Altium (Disable) Fractal Panel Grouping

[cjurczak]

I am having trouble getting the panels to stay where I want them.  I keep getting panels in the fractal grouping, and its pain to correct.  I have three monitors so I have no need for saving space.  Is there a way to disable fractal grouping, I combed the settings to no avail, but I thought someone else might have some insight how to prevent my panels from getting grouped this way. 

[free_electron]

what is fractal grouping ?

[cjurczak]

what is fractal grouping ?

Multiple panels in a group displayed at the same time. 
https://www.altium.com/documentation/15.1/display/ADES/Working+with+Panels+in+Altium+Designer#!WorkingwithPanelsinAltiumDesigner-FractalPanelGrouping

I'm trying to have only tabbed groups, where only one panel shows at a time.  But it seems whenever I open a new panel, or rearrange a panel I get them go to the fractal groups instead. 

[free_electron]

then your option is to make them tabbed. you can have a tab group left and a tab group right.

I too run triplehead. one screen PCB , one schematic , one the rest ( Vault browser , scripts , chrome etc )
in schematic i have on the left a tabbed panel with projects and on the right properties
in pcb on the right : properties,  on the left : pcb filter and pcb

[goodnaysayer]

Hey cjurczak, to answer your question months later: I also have not found a way to disable fractal grouping.

One thing I found that helped reduce my frustration with windows sometimes getting stuck in fractal grouping is by saving my preferred panel arrangement in Preferences->System->View so I can load that arrangement when they get "out of whack"

[daves.toolroom]

I also had problems with this, but eventually figured out that I need to click directly on the title of one of the panels in the fractal grouping, then drag it away from the other docked panels.
After this, you drag the moved panel back to the docked panel. Make sure you drop it in the middle of that panel (not onto the arrows that appear when you hover over the existing panel before dropping it). It should then appear in a tabbed arrangement.
Hope this helps.

[henmill]

I registered for this forum just to say thanks. Fractal grouping drives me crazy! Silly that you have to click the title of the panel and I didn't see that anywhere in the documentation.

Cheers

[Pseudobyte]

For all those who prefer to see what is up.

To Setup Fractals:

To Undo Fractals:

[lazerj]

Thank you for this fractal panels are the worst. I was getting really frustrated that I couldn't figure out how get rid of them.

[dnparadice]

Thanks for posting this. I thought my Altium install had a bug, I didn't realize it was a "feature". Hopefully they squish this "feature" as it sure is annoying.

[Pseudobyte]

Update for all you fractal panel haters. They are very nice when you are working on a 4k monitor, but if you must disable them this is how:

[envisionelec]

Update for all you fractal panel haters. They are very nice when you are working on a 4k monitor, but if you must disable them this is how:

Not available in 19.1.9 - what version are you using?

[Pseudobyte]

Update for all you fractal panel haters. They are very nice when you are working on a 4k monitor, but if you must disable them this is how:

Not available in 19.1.9 - what version are you using?

I believe that post was done in 20.0. I am running 20.1 now though.

[olkipukki]

The option has been added in version 20 only.

https://www.altium.com/documentation/release-notes-for-altium-designer-version-20-0

33222    Added an option to disable fractal mode for Panels in Advanced Settings (BC:1384).

[MikeOxlong69]

Update for all you fractal panel haters. They are very nice when you are working on a 4k monitor, but if you must disable them this is how:
(IMAGE REDACTED)

Unfortunately this option only prevents YOU from fractal paneling. It doesn't prevent Altium from doing it on its own. And it's still a pain to undo. You can't make this sh*t up. Yet another reason I want to move to a company that uses Mentor.

[Pseudobyte]

Update for all you fractal panel haters. They are very nice when you are working on a 4k monitor, but if you must disable them this is how:
(IMAGE REDACTED)

Unfortunately this option only prevents YOU from fractal paneling. It doesn't prevent Altium from doing it on its own. And it's still a pain to undo. You can't make this sh*t up. Yet another reason I want to move to a company that uses Mentor.

HAHAHA you think you are going to have a better time with PADS or DX Designer?

[alexwhittemore]

HAHAHA you think you are going to have a better time with PADS or DX Designer?

I just spent 8 months working at a company bitching back and forth with a coworker of mine, me about Altium's weird UI oddities and him about DX's (company uses both, depending on project). To be honest, it sounded to me like he had it worse.

That said, now that I'm using AD again for the first time in a few years, I could have sworn AD20 was auto-fractalizing on my when I switched views. Good to know I'm not crazy. Super annoying.

[thekeystoneclimber]

I see I'm not the only one that thinks that panel management is one of Altium's worst "features".  Don't even get me started on semi-context-aware panel groups and the inability to close the Components panel in the symbol editor window or the footprint editor window without also automagically closing it in the schematic editor.  Or even the inability to reorder unused tabs in one window (to the end of the tab list) without them being reordered in another.