Application Preferences dialog reference

The Application Preferences dialog lets you set application-wide settings.

To open the dialog, select Edit > Preferences (macOS: SpeedTree Modeler > Preferences).

General

These settings are basic, high level options for the Modeler.

Property	Description
Display scaling	Change the size of GUI components such as fonts, icons, buttons, and scrollbars. This feature is particularly useful on high-resolution monitors (e.g., 4K monitors on laptops). Using Display scaling is preferable to using the operating system's tools to increase readability/usability.
Warn about node edit losses	Get a warning when an operation might result in the loss of a node edit. Where possible, any operation that might result in the loss of a node edit will be delayed until the user permits it to proceed. This feature is in place to prevent the accidental loss of carefully edited model components.
Use multiple processors	When enabled, many of the Modeler's CPU intensive operations (like computing the model) will use all available logical CPUs. Note that collision is always performed in a background thread, regardless of this setting.
Always use native file dialogs	Bypass the SpeedTree-specific open dialog.
Use background computing	Allow edits to load in the background while the model remains interactive. Disable this option to make edits load in full before you can continue editing.
Autosave	The settings in this group control the automatic background saves used for crash recovery.
	Enable	Enable automatic saving.
	Notify in console	Print a message to the console when an automatic save occurs.
	Interval (min)	Set how often a file automatically saves.
Reset General Preferences	Set all General preferences to the system default.

Tree Window

The settings in this group apply to the Tree Window.

Property	Description
Hide selection indicator on edit	Hide the selection indicator after you make an edit. When you make a new selection, the indicator appears again.
Scene unit	Specify a unit of measure for the model and change the size of the height indicator to help with scaling. See Units.
Texel density target (texels/unit)	Set the approximate number of texels per unit.
Show fan	Set when the Fan icon appears: Always, When wind is on, Never.
Navigation	The options in this group modify the default mouse control mechanism.
	Reverse panning	Change the direction of pan operations.
	Reverse rotating	Change the direction of rotation operations.
	Reverse zooming	Change the direction of zoom operations (including the mouse wheel).
	Control scheme	Select the scheme used for mouse navigation: Default, Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max.
Reset Tree Window Preferences	Set all Tree Window preferences to the system default.

Render

The properties in this group control the graphics quality used when rendering the model in the Tree Window.

Property	Description
Multi-sampling	When the graphics driver allows application-controlled multi-sampling, use this option to enable/disable the feature and control the quality. Higher settings result in better anti-aliasing. Note that Multi-sampling must be enabled for the “sample alpha to coverage” (A2C) transparency technique to work. This option applies to all newly created windows (existing windows will be unaffected).
Shadow anti-aliasing samples	The Tree Window uses depth maps for shadow effects. The edges of these shadows can be softened by sampling the depth map multiple times. Select how many times the depth map is sampled with this parameter. Higher values result in softer edges and slower render times.
Max texture resolution	Each material asset has a Max resolution setting. For any material using the Default setting for this property, this application preference value controls the maximum size of the largest dimension of any texture map loaded for that material. Lower this value to decrease texture memory usage and increase rendering speed in the window. Note that actual exported texture resolutions will not be affected. This preference only governs texture usage inside of the Modeler.
Cache shaders to disc	Store shaders to improve compute times.
Clear Shader Cache	Delete stored shaders.
Reset Render Preferences	Set all Render preferences to the system default.