![]() | There are two commands for controlling settings in Electric: Preferences... and Project Settings... (both in menu File. You can also get Preferences with this icon on the tool bar. |
These two dialogs contain many panels for controlling different aspects of the system. The differences between these two dialogs is:
The left side of the Preferences or Project Settings dialog is a tree-structured list of all of its different panels. The right side is the actual panel, which changes according to the panel requested. Both panels have a "Help" button which takes you to the proper manual page that explains the panel.
The Project Settings dialog is modal, meaning that nothing else can be done while the dialog is shown, and it must be closed before resuming work. The Preferences dialog is modeless, meaning that it can remain on the screen while other work is done. For this reason, the Preferences dialog has an "Apply" button so that changes can be made without dismissing the dialog. The Preferences dialog also has "Export" and "Import" buttons for saving Preferences to an XML file (this function is also available from the File / Import and File / Export menus). Finally, the Preferences dialog has a "Reset" button for resetting the current Preferences panel to its factory-default state, and a "Reset All" button for resetting all Preferences to their factory-default state.
Preferences are stored permanently on your computer and are remembered each time you run Electric. The actual location of this information varies with each operating system.
You can export your preferences to disk for ease of saving and transporting. Use the "Export" button in the dialog, or with the Preferences... command (in menu File / Export). These will write an XML file with preference information. This XML file can be read back into Electric's preferences with the "Import" button, or with the Preferences... command (in menu File / Import).
Project settings are stored permanently on your computer in the same place as Preferences. However, they are also saved with your circuitry so that the values will be correct when the circuits are read back in.
By default, project settings are saved in each library that is saved to disk. However, for multiple-library projects, this can be troublesome if some libraries have different settings than others. The solution is to create a file, in the same directory as the libraries, called "projsettings.xml". If this file exists, then settings are taken from it (and ignored if found in the libraries). To write this file, use the Project Settings... command (in menu File / Export). To override current settings and explicitly read a project settings file, use the Project Settings... command (in menu File / Import).
When Electric finds Project Settings that are inconsistent with the current values, this dialog appears:
You must choose whether you want to use the new setting values (recommended) or the current setting. This can be done on an individual-setting basis, or for all settings that conflict.