Preferences

Preferences let you customize the visual appearance of Ecolego and to give settings for databases and simulation engines.

The preference window is opened from the menu File | Preferences.

Charts and tables

Log axes - Set log scale axes for new charts
Paint gradient bars - Draw gradients on histograms and other bar charts.
Display tooltips - Display tooltips when hovering the mouse over plot elements. This requires a little more computer power and might make updating the charts a bit slower.

These settings apply to the external parameter database. For information on how to set up an external database, see Setting up an external database

Driver: The driver is specific to the type of database you wish to connect.
URL: The URL identifies the host machine and the name of the database. An URL could be e.g. “jdbc:mysql://facila.se/projectdb”.
User name: The user name identifies a user of the database. Different users may have different rights, such as read/write permissions.
Password: The password of the user.

Workspace

Directory - Choose a directory for storing data for currently open projects.

Database

Backup

Save backup copies - Save backup copies of Ecolego files to the selected directory before overwriting.
Directory - Select a directory to store backup copies

Units

Ignore - Do not validate units
Warning - Display warnings for invalid units.
Error - Report invalid units as errors. A model that contains errors cannot be run.

Appearance
Look and feel: Allow to select the “Look n’ Feel” for Ecolego, that is, the style and behaviour of windows, buttons, text, etc. Default is “System”.
General font: Allow to select the font and the font size of the title and menu bars, the menu bar options and the table labels. Default is “Tahoma 11pt”.
Table font: Allow to select the font and font size of the table contents. Some people prefer a mono-size font for tables. Default is “Tahoma 11pt”.
Colorize links: Will color-code references to blocks in the information window. Default is “disabled”.
Tables
Auto-pack: If you check this option the table columns will be automatically packed when you enter any data. Default is “disabled”.
Tool tips
Detail level: Set the amount of information to be displayed in the tool tip. The default is “Detailed”. Set the detail level to none if you do not want any tool tips to be displayed.
Initial delay: The number of seconds from when the mouse cursor is at rest to when the tool tip is displayed. The default is 2 seconds.
Time-out: The number of seconds until the tool tip is hidden. The default value is 10 seconds.

Highlight region: With this option, the area surrounding the currently focused region will be greyed out. Default is “disabled”.
Highlight text: A white oval will be drawn behind the text of every Block on the matrix, useful when custom images are used. Default is “enabled”.
Show images: On computers with limited graphics capabilities, or for users who care less about visual appearance, the images drawn on the matrix blocks can be hidden. Disable to speed up the matrix. Default is “enabled”.
Antialias: Antialias blurs the graphics on the matrix, making it more visually pleasing but heavier for the computer to render. Disable to speed up the matrix. Default is “enabled”.

Max memory: The maximum memory allocation allowed for Ecolego given in MB (megabytes).

Debug

Debug: When selected, Ecolego will report detailed messages from the simulation solver after a simulation has been performed.

Optimization

Number of processors - Select number of processors to use when running probabilistic simulations.

Launch
- Check if running: Will warn if Ecolego is already running. Default is “enabled”.
- Connect to database: When enabled, Ecolego will automatically connect to the internal database at launch. This will increase the startup time and the memory consumption, so users that do not use the database might want to disable this feature. Default is “disabled”.
- Create new project: When selected, an empty project will automatically be created for the user at startup. Default is “enabled”.
- Search for updates: When selected, Ecolego will automatically contact the on-line update center to see if there are any available updates. If you work at a company with a http proxy, you must also fill in the proxy hostname and port below. Default is “enabled”.
- Proxy hostname: The proxy host name used for http traffic. To find the name of the proxy host at your company, check the connection settings in your web browser.
- Proxy port: The proxy port name used for http traffic. To find the name of the proxy port at your company, check the connection settings in your web browser.

Host: The host name or IP address to the subversion repository server. For example: “http://www.mycompany.com”
Repository path: The relative path to the subversion repository. For example: “/svn”
User name: The user name identifies a user of the repository. Different users may have different rights, such as read/write permissions.
Password: The password of the user.

Easy tab docking: With this option, windows are more inclined to dock to each other. Default is “enabled”.
Allow nested floating windows: Select to allow docking of windows inside of free-floating windows. Default is “disabled”.
Show gripper: Displays a “gripper” on the title bar. Default is “enabled”.
Hide title bar: Hides the title bars of the view windows. Instead, every window is given a “tab”, with which the window can be moved. Default is “disabled”.
Large icons: Will increase the size of the title bar buttons and thus the size of the title bar itself. Default is “enabled”.
Reset at startup: When selected, Ecolego will automatically reset all Window layouts to their default state when started. If you prefer to use your own layouts, uncheck this option to make Ecolego remember the state of the desktop next time it starts. Default is “enabled”.