ask you to save first, so save your work with File → Save before you open another project.
• A busy overlay shows Opening (name)... until the first workspace of the new project is drawn. Clicking another project while one is opening does nothing.
• Any robot skill in the project that is not installed on this computer is downloaded from the store as the project loads.
• If the project has a startup script, it starts counting down once the project has loaded.
• If some robot skills could not be loaded, a Warnings box lists each one and says the project will be incomplete. The rest of the project opens.

Troubleshooting