# Introduction to Glass

Glass is a new dashboard and robot data visualization tool. It supports many of the same :ref:`widgets <docs/software/wpilib-tools/robot-simulation/simulation-gui:Learning the Layout>` that the Simulation GUI supports, including robot pose visualization and advanced plotting. In its current state, it is meant to be used as a programmer's tool for debugging and not as a dashboard for competition use.

## Opening Glass

Glass can be launched by selecting the ellipsis menu (:guilabel:`...`) in VS Code, clicking on :guilabel:`Start Tool` and then choosing :guilabel:`Glass`.

.. image:: images/vs-code-glass-launch.png

.. note:: You can also launch Glass directly by navigating to tools folder in the WPILib installation folder (e.g., ``~/wpilib/YYYY/tools``) where YYYY is the WPILib version year. On macOS this is  ``~/wpilib/YYYY``, where ``~`` indicates the users home directory. On Linux, this is ``XDG_DATA_HOME/wpilib/YYYY`` (likely ``~/.local/share/wpilib/YYYY``) or you can use the shortcut installed in the application menu. On Windows, you can run use use the Glass shortcut in the Windows Start menu or the shortcut inside the WPILib Tools desktop folder (Windows).

## Changing View Settings

The :guilabel:`View` menu item contains :guilabel:`Zoom` and :guilabel:`Style` settings that can be customized. The :guilabel:`Zoom` option dictates the size of the text in the application whereas the :guilabel:`Style` option allows you to select between the ``Classic``, ``Light``, and ``Dark`` modes.

An example of the ``Dark`` style setting is below:

.. image:: images/glass-dark-mode.png

## Clearing Application Data

Application data for Glass, including widget sizes and positions as well as other custom information for widgets is stored in a ``glass.ini`` file. The location of this file varies based on your operating system:

- On Windows, the configuration file is located in ``%APPDATA%``.
- On macOS, the configuration file is located in ``~/Library/Preferences``.
- On Linux, the configuration file is located in ``$XDG_CONFIG_HOME`` or ``~/.config`` if the former does not exist.

The ``glass.ini`` configuration file can simply be deleted to restore Glass to a "clean slate".