Preferences

Edit › Preferences… (Ctrl+,) holds your own settings: kept on this computer for you, whatever drawing is open. Reset to Defaults puts back the app's own (millimetres, General, the computer's language, ten backups, a recovery copy every two minutes, no drawing index).

Default units

The units a new drawing starts in: Millimetres (the app's own choice) or Inches. They are used from the next drawing you start, with File › New, File › Extensions › New from Template, File › Import › Import… (the file is converted into them), Production › True-Shape Layout and so on. The drawing's dimension settings start to suit them (2 decimal places in millimetres, 3 in inches).

A drawing keeps the units it was started in: changing the default doesn't change the drawings open, and a drawing opens in the units it was saved in. A drawing file that doesn't say (written by hand, or one of the app's parametric drawings) is in millimetres. A drawing's units are shown in Drawing Properties, and as #U among its variables.

Industry

The industry new drawings are for: General (the app's own choice: every tool offered) or one of the industries - packaging, sheet metal, laser cutting … The toolbar and Edit › Tool offer the tools for the drawing's industry, beside the general ones. A drawing made from a Run Parametric design, or started with an industry's materials in File › New, is for that industry instead; and a drawing's industry can be changed in Drawing Properties.

Simple mode, the start page and the toolbar

Simple mode hides the panels, tools, settings and commands most people rarely need; it is the same setting as View › Simple Mode. Show the start page when ParametrIQ opens opens the app on the start page rather than a new drawing. Show every tool on the toolbar (Advanced mode only) shows every tool offered for the industry; turned off, the toolbar shows the industry's daily tools and those you pin, with the rest under More tools. See Simple mode and the start page.

Language

The language of the menus, windows, messages and help: the computer's, English, Spanish or Simplified Chinese. It is the same setting as View › Language, and is used from the next start. Drawings (PiQ Lang and .piq files) stay in English whatever the language.

Backups

How many backups of a drawing are kept beside it, one made each time it is saved over: from 1 to 100 (10 unless you change it). When there are more, the oldest are removed.

Recovery copies

How often, in minutes, a recovery copy is made of each open drawing with changes not saved: from 1 to 60 (2 unless you change it), or 0 to make none. If ParametrIQ stops without closing properly, the copies are offered back the next time it starts. A new interval is used at once.

Drawing index

Keep an index of saved drawings (off unless you turn it on) writes a JSON file for each drawing, each time it is saved, to the Index folder: what the drawing is (its file, units, classification, notes, labelled variables, size, lengths by layer, and what the save extensions gave back), ready to search or load into a database. Turning it on without a folder (or with one that isn't there) asks you to choose one. See Drawing index for what each file holds.