User Settings

Generally, the last used setting for signals, instruments, and window positions is stored and automatically reused when e.g. restarting the software or when creating another item of the same type. For example, if you hide the time slider and change the background color in an oscilloscope, all oscilloscopes that you create later will have the same appearance. Only a few exceptions exist. For example, the axis range needs to be set and saved as favorite axis range explicitly. For more information, see To adjust the axis range manually.

The user settings are stored per Windows user in the settings.user file which is located in:

%LocalAppData%\ETAS\MDA\<MDA version>

When closing MDA, the application creates in the named folder a file settings_8.x.x.x.user. Wherein x defines the used MDA V8 version.

When starting MDA again, the available settings are loaded. If for the current MDA version no user settings file exists, the latest user settings of an older version are loaded.

You can copy and paste this file into the user folder of another colleague.
To deploy default settings to new users of V8.7 the settings.user file can be added to the following folder:

%programdata%\ETAS\MDA\DefaultSettings

When a user starts V8.7 for the very first time and no user-specific user settings files of former MDA V8 versions are available, the default settings are loaded as initial settings. These are saved as user-specific settings when closing MDA V8.

The following table shows all settings that are persisted in the settings.user file.

Closed Overview of persisted settings

Category	Setting
Bar Chart Instruments	Signal unit, imbalance unit and imbalance factor Visibility, naming and decimals in instrument's summary area Optionally additional instrument settings, e.g. limits
Color	Color theme of the user interface
Event List	Number of decimals for time column "Show/hide" setting for columns of unit, device, and raster Width of time column
Folder	Folders for configurations, measure files, exported measure files, and xda import
Format	Formats for measure files to be added or exported
Histogram	Class definitions, incl. number of buckets, interval size and center of first bucket
Instruments	"Show/auto-hide" setting for the instrument header "Show/hide/auto-hide" setting for the time slider
Language	Language of the user interface
Oscilloscope	Background color Cursor modes (anchored/not anchored or sample-wise/time-based, or show/hide sample values as cursor tooltips) "Show/hide" setting for the cursor tooltips, toolbar, grid lines and signal list Signal list columns and their order Last selected image format for screen saving
Position	Position of the quick access toolbar, docking windows, and the MDA main window (incl. size)
Scatter Plot	Background color "Show/hide" setting for the toolbar Last selected image format for screen saving
Signal	Decimals for value representation Favorite axis range Sample connection (oscilloscope) Signal line color (oscilloscope) resp. sample color (scatter plot) Signal line width (oscilloscope) Sample markers (oscilloscope) Data representation Treat as Boolean (oscilloscope)
Statistical Data	Order and Width of columns "Show/hide" setting for columns
Status	"Show/hide" setting for the ribbon "Show/hide/auto-hide" setting for windows
Table	Filling option for empty cells Number of decimals for time column "Show/hide" setting for rows of unit, device, and raster Width of time column
Variable Explorer	Column settings ("show/hide" setting, order, width)