Project Settings

The Project Settings dialog is accessible from the Edit Menu, while you have a project open.

You can manage your project settings from the Project Settings dialog. These settings apply to the specific project you have open.

General

Name

The name of the project. This is what you see in the project list and at the top of the app.

Version

The version of the project. This defaults to one and can be anything you like. It’s useful for keeping track of different versions of the same project, especially when coupled with Version History. This appears at the top of the app next to the name, as well as in various exports.

Note

In addition to the version you set, GearConnect will automatically keep track of a sub version, called the Iteration. This is a number that increments each time you save the project. This is useful for keeping track of incremental changes between versions, and for identifying different files during exports.

This is the second number after the decimal point in the version number. For example, if your version is 1.2, the iteration will be 2.

Tip

You can also change the Name and Version easily by clicking on the display in the top menu bar, which is located at the top center of the app.

Drawing

Grid Size

You can change the grid size by changing the number in the Grid Size input box. This must be a number between 1 and 99. The grid size is used when moving gear items around the drawing, including connections, labels, and snap lines.

Grid Type

You can choose between Dot (default) and Mesh grid types. The Dot grid type is a series of dots that make up the grid. The Mesh grid type is a series of lines that make up the grid.

Show Grid

You can toggle the grid on and off from the checkmark.

Snap Lines

By default, snap lines are enabled to easily align gear items to other gear items. You can toggle snap lines on and off by clicking the Disable Snap Lines or Enable Snap Lines button.

Smart Routing

One of the unique features of GearConnect is the Smart Routing feature. In most drawing applications, you need to manually adjust connections and lines to avoid gear and obstacles. With Smart Routing, connections will automatically route around gear items and other obstacles.

There are times when smart routing can not find a path, such as when gear items are too close together. In these times, the connection will fall back to a simple straight line. You can toggle Smart Routing on and off by clicking the Disable Smart Connection Routing or Enable Smart Connection Routing button in the Draw Toolbar.

Options

Connection Routing

When using Smart Routing, you can choose the quality of the routing. The higher the quality, the more times the routing algorithm will try to find the best path. The default will is Quality, and is suitable for most projects. For complex projects, you may want to lower the quality.

When a route can not be determined, it will simply fall back to a straight line that you can customize like normal.

The options are:

• Unusable (Are you sure?) – 12,000 iterations
• Quality (For small projects) – 8,000 iterations – Default
• Balanced (For medium projects) – 2,000 iterations
• Performance (For large projects) – 500 iterations
• Potato (For massive projects) – 100 iterations

Use Dynamic Mode

This is a fallback feature when there is no recent Version History accessible, and your project is large. In most situations, this feature will not be activated but you can disable it if you like, as it is defaulted to enabled.

When enabled the entire project will not be loaded by default when the project is opened, and instead it will only load enough information to display the drawing and some initial data. As you interact with the drawing and project, the missing data will be loaded in the background. You may notice a slight delay when interacting with the drawing as data loads.

You can download the entire project (essentially exiting Dynamic Mode) by clicking the In Dynamic Mode - Click to download the full project yellow cloud button at the top right of the app. This button only appears when Dynamic Mode is enabled.

When in Dynamic Mode, certain actions are restricted like editing reports, Version History, and exporting the project. Downloading the full project will allow you to do these actions.