Defining View Preferences for Altium Designer

Summary

The System – View page of the Preferences dialog provides controls relating to the look and feel of the general workspace, including behavior of panels and documents.

Access

This page is accessed by clicking View under the System folder in the main Preferences dialog (accessed by clicking the button in the top right corner of the workspace).

Options/Controls

• Desktop
  • Autosave desktop – enable this option to automatically save the position and size of document windows settings at shut down. The desktop includes the position and visibility of panels and toolbars.
  • Restore open documents – enable this option to open documents in the workspace when the software is started according to their state in the previous session. Disable this option to start a blank workspace when the software is started.
  • Layouts 
    • Load - click to open a file browser to select a saved Desktop Layout (*.TLT) file.
    • Save - click to save the current layout as a Desktop Layout (*.TLT) file. Saved layouts can be loaded for re-use.
    • Reset - click to return to the default desktop layout configuration.
• Popup Panels
  • Popup delay – move this slider to the right to maximize the time it takes for a panel to appear when in 'pop-out' mode. Move the slider to the left to minimize the time taken for the panel to appear.
  • Hide delay – move this slider to the right to maximize the time it takes for a panel to be hidden when in 'pop-out' mode. Move the slider to the left to minimize the time taken for the panel to disappear.
    • Use animation – enable this option if you want panels to be animated while they are being opened or closed in 'pop-out' mode. Disable this option if you want panels just to appear or disappear without any delay.
  • Animation speed – with the Use animation option enabled, move this slider to the left for slower animation or to the right for faster animation of panels in 'pop-out' mode.
• General
  • Hide floating panels on focus change – enable this option to hide floating panels in the software when you are switching focus to a different software application. Disable this option to leave floating panels as they are when switching focus to another application.
  • Remember window for each document kind – enable this option to open documents in the same window or in individual windows in the specified locations according to the last placed document of the same kind. For example, when using two monitors, with this option enabled, you can open one schematic, drag it into a new window on the second monitor, and from then on all schematics opened will go to the second monitor. Disable this option to open documents of any kind in the same workspace.
  • Auto show symbol and model previews – enable this option to automatically display Schematic symbol and PCB footprint graphics where they exist on the Components panel.
  • Open internet links in external Web browser – enable this option to have Internet-based content open as externally loaded content in your default Web browser.
• Documents Bar
  • Group documents if need – enable this option to group documents together on tabs on the document bar. Grouped documents are indexed numerically in ascending order. Disable this option and all open documents will have their own visible tab on the documents bar. Two methods of grouping are available:
    • By document kind – enable this option to group documents of the same type on the same tab.
    • By project – enable this option to group documents from the same project on the same tab.
  • Use equal-width buttons – enable this option to equally size all open document tabs, regardless how long the document filenames are. Disable this option and each document tab is resized according to the length of the document filename.
  • Ctrl+Tab switches to the last active document – enable this option to toggle between the currently active document and the previously active document using Ctrl+Tab. Disable this option will toggle through all open documents sequentially when using Ctrl+Tab.
  • Close switches to the last active document – enable this option to make the last active document active again when closing the currently active document.
  • Middle click closes document tab – enable this option to close documents by using the mouse middle button (typically the Scrolling Wheel). You can then middle-click over a document tab to close that document.
• UI Theme
  • Current - use the drop-down to select the desired user interface theme. Choices include: Altium Dark Gray and Altium Light Gray.
  • Preview - displays an example of the chosen theme in the above option.