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Preferences : Layout

Preferences dialogue box: "Layout" settings

 

Initial window position:

Your computer's operating system will normally decide where to put Simile's first window on your screen when you start it. This is usually the best choice, but on some setups you may prefer to always have it in the same place, in which case you can select "Where it was last time" in this panel, causing Simile to remember the position of the last model window when it closed.

In new model windows, display: bars and grid

When a new model window is created, which happens both when Simile is started or when a submodel is opened in its own window, the window is capable of displaying the standard toolbar, component bar and equation bar, if desired. Note that this does not change the display of the tool bars in existing windows. To control the display of the tool bars in existing windows use the "View" menu and check or uncheck the "Toolbar", "Component bar" or "Equation bar" items. The default is to display all three tool bars, unless the window is not large enough.

The display of the placement grid behaves the same way, but there is also a toolbar button to turn it on and off. Note that snapping to the grid can happen whether or not it is displayed.

Placement grid pitch and depth.

These choices allow you to set the vertical and horizontal pitch of the placement grid. Choosing different values for each of these results in a rectangular grid. The depth sets the visual prominence of the grid lines. How strong they actually appear will also depend on the display device. (Note that if your desktop or submodel background is very dark, you might want the grid to be lighter than the background, in which case enter a negative number here.)

Toolbar and popup formats

An alternative set of tool bar and component bar buttons is provided with 24x24 pixel graphical images. The default is to use 16x16 pixel graphical images.

Normally, hovering over any active object in Simile's display (e.g., buttons, menu entries) will pop up a message with a brief description of what it does. The second option on this tab turns these popups on and off.

By default, Simile's popup tool tips are rectangles drawn inside the window containing the component they describe, and cannot extend outside that window. Selecting 'Top-level popups' makes them draw as separate windows, which can look better although they may be positioned wrongly in some desktop setups.

Widget theme

Simile's user interface components can be configured to a number of different themes. The theme chosen by default is the one that most closely matches a typicall application on the platform you are using. If you prefer another theme, you can select it here, with immediate effect.

In: Contents >> Working with model diagrams >> Preferences