MechDesigner Reference & User Interface > FAQs and 'How to...?' > General FAQs > How to ? > How do I edit, save, and move my Styling?

Settings, Styles, and Themes...?

We call the Style, Theme, and Settings the Styling.

Each time you exit, MechDesigner saves the Styling to MechDesigner.INI and MechDesigner.XML.

MechDesigner uses the Styling automatically the next time it starts.

Styling Definitions:

Theme :

Border, Icon, and Dialog colors.

Use Application Settings : General tab > Theme Settings > Target Theme

Select one of these Themes:

Windows, Charcoal Dark Slate, Aqua Light Slate, Windows10 Dark, Tablet Dark, Slate Classico, Windows10 Slate Gray, Windows 10.

Note, this help uses Charcoal Dark Slate.

Style :

Load a Style

Click the button to open a Style

Dark.XML - is intended to be used with dark themes, e.g. Charcoal Dark Slate.

Light.XML - is intended to be used with light theme, e.g. Aqua Light Slate.

Save a Style

Click the button:

Save any changes you have made to Style file-name

Do NOT overwrite Dark.XML or Light.XML.

Application Settings :

Edit icon-sizes, number-formats and colors for different elements:

•Application-Settings > Graphics tab > Display Colors

There are many other settings you can make to suit your preferences.

Note: You can also save and load these with the Save and Load buttons

Save the Styling

You may want to save your personal styling, especially if different people use MechDesigner on the same PC.

1.File menu > Application-Settings :

2.Click the Save button at the bottom of the Application-Settings dialog-box.

The default path for your Styling should open <CommonAppData>\PSMotion\Style \ Comma\ or \Stop\

You will see Dark.XML and Light.XML files.

DO NOT OVERWRITE the these two files.

•Save the Styling to ...style\Comma\My-style-name.XML if your number system uses a comma ',' as the decimal symbol.

•Save the Styling to ...style\Stop\ My-style-name.XML if your number system uses a stop '.' as the decimal symbol.

Move your Styling

You may want to move your styling to a different computer for your own use, or to distribute the Styling to all Workstations.

1.Save the active Styling to a My-file-name.XML - see above

Remember, DO NOT OVERWRITE the default Dark.XML and Light.XML files.

2.Exit MechDesigner

3.Use File-Explorer to navigate to:

•<CommonAppData>\PSMotion\style\Comma if your number system uses a comma ',' as the decimal symbol.

•<CommonAppData>\PSMotion\style\Stop if your number system uses a stop '.' as the decimal symbol.

Note 1: <CommonAppData> is usually C:\ProgramData\

Note 2: If you cannot see C:\ProgramData\ ... then in Windows File Explorer:

a)Click View tab

b)Click Hidden Items check-box in the Show/hide group-box.

4.Copy My-style-name.XML, to a USB stick, for example.

You also need to make copies of the MechDesigner.INI and MechDesigner.XML files

5.Use File-Explorer to navigate to path: <LocalAppData> C:\users\<user-name>\AppData\Local\PSMotion\IniFiles\

6.Copy MechDesigner.INI and MechDesigner.XML to a USB stick.

On the other Workstation:

7.Replace the MechDesigner.INI and MechDesigner.XML files on the workstation, with the files on your USB stick

8.Copy My-style-name.XML from your stick into the path used for styling - see above.

9.Start MechDesigner on the workstation

10.Click Application-Settings > Load button

11.Load My-style-name.XML from the USB stick as the new style.

12.Click Save button

Save the Styling to <CommonAppData> is usually C:\ProgramData\

The Theme, Style and Application-Settings are saved automatically as defaults. They load the next time you start MechDesigner.