Customize Interface > Environment

This tab serves to work with Environments. It may also be called directly from the textual menu or from the customization drop-down menu located in the upper right corner of the T-FLEX CAD window.

Environment is a set of system settings that can be saved in the Windows Registry or in an external file with the purpose of a future quick system setup. An environment may include the following settings:

•visibility and composition of toolbars, ribbon tabs, tool windows;

•system options;

•default parameters of elements;

•lists of values in input boxes;

•library configurations;

•list of pipeline standards;

•T-FLEX Electrical components editor data.

The list of existing Environments is displayed in the left part of the dialog. Initially, the only item in the list is Current Environment. It denotes the current system settings. In the future, all user-created Environments are added here.

Already existing Environments can be renamed or deleted. To do that, select them in the list (using ) and click the respective button (Rename or Delete).

To apply an existing environment, select it in the list and click Apply.

You can create a new Environment either based on the current system settings (Current Environment), or based on another existing Environment.

To create a new Environment, you need to:

•Select an Environment in the list, whose settings need to be copied to the new Environment. You can also select the Current Environment for this purpose – in this case, the current system settings will be saved in the newly created Environment;

•Once an Environment is selected, you will see the list of setting groups stored in it. By default, all parameter groups are marked with checks in the list. That means, all of that will be copied to the new Environment. To avoid copying some settings, clear the checks before the respective group names;

The list of setting groups is closed upon another click on the selected Environment. The changes made in it (changes in the setting groups selection) will be remembered until selecting another Environment in the list. To close the list, you can also use <Left>, <Right>.

•Click the button New. A new Environment with the standard name Environment 1 (2, 3, …) will be created. Right after the Environment creation, the system goes into its name editing mode. You can cancel that by clicking outside the Environment name input field. You will be able to edit an Environment name in the future using the button Rename..

An existing Environment can be altered by overwriting the settings stored in it by the current ones. To do that, select it in the Environments list, mark the groups of settings in its settings list, which you need to replace, and click Overwrite. Please note that this button is unavailable for the Current Environment item.

To save an existing Environment in an external file, use the button Export…. Upon clicking the button, a standard file-saving window appears. Previously, T-FLEX Parametric CAD 2D+ version available in some markets used the *.SEenv extension, while the usual T-FLEX Parametric CAD version used the *.3Denv extension. Currently, the uniform extension *.tfenv is used for both versions, but files with legacy extensions can still be used.

To import an Environment from an external file, use the button Import…. Upon clicking it, the standard file-opening dialog appears, in which you need to select an Environment file. The Environment imported from the file appears in the Environments list. Besides that, upon importing an Environment the system will offer to apply it.

The buttons Apply, Delete, Rename, Overwrite are inaccessible for the Current Environment item. But the latter is provided the Reset Settings command, using which replaces the current settings by the default ones.

Centralized distribution of environments in corporate network

In order to apply environments to workstations in corporate network, administrator may use the same method that is used for distributing T-FLEX DOCs integration rules. Create a StartupProfileFileName string value in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Top Systems\T‑FLEX CAD 3D 17\Eng\ registry key. This value should contain a path to the environment file, which will be automatically applied upon T-FLEX CAD installation or update. The file can be placed in any location accessible from the target workplace, including network locations.  

See Also:

•Switching Environments