Options - desktop environment

Options overview (Options - overview, Configurations)
Saving, loading and resetting options

You can define general settings for Allplan.

General

Language

Select the language for the user interface of ALLPLAN. You can only choose from the languages that you have purchased. The selected language will be active the next time you start the program.

Note: If you cannot find the language you need, install the current version of ALLPLAN again. Make sure you use a license that includes the language you need. You do not need to uninstall ALLPLAN beforehand.

Enter lengths in ...

Use this to set the unit of length.

Note: You can also set the unit of length on the status bar.

Format of fraction for feet and inches

When you have set the unit of length to Inches or Feet and inches, the Format of fraction for feet and inches option is available to you. You can use this option to specify how the decimal places of the values you enter are displayed.

Fraction: The decimal places of the values you enter are always displayed as fractions. Allplan rounds the values using the fraction you define for Precision for entries in inches and feet. Allplan reduces the fraction.
Decimal: The values you enter are displayed as rounded decimals. Allplan internally rounds the values off to three or four decimal places.
Fraction or decimal: The decimal places of the values you enter are displayed as fractions or decimals. Whether Allplan chooses fractions or decimals depends on the value you enter: If it is closer to the fractions defined for Precision for entries in inches and feet, Allplan will use fractions. If it is closer to the rounded decimals, Allplan will use decimals.

For example: precision set to 1/256; Allplan rounds off to 2 decimal places.

The value you enter is 30.4 mm = 30.4/25.4 = 1.196850394". The value is between
1 25/128" and 1 51/256" or 1.19" and 1.20".
The difference of the value you entered is closest to 1 25/128". Therefore, the result is 1 25/128".
The value you enter is 30.5 mm = 30.5/25.4 = 1.200787402". The value is between
1 51/256" and 1 13/64" or 1.20" and 1.21".
The difference of the value you entered is closest to 1.20". Therefore, the result is 1.20".

Precision for entries in inches/feet

When you have set the unit of length to Inches or Feet and inches and the format of fraction to Fraction or Fraction or decimal, the Precision for entries in inches and feet option is available to you.

To set the Precision, select the fraction Allplan is to use to display the values after it has rounded them off. You can select a value between x/1 and x/256. Allplan reduces the fraction.

Note: Some values, such as the text height and text width or the symbol size, are always rounded off to x/256, regardless of the setting you choose here.

Type of foot input:

If you have selected Foot for the unit of length, the Type of foot input option is available to you. This is where you set out the accuracy of the conversion between feet and meters.

International Feet: Conversion here is 1 foot = 0.3048000 meters.
US Survey Feet: Conversion here is 1 foot = 0.3048006 meters (the exact value is 1200/3937).
Although the US government started to phase out survey feet in January 2023, US Survey Feet is a measurement that is still used by most US states. Furthermore, much of the data within the US infrastructure market is in Survey Feet.

Enter angles in ...

Use this to set the unit of angle.

Note: You can also set the unit of angle on the status bar.

Inclination as

This setting has an effect on the way you enter the inclination when you define points using Polar coordinates. The inclination of the lines created is based on the x-axis of the coordinate system, which is defined by the System Angle function.

For example, you enter the inclination as a percentage when you design a cross-section of a bridge.

Specify how you want to enter the inclination. You can choose between the following options:

Angle
Ratio (1:x)
Percentage (%)
Per mill (%%)

In addition, this setting defines how the program returns the inclination measured by the Measure tool. As you can use a separate tool to measure angles, the Angle setting returns the inclination as a percentage. But you can enter the inclination as an angle.

Minimum distance between points

The minimum distance between points defines the tolerance value with which the program treats points.
You can enter the distance in [mm] or [inches].

Display element properties in palette

When you select this option, the Properties palette displays all the properties of an element if you select it by opening its shortcut menu and clicking Properties. You can define and modify the element's properties in the Properties palette.

Note: This option is currently not available with architectural elements.

Display sequence

When you create new elements, they are automatically assigned a sequence property based on which they are displayed. The Sequence property is saved as a number between -15 and +16. This number controls how the elements appear on the screen: The element with the highest value is on top of all the other elements.

This is where you can customize or turn off the default values controlling the sequence in which elements are displayed in Allplan. Click Sequence defaults and enter values for the different elements.

Working with large coordinates

When this option is selected, coordinates in drawing files containing elements which are far away from the origin are automatically moved so that they are closer to the origin. Consequently, Allplan calculates the elements more precisely when you modify data. Every time you save elements, Allplan resets the coordinates to their original value. This also works when you have set a project offset. However, the process of opening and saving documents can take some time, depending on the number of elements per document, the total number of documents and the distance from the origin. The Measure tool always returns the correct coordinates.

The Optimize working with large coordinates option only has an effect when you

switch to a different document
switch to a different project
restart Allplan.
Note: If the elements are close to the threshold value of 5,000 m, a project offset might produce better results.

Participate in customer involvement program

You can choose to take part in the Customer Involvement Program.

Save/load

Create backup copies of drawing files

When this option is selected, the program automatically creates a backup copy of the loaded drawing file with the file name extension .bak every time you are about to run critical actions such as Copy, Move Elements between Documents... or Import. You can find further information in Using .bak files.

Save drawing files and layouts automatically

Select this option to configure Allplan to automatically save the drawing files and layouts after a specific period of time (the setting you make for Save every ... minutes). You can find further information in Saving your work.

Note: When you work with Workgroup Manager and you have selected this option, Allplan checks all reference drawing files for changes before saving them. If these files have changed, Allplan displays a message, asking whether you want to update reference drawing files.

Save every

Specify the time interval which will elapse before Allplan saves the data again.

Note: Allplan will not save the data until you close the current tool.

Save to

You can use the Save to option in the Options - Desktop environment - Save/load area to specify which file type is saved to which folder. These folders are automatically presented in the "Save" dialog box of the relevant file type. However, you can change the folders at any time.

File type column: The File type column displays the file types for which you can specify the path.

Note: Bitmaps, movies are bitmaps you have exported using Save Contents of Viewport as a Bitmap ... (File menu). Bitmaps in bitmap areas and surfaces are saved as resources under the design\ folder in the relevant project.

Path setting column: Click the current setting in the Path column to select the path in which to save the relevant file type:

Project: The file type is saved to the current project (not available for NDW files and NPL files).
Private: The file type is saved to the user's private project.
Free: You can specify any folder for the file type. Click the path in the Folder column and enter a new path or click ... in the Browse column and select the path in a dialog box.
Note: Allplan will not reset a path you change temporarily in the Save File dialog box until you restart the program.
Last: The file type is saved to the path you selected last.

Folder column: You can see the current setting in the Folder column.

Browse column: When you have set the Path to Free, you can click ... in the Browse column and select the path in a dialog box.

Show message when reference drawing files have changed

When you select the option Show message (default setting), the program displays a message if a drawing file that is open in reference mode has been changed by another user. You can choose to update the reference drawing file or leave it as it is.

You can suppress the display of the message by deactivating the option Show message until a project change.

Note: Regardless of this setting, you can update reference drawing files by selecting Update drawing file on the shortcut menu of the drawing file in the Open on a project-specific basis dialog box. As an alternative, select Reorganize Drawing Files (How).