The Preferences command permits various options to be specified as startup defaults. These defaults are stored in the sa2001.ini file.

To have the changes affect future sessions, tick the Save checkbox that is in the bottom-right corner of the dialog.

These properties increase the size of a symbol to fit its name and its displayable information, overriding any selections you have made to the stylesheet to specify the exact size of a symbol when drawn.

To specify the exact size that symbols are drawn on diagrams, click a symbol; change it size; click Format > Symbol Format > Symbol Style, and then select Set Size.

Option Auto resize in the symbol’s Display Mode must be ticked for this behavior to occur. Size is set on updating a definition edited from a symbol, on drawing a symbol, and on dragging a definition from the Explorer onto the diagram.

When you turn off horizontal and vertical resize, or if you manually adjust the size of symbols on your diagrams, you might have symbols that are not large enough to show all of their properties. Selecting this property drops a couple of bullets below every symbol on a diagram to indicate that there are more details than are visible.

This causes an edit box to be presented prompting for a new name. The benefit is that there is no dialog presented which obscures part of the diagram. The disadvantage is that you cannot use a Choices feature to pick an existing item. The Choices feature can still be used by right-clicking on diagram whitespace or you can reassign an existing symbol by right-clicking on it and picking Symbol Rename....

The Simultaneous/Select Draw preference allows you to draw new symbols on a diagram and select symbols without having to change the selection from the symbol type back to select mode. This method of working uses different mouse-click speeds to indicate whether a symbol should be drawn or selected. To select a symbol, the click with the left mouse button must be very rapid; to draw a symbol the left mouse button must be pressed for a time until the symbol appears.

When this option is toggled off, System Architect works like other Windows draw programs.

Does as it says in most cases. There are some diagrams with additional symbol containment behaviors regarding movement of symbols and these may behave differently.

Known behaviors this has been tested with: BPMN Business Process diagrams: Moving Lanes will always move their contents. Movement of Pools not containing Lanes can trigger behavior to move other symbols so they are not overlaid.

Use Cut and Paste if existing behavior prevents the intended movement.

This prevents the line start point from being moved to allow a straight-line connection between the initial point and the current mouse position.

Makes System Architect automatically route lines as you draw, choosing the best and shortest path between symbols, and making sure that none are drawn over other symbols on the diagram.

You can use this feature manually, even if it is not selected in this dialog box: select a line or group of lines that you want to route, and then choose Format > Arrange Line(s) Orthogonally or Format > Route Line(s) > Retain Connections.

Makes System Architect turn Center-to-Center Routing on for a diagram when it is created.

Some diagrams have this configuration by default regardless of this setting: Explorer and Network Concept.

The main checkbox controls the default state for Format > Diagram Auto Routing. The indented checkbox controls the default state of Format > Diagram Auto Routing > Assign Connections; if not set then the default setting is Retain Connections.

System Architect provides bidirectional text capabilities for Hebrew and Arabic. When using Operating Systems in these languages, a Text direction property is displayed in the Preferences dialog and in the Text Position dialog accessed by Format > Symbol Format. These dialogs allow you to change the text direction displayed in System Architect.

In the Preferences dialog box, you can set the Text direction properties to:

The Symbol Style toolbar contains three text-justification paragraph icons you can use to change text direction.