Files, saving, and recovery

Hew’s native format is .hew, an open, documented container (a zip holding a JSON manifest and binary geometry buffers) that saves everything: geometry, names, groups, components, materials, tags, and guides. Saving is deterministic: the same model always produces byte-identical output, which plays well with backups and version control.

Saving and opening

• Save: ⌘S / Ctrl+S, or File ▸ Save. The first save asks where; after that it writes in place.
• Save As… (⇧⌘S / Ctrl+Shift+S) saves a copy under a new name and switches to it.
• Open…: ⌘O / Ctrl+O.
• New: ⌘N / Ctrl+N. On desktop, a non-empty document opens a fresh window; the web app offers to discard.
• Close (⌘W, or File ▸ Close) closes the window (macOS desktop only).

The window title is the save-state indicator: a • before the name plus an “Edited …” label means unsaved changes; “Saved …” means you’re clean. Hew warns you before anything would discard unsaved work — closing the window or tab, opening another file, or starting a new document.

In the browser

The web app uses your browser’s file access support:

• Chrome, Edge, and other Chromium browsers can open and save .hew files in place, like a desktop app (you’ll grant permission the first time).
• Firefox and Safari fall back to standard uploads/downloads: Open picks a file, and each Save downloads a fresh copy to your Downloads folder.

The web app also works offline once loaded — it’s an installable PWA, so you can add it to your dock or home screen.

On the desktop

The desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) uses native open/save dialogs, remembers your last 10 recent files (File ▸ Open Recent), and registers the .hew file type so double-clicking a file opens it. File ▸ New opens additional windows, each with an independent document.

Autosave and crash recovery

Hew autosaves a recovery snapshot of any unsaved changes every 12 seconds. If the app or browser closes unexpectedly, the next launch offers the snapshot back:

Recover Unsaved Document? — Hew found an autosaved version of “…” from a few minutes ago that wasn’t saved before the app closed.

Choose Recover to pick up where you left off, or Discard to throw the snapshot away. Pressing Esc dismisses the dialog without discarding; the offer returns next launch, so an accidental keypress can’t destroy work.

On the desktop, each window keeps its own snapshot. If you crash with several windows of unsaved work, the dialog lists every document; Recover All brings each one back in its own window, and Discard All clears them all.

Recovery snapshots are an emergency net, not a save system: save normally, and use the snapshot only when something went wrong.

Undo history

Undo (⌘Z / Ctrl+Z) and redo (⇧⌘Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z) span the whole document — every modeling operation, transform, paint, rename, and delete. History lives for the session; it isn’t stored in the file.