SQLBI Whiteboard

SQLBI Whiteboard — Free Download. Digital teaching canvas

SQLBI Whiteboard is a native Windows 11 application designed for creating and presenting technical content through freeform ink, live window captures, and syntax-aware text blocks. The program operates entirely offline, saving work as local .wboard files without requiring an account or cloud connection. Its unbounded canvas supports pressure-sensitive pen input with rear-eraser support, touch navigation for panning and zoom, and full mouse and keyboard control. Boards can hold imported images, pasted text, and LiveView captures that display GPU-backed views of other application windows, which can be frozen and annotated during presentations. Text containers support plain text, DAX, and SQL Server modes with live syntax highlighting and one-key code formatting, making the application particularly suited for data modeling instruction and technical workshops.

★★★★★
5.0(1 ratings)
Download SQLBI Whiteboard (Official links)
File size: 76.2 MB
The latest version of SQLBI Whiteboard is: 1.1.1
Operating system: Windows
Languages: English
Developer: sql-bi
Price: $0.00 USD (Open Source (MIT))
  • Unbounded Canvas. The drawing surface has no fixed boundaries and extends in all directions as needed. Users can navigate the infinite workspace using touch gestures for panning, pinch zoom for scaling, mouse drag for movement, and keyboard shortcuts. The canvas maintains consistent coordinate positions for all containers and strokes regardless of zoom level, ensuring that annotations remain aligned with captured windows and imported images during presentations.
  • Pressure-Aware Pen Ink. The ink engine captures pen input with low latency and applies variable stroke width based on pressure sensitivity data from supported stylus hardware. The rear eraser on compatible pens performs immediate stroke removal without switching tools. Basic palm rejection prevents accidental marks when the hand rests on the screen while writing. Stroke rendering follows calligraphy dynamics that preserve natural writing motion and velocity-based thickness variation.
  • Straight-Line Constraint. Holding Shift or pressing the assigned pen barrel button constrains the current stroke to a horizontal or vertical axis. The axis is determined by the first 24 pixels of pen travel and remains locked for the entire segment regardless of subsequent hand drift. Pressing or releasing the constraint key at any point transitions the remaining portion of the stroke to freehand drawing while preserving the previously drawn straight segment.
  • Configurable Pen Barrel Button. The pen side button can be assigned to one of two functions: Laser pointer mode for highlighting areas during presentations, or Straight line constraint matching the Shift key behavior. The erasing function is not assignable to this button because the rear end of the pen and the upper side button both generate identical inverted-stylus events on supported hardware, making them indistinguishable from each other.
  • LiveView Window Capture. This feature creates a live, GPU-backed view of another application window or entire display directly on the board surface. The captured view updates in real time and can be resized, repositioned, and rotated as a board container. Users can freeze the LiveView at any moment to create a static snapshot for annotation with ink strokes. The capture can be resumed after annotation, and all marks made during the frozen state remain attached to the container and move with it.
  • Syntax-Aware Text Containers. Text blocks support three editing modes: plain text with no special processing, DAX mode with live syntax highlighting for Data Analysis Expressions language, and SQL Server mode with highlighting for Transact-SQL queries. Each mode provides one-key code formatting that automatically applies consistent indentation and spacing rules appropriate to the language. The syntax highlighting updates as the user types, providing immediate visual feedback for code structure and keyword recognition.
  • Container-Bound Strokes. Any ink strokes drawn over an image, text block, or LiveView container become attached to that container automatically. When the container is moved, resized, rotated, or deleted, all attached strokes transform or are removed along with it. This binding mechanism ensures that annotations remain positioned correctly relative to the underlying content during layout adjustments. The behavior is consistent across all container types and participates fully in undo and redo operations.
  • Undo and Redo System. Every operation performed on the board participates in the undo and redo history, including stroke creation, container addition, movement, resizing, text editing, LiveView freezing, and deletion. The system tracks operations in chronological order and restores the exact previous state when undoing. Users can step backward and forward through the complete history without losing intermediate work.
  • Wimport Markdown Recipes. Board content can be generated programmatically from .wimport files, which are Markdown documents with special syntax. Headings in the Markdown file become positioned title containers on the board. Image references import the corresponding image files as container objects. Code fences with language identifiers create text containers with the appropriate syntax highlighting mode preconfigured. This feature enables batch creation of structured teaching boards from text-based source files.
  • Wboard Preview Thumbnails. Saved .wboard files embed a preview image that represents the board content at the time of saving. This thumbnail appears as the file icon in Windows Explorer, providing visual identification of board contents without opening the application. The companion VS Code extension also displays these previews, allowing developers to recognize board files within their project structure.
  • Laser Pointer Mode. When activated through the pen barrel button or a toolbar control, the pen becomes a temporary laser pointer that draws a fading trail on the screen. The trail weight is configurable in preferences, with multiple thickness options available. The laser mark does not persist on the board and disappears after a short time, making it suitable for directing audience attention during live presentations without modifying board content.
  • Image Container Support. Images can be added to the board through file import or by pasting from the clipboard. Imported images become movable containers that can be resized while maintaining aspect ratio or freely distorted. Pasted images are captured at their source resolution and embedded directly into the board file. All image containers accept ink annotations that bind to the container surface.
  • Touch and Gesture Navigation. The application supports multi-touch input for canvas manipulation. Two-finger gestures control panning across the unbounded surface, while pinch gestures adjust the zoom level from minimum to maximum magnification. A preference setting enables optional one-finger drawing mode, which disables single-finger panning to allow finger-based ink input on touch-enabled displays without a stylus.
  • Toolbar Position and Layout Options. The primary toolbar can be positioned at different edges of the application window based on user preference. Layout options control which tool icons appear in the toolbar and how they are grouped. The configuration system displays visual previews of each option rather than text labels, allowing users to see the exact arrangement before selecting. These preferences persist between sessions.
  • Pen Trace Diagnostics. A diagnostic logging system can record raw pen input events to a file specified by the SQLBI_WHITEBOARD_PENTRACE environment variable. This trace captures the complete packet stream from the stylus hardware, including tip pressure, barrel button states, and inverted eraser events. The feature is disabled by default and serves as a tool for troubleshooting pen behavior across different hardware configurations and driver versions.
  • VS Code Extension Companion. A companion extension for Visual Studio Code recognizes .wboard files and displays the embedded preview thumbnail within the editor interface. This integration allows developers to identify and organize board files alongside their code projects. The extension reads the preview data stored in the file format without requiring the main application to be running.

SQLBI Whiteboard was created by SQLBI, a company founded by Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari, recognized for their publications and training materials on DAX, Power BI, and tabular data modeling. The application emerged from their instructional practice, where existing whiteboard tools lacked adequate support for displaying code with correct syntax highlighting while simultaneously annotating live application windows. The project began as an internal solution for their training sessions and conference presentations before being released publicly.

Alternatives to SQLBI Whiteboard: