Preferences

Modified by Jason Howie on Feb 12, 2015

Summary
Access
Options/Controls
Left-Hand Pane
Right-click Menu
Main Editing Region
Additional Buttons

The Preferences dialog.

Summary

This dialog allows the designer to define various preference settings for the PCBWorks environment, as well as global options specific to various editors and their features. Settings defined in the dialog apply across projects and relevant documents, in contrast to document-level options that target the active document only.

Access

The dialog is accessed by clicking the System Preferences button, available from the main File menu.

Options/Controls

The dialog is composed of a static pane on the left, and a main editing region on the right, that changes in context with the selection on the left.

Left-Hand Pane

This area of the dialog lists all of the individual pages of preferences available to the designer for editing. Pages are categorized into folders of functionality, with the following categories available:

System - preferences concerning the system in general.
Data Management - preferences relating to data management features and functionality.
Schematic - preferences relating to features and functionality with the schematic editing domain.
PCB Editor - preferences relating to features and functionality with the PCB editing domain.
Text Editors - preferences relating to features and functionality associated with the Text Editor.
Importers - preferences relating to features and functionality associated to various Importers.

Click on a child entry within one of these folder categories to load its associated page of preferences into the main editing region on the right-hand side of the dialog.

Right-click Menu

The following commands are available from the right-click context menu for the pane:

Default (Page) - use this command to set the options and controls on the selected child preferences page, back to their defaults.
Default (Branch) - use this command to set the options and controls on all child preferences pages of the selected category, back to their defaults. You must ensure the required parent category folder is selected, otherwise this command will be unavailable.
Default (All) - use this command to set the options and controls on all preferences pages, back to their defaults.

Main Editing Region

This region of the dialog changes in accordance with the preferences page entry currently selected in the left-hand pane. The banner of the region will helpfully display the name of the page being edited, in the format <CategoryName> - <ChildPageName>. The following preferences pages can be loaded (click a link for detail of the options/controls available on a page):

Use the controls and options available on the loaded page to configure your the preferences for that area of the software as required. This could be a mixture of satisfying company policy, and your preferred working environment.

When a change is made to an option on a preference page, that page's entry will be distinguished in the left-hand pane by becoming bold and an asterisk (*) displayed to the right of its name.

You can make changes across multiple pages of preferences, then commit those changes at the same time - either by clicking OK, or Apply. The benefit of using the Apply button is that changes are committed without leaving the dialog.

Additional Buttons

The following additional controls are provided at the bottom-left of the dialog:

Set To Defaults - click this button to set the options and controls on the selected/active child preferences page, back to their defaults.
Save - click this button to save the preferences to a DXP Preferences file (*.DXPPrf). The Save Preferences dialog will appear, from where you can determine where, and under what name, the file is to be stored.
Load - click this button to load preferences from a DXP Preferences file (*.DXPPrf). The Load Preferences dialog will appear, from where you can browse to, and open, the required file.

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