About Settings

This section explains what settings are.

Temporary settings contain settings of a temporary nature (album screen captures, roll file information,...) stored in a directory which in turn contains several folders or directories including, but not limited to, the following:

• Album: contains screen captures created using the Tools > Image > Capture... command
• CNext01.roll: roll file.

Temporary settings are created in a location referenced by the CATTemp variable.

Permanent setting files contain parameters comprising a name/type/value set used by system or PLM administrators or end-users to customize client and server applications to control the runtime behavior of PLM software. They have default values in order to allow the launch of an application without any prior customization. They can be modified at runtime level so long as they are not locked by administrators. Permanent setting files store customizations you perform mainly using the various tabs provided by the Tools > Options... command. For example, application window customization, background colors, part and print settings, etc. Permanent setting files are identified by the suffix: *.CATSettings.

Note: Problems may occur when using certain settings tabs (for example, Help, Shareable Products). For example, when using the Shareable Products tab, if you change the tab page settings then also change the shareable product license, all the changes that you make will be lost. If you want to change the license, you must save the tab page setting first by clicking OK and only then change the shareable product license by opening the Tools > Options... dialog separately.

Settings can be administered. This means that they can be customized and locked by an administrator, and that several different levels of settings may be concatenated.

Deleting either types of files deletes your customization.

This section explains what preferences are.

Preference files contain user preferences set by the user when using certain applications. For example, certain drafting user choices, the last height of a pad (Part Design), the list of values entered in certain editable fields, are stored as preferences, but are not settings. Preference files are a convenient means of storing and recalling user preferences from one session to another.

Consequently, unlike settings, preferences are created by certain applications, and not via the Tools > Options... command.

Preference files are identified by the suffix: *.CATPreferences, and are created in the same location as settings. However, unlike settings, preferences cannot be administered.

This section explains how settings files are upward compatible.

When you install the latest release, to get started you can copy and paste the settings files from the previous release to the new release settings file location.

Settings may or may not be administered.

This means that:

• end users start a standalone session, inherit their settings values from the software defaults, and change their settings at will: this is referred to as zero administration mode
• the administrator starts a session in administration mode which provides the following two possibilities:
  
  • the administrator can specify a "starter set" of setting values for a specific runtime environment which end users running the same environment can use to get started; however, end users retain the ability to modify the setting values explicitly to suit their own purposes
  • or, the administrator can lock settings so that end users running a session with the same runtime environment inherit those settings and cannot change them (discussed in detail in Locking Settings).

This section describes the different methiods for storing settings.

There are two methods for storing settings:

• the default mode is to store settings in directories referenced by environment variables in the current runtime environment. The runtime environment specifies where the user settings are located and retrieved from, and also specifies the location of the administration settings which may have been implemented by the administrator. This is referred to as file-based settings mode and is described in greater detail in Configuring Settings in File-Based Settings Mode
• alternatively, you can decide to store settings in the database. Settings associated with the current project (selected via the security context at logon) are retrieved from the database at logon and transferred to a local cache, then stored in the database again when you exit a session. This is referred to as settings in database mode and is described in greater detail in Configuring Settings in Database Mode.

You can choose which mode to implement, and switch between one and the other, but the modes are mutually exclusive: you cannot use both modes at the same time.

Settings are based on a hierarchical concatenation mechanism.

Whether you implement file-based settings mode or settings in database mode, a hierarchical, multi-level concatenation mechanism can be employed.