Preferences > General Preferences

Lets you customize various settings and options of Alias.

Interface

Tool icons

Click one of these radio buttons to customize the display of your icons. This option is saved when you exit. Choose one of

Text
Small
Medium
Large

Icon labels

A check mark in the check box turns on icon labels, which show text labels beneath icons. This option is saved when you exit from Alias.

Tooltips

Turn off or on text hints that appear in the interface when the mouse cursor hovers over a tool icon for longer than 1 second.

Title bar info

Turn off or on the units and grid size information on the top of the active modeling window.

Status bar

Use to turn on or off the appearance of the status bar at the bottom of the Alias window.

Input

Default keyboard entry mode: Choose either Absolute or Relative. Specifies whether the numbers that you type for Transform functions are absolute (ABS) or relative (REL) addresses. ABS uses the origin for placement (0, 0, 0), and 0 degrees along the X, Y, and Z axes for rotation. REL uses the object’s current placement and rotation.
Use pick chooser: Check the Pick Chooser on or off. If it is on (the default), a small box appears under the mouse when more than one object is picked by a mouse click. This box contains a list of all pickable items under the mouse and allows you to choose the one you want.

Mouse mapping for perspective move

On ground plane

Choose one of the following to determine the way the mouse buttons enable you to move objects in the perspective view:

Left=X Mid=Y Right=Z
Left=Free Mid=X Right=Y

On construction plane

Choose one of the following to determine the way the mouse buttons enable you to move objects in the perspective view when you have set a construction plane:

Left=X Mid=Y Right=Z
Left=Free Mid=X Right=Y

Viewing

View control

Select the view control to display when you enter camera move mode in the Perspective view ( + .

None – Displays no view control.

View panel – Displays the Viewing Panel. See Use the view panel.

ViewCube – Displays the ViewCube.

View transition time

Specifies the time (in seconds) it takes for one view to smoothly rotate into another. Choose a value between 0.0 and 4.0 by typing in the numeric field or dragging the slider.

Alt/Shift Action

Specifies the behavior of the mouse buttons while navigating in the perspective view, when the and keys are held down.

When using the ViewCube, this option is also part of the NavBar.

Azimuth/Twist – The mouse buttons behave as follows:

Left – Moving the mouse horizontally controls the azimuth. Moving the mouse vertically controls the elevation.
Middle – Tracks horizontally and vertically.
Right – Moving the mouse vertically dollies in and out. Moving the mouse horizontally twists.

Tumble/Zoom – The mouse buttons behave as follows:

Left – Tumbles horizontally or vertically around the cursor position, or the point of interest, if present. (Click and release to position the point of interest.)
Middle – Tracks horizontally and vertically.
Right – Dollies in and out.

Note: A hotkey can be set to toggle quickly between these two viewing modes. It is located under Special > Generally Useful Functions in the Hotkeys/Menu Editor.

View step angle

Specifies the angle increment when using the arrow keys to change the azimuth (/) or elevation (/).

Allow axis constrained tumble

Forces tumbling to happen around one axis. Tumbling is constrained about an axis that is perpendicular to the line described by the initial mouse movement, and once the tumble has been started, the mouse needs to deviate substantially off the initial line in order for the camera to no longer tumble about the initially described axis.

Constraint sensitivity

Larger values make it easier for the tumbling to get constrained to an axis. Smaller values make it more difficult.

Dolly to mouse

Check on to set the dolly-in or dolly-out point to be the mouse cursor. If not checked, the dolly-in or dolly-out point will be the origin (0, 0, 0). If Dolly to Point is also checked, Dolly to Point takes precedence—the point of interest will be the dolly focus if it is visible in the active window.

Use point of interest

Check on or off the visibility of the Point of Interest Manipulator. The default is off.

Dolly to point

Check on to set the dolly-in or dolly-out point to be the point of interest on screen. If checked off, the dolly point will be the mouse cursor if Dolly to Mouse is checked, or the origin if neither Dolly To Point nor Dolly To Mouse is checked.

Non proportional scaling box

Check on if you want the View > Set Non Proportional View tool to use a selection box to determine the extent and center of the scaled view.

If checked off, the tool squishes and stretches the view interactively as you drag the mouse.This is the default.

Model Windows

Transform guides

Check on or off the guidelines and numerical box that appear when you use the Transform > Move tool.

Show axis triad

Check to show the red, green, and blue XYZ axis marker in each modeling window.

Titlebar transparency

Specifies the level of transparency of the window title bars. A value of 0.0 is completely opaque, and a value of 1.0 is completely transparent (letting you see the grid and model through the title bars).

Note:

Although you can see the model through the title bars, you cannot pick it in that location.

Background gradient style

None – The window background displays with no gradient.

Linear – The window background displays with a gradient that is darker at the top than the bottom. This is the default.

Centered – The window background displays with a centered gradient that is lighter in the middle.

Restart required for these values

Coordinate system: Controls which axis is “up and down”, that is, perpendicular to the ground plane. Different computer graphics industries sometimes use different conventions for whether Z or Y is “up”. Generally, Z is used for the “up” axis in industrial design.

Modeling

Maximum number of guidelines

Set to a value between 0 and 10. This option used to be found under Delete > Delete Guidelines .

Modeling layers mode

Name – The layers display any name that you choose for them. By default they are called L1, L2, L3, and so on.

Number – The layers are labelled with a numeral, in the order in which they are created: #1, #2, #3, and so on. These numbers cannot be changed.

Both – The layers display both their number and name. Only the layer name is editable (by double-clicking on it).

Paint

Paint display quality

Choose Low, Medium, or High.

Show brush stamp preview

Check on or off to display or hide the brush preview. When the Brush Stamp Preview is turned on, the cursor displays a preview image of how the brush will apply paint to the sketch.

Show paint cursor

Check to show white crosshairs centered on the brush’s midpoint.

Show brush cursor outline

Select one of the following options to display or hide the brush outline:

Off – Do not display brush outline

Off During Stroke – Display brush outline except when creating a stroke of paint

On – Always display brush outline

Hide windows during stroke

Sets the amount of time (in seconds) that it will take before the windows reappear. Choose a value between 0.00 and 10.00 seconds.

Brush curve snap tolerance

The distance in pixels within which a brush will snap to a curve when curve snapping is on, from 4 to 128. The default is 25.

Default canvas width

Sets the size (in pixels) of any new canvases that are created. The default width is 842 pixels.

Default canvas height

Sets the size (in pixels) of any new canvases that are created. The default height is 595 pixels.

Default canvas on persp

Specifies what type of canvas is created when you start sketching in a Perspective window with no canvases.

Always prompt me – The New Canvas option window appears so that you can choose the type of canvas and canvas parameters. This is the default.

Standard canvas – A standard canvas of default width and height is always created.

Overlay canvas – An overlay canvas of default width and height is always created.

Show thumbnails in canvas layer editor

Check this option to see the image layer thumbnails in the Canvas Layer Editor.

Launch new canvas in paint window

Select Always, Always prompt me, or Only in absence of modeling windows.

Visualization

Shader sample size

Relative size of the shader sample thumbnails in the Visualize Control Panel.

SMALL – Fits three thumbnails across the panel.

LARGE – Fits two thumbnails across the panel.

Library location

The location of the library of shaders that will appear in the Visualize Control Panel.

This location can also be specified by using the Shader Library > Change Library menu at the top of the Visualize Control Panel.

If this field is blank, a default library is used.

Shade Inactive Layers

Check on to shade objects on inactive layers when using ObjectDisplay > Diagnostic Shading or WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.

Animation

Draw bone style

Choose one of

Line
Round
Pyramid
Proportional
Triangular

Bone tab

Check this option to attach a tab bar to the bone axis. It also helps you to detect if the bone is flipped

System

Type of file browser

(Windows only) Choose Windows or Alias , depending whether you want to search for files using the default Alias Browser or the Windows Browser. The Windows file browser lets you store up to eight frequently used paths in the GO menu. This option only appears in the Windows Interface Options window.

Create .ICON files

This option is only available when using the Alias browser. On Windows 7, a thumbnail image embedded in the wire file is automatically displayed in the preview pane.

Check on this option to save a separate snapshot of the current window (.ICON file) along with the wire file. This preview image is displayed in the Alias browser.

Checkpoint file location

Set the folder for CheckPoint files to be stored. For more information about CheckPoint files, see File > Checkpoint. If this string is left blank, the folder defaults to current_project/wire/Checkpoints.

MSave file location

Set the folder for files to be stored in the event of Alias terminating abnormally. If this string is left blank, the default is current_project/wire/_M.SAVES.

Common Preference Location

Specify a common folder to store shelf sets and workspaces (as an alternative to the default location under UserPrefs2015).

Files within this folder will appear in the pull-down menu for shelves and workspaces, as long as the folder hierarchy mimics that of the UserPrefs2015 folder. At a minimum it must have a workspaces and a shelves sub-folder. The shelves sub-folder must have appropriate sub-folders such as Default_Shelves.

This enables multiple users to access the same shelf sets and workspaces from a shared location.

Restart required for these values

Help location

The location of the Alias online help. This can be a file system path or a URL. For example:

/CDROM/html
file:///c:/Docs/Alias/Help
http://webserver/docs/Alias/Help

You must set this option to open the online help from the Help menu.

Browser library location

The location of a library of digital resources, such as shaders or wire files. This path is available as the Library menu item in the file browser.

Browser dumpster location

The folder deleted files are moved to. If you do not type an absolute path, the path is relative to your user_data folder.

In Windows, this defaults to the Recycle Bin.

Use default temp directory for scratch disk space

This option specifies the location that Alias will use as scratch disk space. If it is checked (default), the user’s temporary directory is used. If it is unchecked, you can choose another location using the field below. The files that Alias creates in the scratch directory are automatically cleared when you exit the software.

Scratch Disk Space Directory

Type the path to the location that you want to use as scratch disk space, or use the Browse button.

Miscellaneous

General Undo

The two checkboxes control how (or whether) Alias limits the amount of memory it uses to remember undoable events. You turn on one, both, or neither limit.

In general, using the memory limit is better at conserving memory. However, if you sometimes perform commands on large data sets and you want to make sure you will always be able to undo them no matter how much memory they use, use the command limit instead.

Tip:

In the long run, it is always preferable to increase the amount of memory in your computer, if possible, than to lose the ability to undo.

Limit undos: Check if you want to reduce the amount of memory used to keep track of actions that can be undone. If checked, the Maximum undos slider becomes available.
Limit memory used: Check to limit the operations that can be undone based on RAM. If checked, the Maximum memory slider becomes available.
Maximum undos: If you have chosen to limit the number of undo operations that can be performed, choose a number between 1 and 100.
Maximum memory (Mbytes): Allows you to limit the amount of RAM that will be allocated for Undo operations. The available range is 0 megabytes (no memory allocated for Undo operations) to 500 megabytes. The default is 300 megabytes.

Restart required for these values

These next two options contain the search path(s) that are used to locate and load plug-ins into Alias.

Plugin verbose output: Print Brief or Full messages to the error log (Utilities > Errlog ) while loading/unloading plug-ins.
Plugin search path: The path(s) that are searched for plug-ins. Separate paths on the lines with colons (:). Paths are searched in order.