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

Window Collapse Action

Choose how to collapse windows. Choose to click the title bar, double-click it, or select the collapse icon (arrow) on the title bar. Clicking the collapse icon collapses the window no matter which option is selected.

Current Tool Location

Choose the location of the current tool. The icon can be on the Left or Right side of the window and can also be turned off.

Save workspace on exit

Save the position and size of the main Alias window when you exit from Alias.

Use Common Tool Window Dimensions

All tool windows appear the same size and in the same position when you select a tool.

Activate Layer Name on Create

When you create a new layer, the layer name is active, so you can immediately type a new name. If you do not want this behavior, deselect this option.

Icon labels

Turn on icon labels, which show text labels beneath icons. This option is saved when you exit from Alias.

Status bar

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

Title bar info

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

Window Transparency

When selected, inactive control windows that are not embedded in the Alias window are transparent.

Set the Inactive Window Opacity, the Active Window Opacity, and the Transition Speed, the rate at which the window becomes transparent when it becomes inactive.

You can override this transparency using the Allow Transparency option in the window title bar.

Remember Tool Option Window Open/Close State

When selected, Alias remembers the state of all tool option windows after you close them. When you reopen the tool option window, all settings and preferences remain the same as they were when you closed the window. Otherwise, tool option windows open with the default settings every time you open them. This option is enabled by default.

Interface Scale

If you have a high resolution monitor (4K and up), scale the Alias interface to a usable size. You must restart Alias for the change to take effect.

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:

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:

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.

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:

Tumble/Zoom – The mouse buttons behave as follows:

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.

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.

Point of Interest

Set the behavior of the POI as follows:

Show point of interest Jack

When this option is not selected, the POI displays only when first placed. It does not display on subsequent tumbling.

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 is at the center of window. 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.

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.

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).

When Geometric Normal Flips

Select how to adjust visual normals when geometric normals flip.

Reset Visual Normal – Use the Visual, or Visual and Geometric options in the Unify Normals control window (Surface Edit > Orientation > Unify Surface Orientation).

Keep Visual Normal – Adds a Geometric option to the Unify Normals control window. When the Geometric option is selected, only geometric normals are unified. Visual normals on changed surfaces retain their direction.

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.

Compress tablet motion events

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.

User 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

When this option is selected, objects on inactive layers can be shaded using ObjectDisplay > Diagnostic Shading or WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.

Shade Reference Layers

When this option is selected, objects on reference layers can be shaded using ObjectDisplay > Diagnostic Shading and WindowDisplay > Hardware Shade.

Animation

Draw bone style

Choose one of

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.

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.

Shared Preference Location

Specify a common folder to store shelf sets and workspaces (as an alternative to the default location under UserPrefs2023). Alias creates a Preference_Sets, shelves, and workspaces subfolder in the specified folder. The folder hierarchy mimics that of the UserPrefs2023 folder. The shelves and workspaces subfolder are required as a minimum. The shelves subfolder must have the provided subfolders, such as Default_Shelves.

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

Productize Preference Files

When selected, preference files are named using the productized version of Alias as the prefix, for example, AliasStudio_AliasHotkeys.scm. When not selected, "Common" is used as the prefix, for example, Common_AliasHotkeys.scm.

Rename Stage on Save

When selected, the stage name changes to correspond with the wire file name when you save the file using Save As.

Save Wire on Stageset Save

Sets the default value of the Wire Store column for new stages in the Stage Editor. When selected, the default value is to save the stage when the stage set is saved.

Restart required for these values

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.

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.

Custom menu location

Location of the .scm file that is created to populate a custom menu. For more information, see Create a custom menu.

Help

Display short text hints that appear in the interface when the mouse cursor hovers over a tool icon for longer than 1 second (ToolTips), longer text hints (ToolClips), or display no hints (None).

Help Language

Select which language of help to display when using Autodesk Knowledge Network help.

Help location

Select whether Alias uses online Autodesk Knowledge Network help, or installed offline help.

If Installed Help is selected, enter the location, either 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 help from the Help menu.

Shared ToolClips location

Specify a custom or shared location for ToolClips. By default, ToolClips are stored in \Program Files\Autodesk\Alias2023.

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 semicolons (;). Paths are searched in order.

Parent page: Preferences menu