The Workshop

The Steam Workshop is where CRUMB users share parts. Anything you can build in the component editor, from a sensor module to a whole development board, can be published there, and anyone can add it to their library and use it in a circuit. The Workshop shares parts, not whole circuits.

Safe to download

Every part’s code is checked against a strict whitelist before it runs, so a part can’t reach your files, your network or anything else on your computer. See What’s checked when a part loads.

Finding parts

Workshop parts are searched from the Component Toolbox in the circuit designer.

• Search looks in your library first. When the Workshop has matches you don’t already have, they appear underneath under From the Workshop, or as a link to them when your library already has plenty of matches.
• Browse…, at the bottom of the toolbox, switches it to the Workshop. It opens on Most subscribed, and the sort menu also offers Relevance, Top rated, Trending and Newest. Back to Library takes you back.
• The Workshop button on the Home screen opens CRUMB’s Workshop page in Steam, if you’d rather browse there.

Browse… shows the first 50 results, and From the Workshop under a library search shows up to 12, so add a word or two to narrow a search down. If Steam can’t be reached, the toolbox says so and offers Retry.

A Workshop part’s card has a Steam icon. Hover over the card to see the author, version, rating, subscriber count and description. Ratings appear once a part has five or more votes.

Adding a part

Right-click a Workshop card and choose Get — Add to Library. You can also drag it straight into your circuit, or choose Add to Design: either way it’s added to your library and downloaded first.

Once a part is in your library it sits with the built-in parts, under its own category. The Filter menu at the top of the toolbox shows parts by where they came from: Built-in, Local (yours), and Workshop parts by their visibility (Steam Public, Steam Private, Steam Friends). Right-click any part to add it to your Favourites, which stay pinned at the top.

From the same menu you can Vote up or Vote down, View Information, or Open on Steam Workshop.

Updates

When the author publishes a new version of a part you have, its Steam icon changes colour, and hovering over the icon says an update is available. The new version downloads the next time you place the part or open a circuit that uses it.

Removing a part

Right-click it and choose Remove from Library (Unsubscribe). Circuits that already use it still open: they add it back and download it again when they load.

Opening a circuit that uses Workshop parts

You don’t need to collect the parts first. When you open a circuit that uses a Workshop part you don’t have, CRUMB adds it to your library and downloads it while the circuit loads. Until it arrives, the part shows as a box of the right size.

This works because every part has a permanent part ID. A saved circuit records each part’s ID, so it finds the right part on any computer, even if the file has moved.

If a part can’t be loaded, it stays as a red, see-through box and the output log says why. The most common reason is being offline: a part you have never downloaded needs Steam to fetch it. Parts you already have open without Steam.

Publishing your own part

Open the part in the component editor. The ribbon’s STEAM WORKSHOP group has four buttons:

Button	What it does
Publish…	Publishes the part, or pushes your changes to the version already published.
View…	Opens the part’s Workshop page.
Synchronise	Replaces your local copy with the version on the Workshop.
Delete…	Takes the part off the Workshop. Your local copy stays in your library.

To publish:

1. Frame the part nicely in the editor’s 3D view. CRUMB takes the Workshop picture from it.
2. Press Publish…. A new part is saved to your library first. A part that holds a value from your private headers can’t be saved or published until you take it out.
3. Fill in the dialog: Name, Author, Version, Category and Subcategory, a Description, and a Datasheet URL if the part copies a real one. For an update, add a Change Log.
4. Choose the Visibility: Public, Friends Only or Private.
5. Press Publish. When it’s done, Steam opens the part’s Workshop page.

The part’s category and subcategory become its Workshop tags, so people find it by browsing as well as searching.

If you haven’t accepted the Steam Workshop agreement yet, your part stays hidden until you do. CRUMB tells you when that’s the case.

The toolbox shows the state of your own published parts: synced with Steam, local changes waiting to upload, or out of step with the Workshop.

Copies and part IDs

You can’t publish changes to a built-in part or to someone else’s Workshop part: they open read-only. Use Save As… to make your own copy. It gets a new part ID, so it’s a separate part from the original, and you can publish it as your own.

What’s checked when a part loads

A part’s code is checked against a strict whitelist every time it loads, wherever it came from: the Workshop, a file or a saved circuit. The whitelist is there for your safety: it keeps a part’s code away from your files, your network and the rest of your computer. Code that breaks the rules is refused and never runs. The part shows an error instead, in red in the hierarchy and in the output log. See The whitelist for exactly what part code may use.

Sharing a part as a file

To give someone a part without the Workshop, right-click it and choose Export. They add it with Import component… from the toolbox’s options menu. If they already have a part with the same ID, CRUMB asks before replacing it.