The Options menu > Preference command allows you to set various dimensional control items. Clicking this command brings up the Preferences form. The following bullet items explain the preference items included in this form.
Background Guideline Spacing: The spacing of the background guidelines in length units.
Fine Grids between Guidelines: The number of equally spaced invisible grid lines between guidelines. As an example, specifying 3 means that there is a fine grid line at the one-quarter point, half-point and three-quarter point between guidelines.
Nudge value: This is the distance that a nudged shape moves after you have pressed the appropriate key on the keyboard. This item is entered in length units.
Screen selection tolerance: When clicking on a shape to select it your mouse pointer must be within this distance of the shape to select it. This item is entered in pixels. The screen selection tolerance has no affect on selection by windowing. The Section Designer default for this item is 3 pixels.
Screen snap to tolerance: When using the snap features, your mouse pointer must be within this distance of a snap location to snap to it. This item is entered in pixels. The Section Designer default for this item is 12 pixels.
Screen line thickness: This parameter controls the thickness of all lines on the screen. The thickness is entered in pixels. It also does not affect the aerial view. The Section Designer default for this item is 1 pixel.
Printer line thickness: This parameter controls the thickness of lines and fonts that are output to the printer. The thickness is entered in pixels. The Section Designer default for this item is 4 pixels.
Pan margin: This is the distance beyond the edge of a view that you can pan. It is entered as a percent of the window size. The Section Designer default for this item is 50%. This is a recommended value. The figure below shows an example of the pan margin. In the figure the Section Designer window is shown shaded. Figure a shows an example of 100% pan margin. Note that the dimension x2 is equal to 100% of x1 and similarly y2 is equal to 100% of y1. Figure b illustrates that setting the pan margin to 100% allows you to potentially cover nine times more screen area than when the pan margin is set to 0%. If the pan margin is set to 0% you can not pan.
See also: Pan
Auto zoom step: This is the size of the step used for the View menu > Zoom In One Step command and the View menu > Zoom Out One Step command as well as their associated toolbar buttons on the main (top) Section Designer toolbar. This parameter is entered in percent. The magnification of all objects in a view are increased or decreased by this percent.