Reset Window Positions and Panel Layouts

e14softwareuk — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 08:43:26 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by e14softwareuk on 3/19/2018 8:43:26 AM

Applies to versions: [1.x]

Project & Panel Layout Reset

The workspace of CircuitStudio is very flexible with many optional panels/windows and great flexibility about placement, either floating, tabbed with other panels or docked to the main application window. With all this great flexibility it is sometimes possible to accidentally position a window off screen making it difficult to recover. The following simple procedure will reset your project workspace and window positions back to program defaults.

A small number of users report random crashes when using CircuitStudio. Sometimes it is a graphics driver that needs updating, other times it may be a printer driver. After trying the usual options of making sure operating systems and drivers are up to date and anti-virus is not interfering it can be worth trying the following reset procedure. We do have some confirmed instances where this has resolved the issue so we do recommend giving it a try.

An easy first step is to use View | Desktop Layout, select Default to reset the windows and panels back to their default settings.

There is a reset option built in to CircuitStudio under File > System Preferences, System : General Settings : Reset Layout. This is always worth a try but does not always reset everything so there are a number of other options to explore below.

If your issue is still not fixed then you can try making the following changes to the file system after closing CircuitStudio.

Rename (or delete) the following files where {user} is your Window's user name and {guid} is a long 'random' number.

C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Altium\CircuitStudio {guid}\UserTools.TLT
C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Altium\CircuitStudio {guid}\LastWorkspace\Workspace1.DsnWrk

Most of the dialog windows (e.g. Grid Settings in the PCB Editor) have their size and location stored in the registry. If you have 'lost' a dialog (e.g. dragged off screen) then, with care, you can edit the registry and try and restore to a more sensible location or size. Within the Forms registry folder are many sub-folders, one per dialog. The naming makes it easy to identify the dialogs.

Run regedit

Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Altium\CircuitStudio {guid}\DesignExplorer\Forms\

Navigate into the required sub-folder (e.g. TGridEditorForm)

Adjust Top, Left, Width, Height as necessary

Vault Explorer Tree View

The various sections within the vault explorer window can be resized, however there is an issue (confirmed in v1.4.1) where if you resize the left hand tree view down to zero then it is not possible to restore the width. Editing the registry can restore the tree view width so it becomes visible again.

Run regedit

Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Altium\CircuitStudio {guid}\DesignExplorer\Preferences\EDesignData\VaultExplorer_Size_B7D15EC3-160A-466F-A46C-7801FE6295A7

Adjust TreePanelWidth (example, set to 100)

Reset All Preferences

If the above does not fix your issue then you can use the installer to reset all preferences back to default. Note that the exact wording or path to Programs and Features will vary depending on your Windows version, the following is for Windows 7.

Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features

Select "CircuitStudio" in the list of programs

Click Uninstall

Choose "Remove Preferences" and click Next.

Tags: platform, howto, circuitstudio