Appearance Panel

When Contextual Menus are enabled, you can right-click an object and a contextual menu displays with options that are unique to the selected object. The options in a contextual menu are usually the same as those on the Edit toolbar.

A menu of general commands displays if you right-click in the window away from any object.

Since Chief Architect can use the right-click as a general select, you have the option to disable or limit the contextual menus.

Check Enabled to activate contextual menus. Clear the check box to disable contextual menus.

Check Click Twice to Display to require two right-clicks on an object before the contextual menu displays. This allows the first right-click to be a general select.

The Status Bar at the bottom of the main window displays information about the current state of the program. See "The Status Bar".

Check Enable to activate the status bar or clear the check box to disable it.

Check Show Screen Redraw Time to display the number of seconds it takes to redraw the screen. This is useful for determining the effectiveness of the 3D acceleration of your graphics card.

Check Show Coordinates to display the coordinates of your cursor at all times on the right side of the status bar.

The number style for the coordinates is controlled in the Number Style/Angle Style dialog. See "Number Style/Angle Style Dialog".

Check Show Line Weight to have the line weight appear on-screen. Because of monitor DPI, lines may appear to be much wider on screen than when they are printed. Zooming closer may reflect a more accurate idea of the actual line width.

Min Display Weight - Specify the lowest line weight possible regardless of how far you zoom out. A Minimum Display Weight of 0 is the same as 1. This setting is ignored when printing or when in Print Preview

mode.

The line weight for CAD objects may be defined individually through each object's specification dialog or globally in the Layer Display Options dialog.

Choose Parent-Child to display child tools as buttons at the end of the toolbar where the parent button resides.

Choose Drop Down to display child tools when the drop-down arrow to the right of the parent button is clicked.

Double Buffer Drawing - Double buffering means that all drawing is done to an offscreen bitmap and then copied to the screen. The result is that the screen does not flicker, but there may be a slight delay before individual objects appear on screen. This option does not affect render or raytrace views.

Check Plans and Layouts to double-buffer in floor plan view and layouts.

Check Elevations and Vector Views to double buffer in cross/section elevation and vector views.

Check Auto Cache to save a bitmap of the last screen draw. This bitmap is used to refresh the screen if no changes are made to the model. This option is not available on computers running Windows Vista.

Obey Color On/Off Setting- Uncheck this to display pictures and images in color, even if color is turned off in a particular view. If you check the box, pictures and images appear in grey scale when color is turned off.

Enhanced Line Drawing - This option produces superior quality vector views, but slows down the process. Remove the check mark to disable the option.