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On-Screen Takeoff - 19.01 Customizing OST - Program Defaults, Settings, and Options - OST

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Setting up your program and database options is an important step before creating Bids and drawing takeoff. It takes a few moments to set these options but doing so before you jump into using the program can save a lot of time down the road. The program works correctly out of the box without adjusting any options - you only need to change these to customize how the program works and where it stores files.

Note - Masters v. Settings

In this section, we're going to cover Program Settings and Options - these affect how you work with On-Screen Takeoff...your personal preferences.

In the previous chapter (see Related Articles), we discussed Masters - reusable things such as Condition Styles (templates), Condition Types, Project Statuses, Employees, etc. You probably set up your Master Menu Lists/Tables already, if not, see Related Articles for a refresher.

To access the Options dialog, click Tools > Options.

There are two types of options:

Program Options

Program options change settings for the application and affect all databases. These are per user settings and are stored in each user's local Windows Registry. The following tabs are Program Options:

General - affect how you work with the application such as Snap Angle, turning on Color Plans, etc.
Font/Colors - affect the defaults for creating Annotations such as textboxes, shapes, and dimension lines
Sounds - controls the sounds that the program makes when you perform certain actions
Folders - determines where the program stores and accesses files by default
Analytics - you can opt-in to sending generalized, anonymous usage data to ConstructConnect to help us understand feature usage better

Database Options

Database options affect the currently selected (Active) database only. These settings affect all users of a particular database and are stored within the database itself.

Options on the New Bid tab are 'Database options', they can be set per database

Reset

The Reset All Settings" button resets all programs options and window settings to their original defaults and cannot be undone.

Resetting removes the reference to any databases not in the Default folder - you will need to 're-find' them
Resetting affects "Program" settings (General, Fonts/Colors, Sounds, Folders), not "Database" settings (New Bid)
Resetting does not affect your Analytics (Opt-in/Opt-out) settings

Let's start with General Options - these options affect how you work with On-Screen Takeoff.

Masters: Default Layers

Options - General Tab

On-Screen Takeoff - 18.01 Masters - Overview - OST