Configuring Personalized Defaults

When you start Analytica with a new model, numerous defaults are in effect. You can change these and save new settings with your model file, but these do not apply to new models. This page describes how the initial defaults used by Analytica can be customized for your own personal use. For example, if you like results to open in table view, rather than graph view, by default, this can be configured. Or if you like graph fonts to auto-scale when you change the size of the window, you can set this up.

When you configure personlized settings, these defaults are not stored with your models. This means that users of your model will experience Analytica's standard defaults (except where settings have been stored explicitly). In general, whenever a setting, such as a preference, is reset to your personalized default, the setting does not get stored with your model.

Configuring a personalized defaults file

Analytica reads many of its defaults from a file called Analytica.ini, found in the directory where you installed Analytica. You can examine this file (using a text editor) for an idea of what a preference file looks like. The preference file consists of typescript, and setting personalized preferences really amounts to writing typescript to set desired system variables.

We recommend that you do NOT change the Analytica.ini file directly. Doing so would cause you to lose your settings whenever you upgraded to a new Analytica release. Instead, follow these steps to set up a personalized preference file:

• Start a text editor (such as Notepad or Textpad).
• Enter some typescript to specify your desired defaults (more on this below). As a starting point, try entering:

Usetable := 0

(this will cause results to open as tables by default)

• Save this file at a known location with a known name. Remember the full file path. For example, you might save it in [My Documents] as MyAnaPrefs.ini. The full file path might would then be:

C:\Documents and Settings\LoginName\My Documents\MyAnaPrefs.ini

where LoginName is replaced with your Windows user name.

• Run RegEdit.exe and navigate to:

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Lumina Decision System\Analytica

• From the menu, select Edit→New→String Value
• Rename the value to Preferences
• Double click on the name (new Preferences) and in the Value data box, type the full file path name to your preference file.

Now you have set up a personalized preference file. If you want to alter your preferences, you simply need to edit the MyAnaPrefs.ini file from a text editor. You will want to take care to avoid errors in this file -- it loads while Analytica is starting up, but Analytica may not be particularly friendly at reporting errors in this file.

Specifying Preference Settings

The trick to specifying your own preferences is in knowing what system variables to set, and to what value. Much of this documentation can be found on this Wiki.

Some examples:

Usetable : 0       { Default result view = Table }
Usetable : 1       { Default result view = Graph -- Analytica's default }

Windows : 2       { Windows of each kind = any number }
Graphwindows : 9  { Up to 9 result windows }

Showdescriptionmarks : 1  { Flag nodes with descriptions }

Graph_adaptfontsize:1   { Adapt displayed font size to graph height }

Infering a preference setting

If you know how to set a preference or global default using the Analytica user interface, it is fairy easy to figure out what the corresponding typescript is that would go in your startup preference file.

One way to figure this out is to examine the autosave recovery file before and after you make the change. First, from the Preferences... dialog on the Edit menu, ensure that "Maintain recovery info" is checked. Then ensure that you have made at least one change to your model (so that the recovery file is started). To find the recovery file, type CTRL-F12 to enter the typescript window, and type:

AutosaveFilename

This will display the full path to the file used to log changes you've made since the last time you've saved your model. Now, set the preference you are interested in (make sure that this causes a change in the preference), press and use Set Default to close the dialog (if appropriate). Now, load the autosave file into a text editor and examine the last line or two. You should spot the preference listed there, in exactly the syntax expected by your preference.ini file. This technique gives you a way to find almost any preference that you might like to customize.