EDIT | PREFRENCES
Wings allows the user to set numerous user interface preferences. This is accomplished via a preference dialog sheet which is accessed by selecting Preferences from the Edit Menu. When the dialog sheet comes up, set each preference as desired, then hit Return to apply them and dismiss the sheet. If you change your mind or don't want to set any preferences hit the Esc key to dismiss the dialog sheet without applying them.
Vertex Display sets the size of the vertices on the screen in pixels. It is sometimes handy to increase vertex sizes to even as much as 12 16 pixels, for doing screen grabs, to help clarify a point on a discussion forum or in a tutorial.
Edge Display sets the size (thickness) of the edges on the screen in pixels.
Colors sets the Background, Face, Selection and Hard Edge colors. By clicking on one of the boxes the color dialog box will come up allowing you to enter RGB values from 0-255. Enter each number then hit Return to accept the changes. Face Color only changes the color of the faces surrounding (or affected by) some sort of action being taken on a selected piece of geometry e.g. during extrusion.
Grid the two options are Color, which works exactly as the Color options described above, and the Force Axis-Aligned Grid check box, which acts as a toggle. If turned on whenever you jump to a primary axis view (by hitting the X, Y, Z, Shift-X, Shift-Y, Shift-Z keys) the Grid will automatically turn on. When you move out of such a view the grid will automatically turn back off.
Highlighting Vertex, Edge, Face, and Object highlighting are also On/Off toggles. If turned on then the item of that type will auto highlight when the mouse passes over them. This makes selecting the correct vertex, edge, etc. much easier as it gives a visual confirmation of just what is being pointed at. If the item the mouse if over is unselected it will highlight in the unselected color whereas if it is selected the item will highlight in the Selected color. These colors are set just like the Color options as described above.
Vector Display Vector Display Length and Width set just that, the length and width of the line used to represent the active Vector in the advanced menus operations. Vector Display Color sets the color of the Vector used in the advanced menus operations. Colors are assigned just as described in the Color preferences section above.
Auto Rotate Auto Rotate Angel is entered as a real number in degrees of rotation. The Auto Rotate Delay is entered as an whole number, representing milliseconds between steps of rotation. The Auto Rotate function itself is accessed (and will be discussed) in the View menu structure.
Axes Show Axis Letters check box is an On/Off toggle. If turned on small X, Y, and Z letters will float at the + ends of the tree axes, to help keep you oriented. The +X,Y,Z and -X, Y, Z Color boxes allows you to set the color for each axis which also helps keep you oriented while modeling. These are set by the color preferences boxes for each, just like in the Color options described above.
Miscellaneous There are several miscellaneous preferences as described below.
Auto-save interval (min) saves to a temporary file with the extension .wings_as. It will NOT overwrite the current file. If there is a crash, the next time you try to open the file (with .wings extension), you will get a prompt asking you if you want to load the auto-saved file instead. (It compares the date/time of the files.) Auto-save won't start before you have done a save-as once. If you turn off auto-save (0) and then turn it on again, the auto-start mechanism won't start until the next time you start wings. It's not used for imported files. Enabling Auto-save also enables the auto backup function of Wings. A backup file will be saved each time you save your work, i.e. your previous file
will be stored as FILENAME.wings_bup. If you want to load a backup file use Open and look for *.wings_bup files.
Show Memory Used works as a toggle. It is set via typing true on the status line, while false turns it off. If activated, the amount of memory currently being used by Wings is displayed dynamically on the status bar in the form [mem:76Kb].
Display List Optimization is a toggle that tells Wings to optimize how it handles the internal list of drawing elements for screen refreshment. It is generally recommended that this option be set to On, however, it can cause display problems on some computers. So if you have display problems try turning this off to see if that solves the problem.
Advanced Menus enables Wings advanced menus operations. If advanced menus are turned on then you can use some of the advanced manipulation tools designed by [author's name] which have been incorporated into Wings. Many of these functions operate on the premise of selecting and using a secondary vector as a reference about which the advanced functions work. These vectors are visible (if advanced menus are on) and their appearance characteristics of width and color are user definable via the Vector Display Width and the Vector Display Color options here.
Another point, Wings keeps your custom preferences even when you upgrade to a new version.
Wings allows the user to set numerous user interface preferences. This is accomplished via a preference dialog sheet which is accessed by selecting Preferences from the Edit Menu. When the dialog sheet comes up, set each preference as desired, then hit Return to apply them and dismiss the sheet. If you change your mind or don't want to set any preferences hit the Esc key to dismiss the dialog sheet without applying them.
Vertex Display sets the size of the vertices on the screen in pixels. It is sometimes handy to increase vertex sizes to even as much as 12 16 pixels, for doing screen grabs, to help clarify a point on a discussion forum or in a tutorial.
Edge Display sets the size (thickness) of the edges on the screen in pixels.
Colors sets the Background, Face, Selection and Hard Edge colors. By clicking on one of the boxes the color dialog box will come up allowing you to enter RGB values from 0-255. Enter each number then hit Return to accept the changes. Face Color only changes the color of the faces surrounding (or affected by) some sort of action being taken on a selected piece of geometry e.g. during extrusion.
Grid the two options are Color, which works exactly as the Color options described above, and the Force Axis-Aligned Grid check box, which acts as a toggle. If turned on whenever you jump to a primary axis view (by hitting the X, Y, Z, Shift-X, Shift-Y, Shift-Z keys) the Grid will automatically turn on. When you move out of such a view the grid will automatically turn back off.
Highlighting Vertex, Edge, Face, and Object highlighting are also On/Off toggles. If turned on then the item of that type will auto highlight when the mouse passes over them. This makes selecting the correct vertex, edge, etc. much easier as it gives a visual confirmation of just what is being pointed at. If the item the mouse if over is unselected it will highlight in the unselected color whereas if it is selected the item will highlight in the Selected color. These colors are set just like the Color options as described above.
Vector Display Vector Display Length and Width set just that, the length and width of the line used to represent the active Vector in the advanced menus operations. Vector Display Color sets the color of the Vector used in the advanced menus operations. Colors are assigned just as described in the Color preferences section above.
Auto Rotate Auto Rotate Angel is entered as a real number in degrees of rotation. The Auto Rotate Delay is entered as an whole number, representing milliseconds between steps of rotation. The Auto Rotate function itself is accessed (and will be discussed) in the View menu structure.
Axes Show Axis Letters check box is an On/Off toggle. If turned on small X, Y, and Z letters will float at the + ends of the tree axes, to help keep you oriented. The +X,Y,Z and -X, Y, Z Color boxes allows you to set the color for each axis which also helps keep you oriented while modeling. These are set by the color preferences boxes for each, just like in the Color options described above.
Miscellaneous There are several miscellaneous preferences as described below.
Auto-save interval (min) saves to a temporary file with the extension .wings_as. It will NOT overwrite the current file. If there is a crash, the next time you try to open the file (with .wings extension), you will get a prompt asking you if you want to load the auto-saved file instead. (It compares the date/time of the files.) Auto-save won't start before you have done a save-as once. If you turn off auto-save (0) and then turn it on again, the auto-start mechanism won't start until the next time you start wings. It's not used for imported files. Enabling Auto-save also enables the auto backup function of Wings. A backup file will be saved each time you save your work, i.e. your previous file
will be stored as FILENAME.wings_bup. If you want to load a backup file use Open and look for *.wings_bup files.
Show Memory Used works as a toggle. It is set via typing true on the status line, while false turns it off. If activated, the amount of memory currently being used by Wings is displayed dynamically on the status bar in the form [mem:76Kb].
Display List Optimization is a toggle that tells Wings to optimize how it handles the internal list of drawing elements for screen refreshment. It is generally recommended that this option be set to On, however, it can cause display problems on some computers. So if you have display problems try turning this off to see if that solves the problem.
Advanced Menus enables Wings advanced menus operations. If advanced menus are turned on then you can use some of the advanced manipulation tools designed by [author's name] which have been incorporated into Wings. Many of these functions operate on the premise of selecting and using a secondary vector as a reference about which the advanced functions work. These vectors are visible (if advanced menus are on) and their appearance characteristics of width and color are user definable via the Vector Display Width and the Vector Display Color options here.
Another point, Wings keeps your custom preferences even when you upgrade to a new version.
