Select Options > Preferences on the main toolbar to open the Preferences dialog:
Select the General tab to change the default behaviour of Designer:
Choose whether intensity and DALI presets are programmed using Percent (0>100%) or 8-bit (0>255) values.
Choose whether colours are specified using RGB (additive) or CMY (subtractive) values, the latter might feel more natural for moving light console users.
Designer can keep a number old versions of the project file when you save and it is here that you set the number of old files to keep. Before saving your project (File > Save or Ctrl+S), Designer will rename the project file on disk by adding the current time and date to the file name, such as "my_project_bak_2007-04-18_15-58-09.pdp". If you already have the specified number of backups, the oldest backup will be removed from the disk.
Use File > Save As to produce manual backups of the project at each important programming milestone.
Designer can periodically create an automatic backup of your programming and it is here that you turn this feature on and set the backup interval in minutes. Designer will maintain a backup file named "my_project_auto.pdp" which can be opened to retrieve recent programming in the event of a software crash. This file will be deleted if the Designer project is closed normally.
Choose whether the Launch dialog is automatically opened at startup (default), uncheck this box to suppress this dialog.
Check this to have the Upload Dialog close automatically after a successful Upload All.
Choose what Designer should do when saving projects that were last saved in an earlier version of the software. This can be a useful prompt to keep a backup of your work.
Select the Patch tab to change the default settings for patching:
The Channels per row entry box lets you determine how many DMX channels per row are displayed which is useful for organising the display for complex fixtures; set this number to be a multiple of the number of channels a fixture uses to get a neater, tabulated display.
Select the Timelines tab to change the default settings for timelines and presets:
Specify the default name and length for subsequently created timelines, see timeline properties.
Specify the default properties for subsequently added presets, see preset types and properties.
The background colour of the timeline area of the Program window can be chosen here, press the button and select a colour. This is useful to make certain types of programming stand out better, for example a project using mainly intensity presets may be clearer with a dark grey background.
Select the Triggers tab to change the default settings for triggers:
Select the default Short MIDI message data format to be either Decimal or Hexadecimal.
The web interface (HTTP) and file transfer (FTP) ports used when an LPC is connected via USB can be configured.
Enable or disable using Winamp as a timecode source in Simulate. This feature is available on Windows only.
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