The main entity you work on in GroIMP is the project. A project may consist of various parts, e.g., files, source code, a scene (2D, 3D, or other), resource objects like data sets, 3D materials or the like. Several projects can be open at the same time, each in its own main window.

The Project object is closely related to the Workbench object.

To simplify:

• a Project is the set of resources that enables to open an entity that can be processed by GroIMP.
• a Workbench is the set of windows that enables the user to use the project. A workbench is created around a project. Even in interfaces that do not create a GUI (headless for instance), a workbench is created and used to process the project.

Note for developers, a GroIMP project is slightly different from the code implementation of a project.

A project requires three files to be openable in GroIMP:

1. The project registry: Named project.gs by default. It is an XML file that includes all the registry content of the project. I.e. the list of all resources to load in the project, as well as “how” to load them.
2. The Graph: Named graph.xml by default. It is an XML file that describe the graph states of all graphs in the project. It store the current state of the graph, which enables to save and reload a project after running it.
3. The Java resources file: Named MANIFEST.MF in the repository META-INF. This is a text file that list all files of the project and their types.

Note that:

1. the project registry and the graph can be renamed as long as their references are also renamed.
2. The project can be compressed into a .gsz file. In that case, the three files (and all other resources) are contained in the .gsz file.

The project registry is a XML file.