General Options

General Options

Menu:

Tools Options  General

 

The General tab will allow you to adjust settings that are common to the entire design.

To set the general preferences:

1. When drawing objects or placing symbols, the mouse cursor will change to a crosshair shape.  Select the size of the crosshair cursor from the Crosshair Size drop down menu.

2. Enter the amount of time (in seconds) to pass before the Drawing Timer automatically shuts down due to inactivity.

3. Select the amount of time between automatic saves from the Auto save drawing drop down menu.

4. Select the length of time to retain backup drawings from the Keep drawing backups for drop down menu.

5. Select the size of the Anchor Point from the Anchor Point Size drop down menu.

6. Select the type of printing from the Print Mode drop down menu.
   
   XPS Printing:  Supports fill transparencies and render effects.  XPS (XML Paper Specification) printing is slower than GDI printing but provides the highest quality when visual effects such as gradient fills with transparencies and render effects are used.
   
   GDI Printing:  DOES NOT support transparencies and render effects.  GDI (Graphics Device Interface) printing is much faster and is compatible with all printers.  GDI printing is best used with large designs that do not contain gradient transparencies and render effects.

7. Many printer drivers and most PDF print drivers use older GDI based print technology which cannot handle the high-fidelity printing that Pro Contractor Studio requires.  If you are printing to one of these drivers and your drawing contains many overlapping transparent fills, you may experience extremely long print times and/or print failure.  This is due to extremely complicated calculations that Windows is performing when translating the Pro Contractor Studio high-fidelity graphics to the older GDI based printer driver.  
   
   Enable the Preprocess graphics before printing check box by clicking on the selection with the left mouse button until a checkmark appears in the box to allow Pro Contractor Studio to combine transparent overlaid graphics into a single graphic.  This will allow the older GDI based printer drivers to focus on printing simple low-level graphics which may solve print errors and/or extremely long print times.

8. Select the resolution for printing hatch patterns from the Hatch Resolution drop down menu.
   
   Low - Lowest resolution resulting in faster printing but more pixilated hatching patterns.
   Medium - Medium resolution
   High - Highest resolution resulting in slower printing but smoother less pixilated hatching patterns.

9. When new layers are created in the Layer Manager, everything drawn on the new layer will have a set line thickness.  To set a default thickness for new layers created in the Layer Manager, under New Layer Default Line Type Settings enter a value in the Line Thickness text box.

10. Set the format in the Status Bar and for Dimensions from the Feet Display Format drop down menu.  Select Architectural to display the distance in feet and inches.  Select Decimal to display the distance as a decimal number.

11. Select the number of decimal places to display from the Feet Precision drop down menu.

12. Select the number of decimal places to display from the Meter Precision drop down menu.

 

 

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