Use advanced options to configure Tekla Structures to suit the way you work, or to comply with specific project requirements or industry standards. You can change the values in the Advanced options dialog, or in the initialization (.ini) files.

1. On the File menu, click Settings > Advanced options to open the Advanced options dialog.
2. Browse the categories or search to find the advanced option that you want to set.

   To search for advanced options, enter a search term in the Search field. To search for the search term in all categories, select In all categories.

   You can also use wildcards in searches. For example, to find all advanced options that have the words anchor and filter, with any characters between these two words, enter anchor*filter.

3. Select the type of the advanced options from the list next to the option type.
   • You can change the type of the role-specific advanced option between SYSTEM (ROLE), MODEL (ROLE), and DRAWING(ROLE).
     • When you change the option type to SYSTEM(ROLE), the value automatically changes to the default value.
     • When you enter a value for a SYSTEM (ROLE) option, it changes to MODEL (ROLE) or DRAWING(ROLE).
   • You can change the type of system-specific advanced options from SYSTEM to MODEL(SYSTEM). When you change the option type to MODEL(SYSTEM), the value is saved in the options database. If you change the advanced option back to SYSTEM, the value is removed from the options database and the value specified in initialization files is used.
4. Enter the value for the advanced option or select the value from the list.

   • You can use switches with some advanced options, for example, to define the contents of marks: %TPL:PROJECT.NUMBER%.

     If you define a switch for an advanced option in the Advanced options dialog, use single percent signs %xxx% around the switch.

     If you define the switch in an .ini file, use double percent signs %%xxx%% around the switch.

     For example, add %%BOLT_NUMBER%%*D%%HOLE.DIAMETER%% to define the advanced option XS_​BOLT_​MARK_​STRING_​FOR_​SIZE in an .ini file.

   • If you need to enter a folder path, you can type a backslash at the end of the folder path or leave it out.
5. Click Apply or OK.
   Tip:

   To create a complete list of advanced options in a text file, click Write to file. The list shows the name of the advanced option together with its current value and type. Note that writing to a file is only an export of the current settings, it is not another way of changing the advanced options.