Preferences

Openwind can store some of your preferred directories and display settings. Options are saved to the local Openwind.ini settings file (located in the same directory as the Openwind executable) and not to the workbook. This means that they should persist between different workbooks or whenever a new workbook is created. If multiple instances of Openwind are open, changing the preferences in one instance will change the preferences in every instance.

Tab A

Figure 8: Preferences Tab A

• Rose Cursor (info mode) - check this box to have the cursor take the shape of the directional distribution within the currently selected WRGLayer at the mouse pointer location when in info mode. Use the drop-down list to choose between frequency and power roses.
• Width of Rose Cursor (pixels) - the size of the rose cursor used to display the wind rose when choosing the option above. Max is 256.
• Digitally Sign Reports - Openwind Enterprise automatically creates a digital signature file (*.pem) that can be used to verify its energy capture reports. Use this checkbox to switch this option on and off.
• Tablet / Field PC - check this box to tell Openwind that this is a field PC. This ensures that GPS options are available by default.
• Ask for confirmation before removing layers - check this option to be asked “Are you sure” whenever you select Remove from the layer menu.
• Notify when incoming file has no/unknown projection – check this to be asked for projection information when not found. If you always work in the same projection (e.g. UTM) you can uncheck this.
• When painting vectors, ignore details smaller than x pixels – this allows faster vector drawing based on the current reasonable level of detail.
• Fully repaint while dragging the view -
• Anti-aliased rendering – intended to make the display look prettier.
• Met Mast Defaults
  • Use NTM to extend TI when replacing tables in met mast layers -
  • Shift Bins by Half -
  • Default Met Mast Sectors - this determines the number of sectors that each met mast starts with by default.
  • Extend TI using last N values and an NTM constant b equal to B - this means
• Layer Visibility v2 – this is the new default in which each layer checkbox independently determines that layer’s visibility in the map view. In the old system, unchecking a layer’s checkbox would not only hide that layer but all its child layers.
• Default map grid lines to - whether Openwind starts with the grid lines showing or not
• Zoom Speed - this should be fast on tablet devices to enable intuitive pinch zooming and slow on desktop devices to enable fine control over the zoom capability
• Recreate Display Layers - these options determine which raster layers get created when selecting “recreate display layers” from the layer menu. Also determines which layers are automatically calculated when a wind resource grid is initially loaded into the software.
• Date format - this dictates the date format used across Openwind.
• Max Worker Threads - this can be used to limit the number of worker threads that can be used for a task. In addition to the worker threads there is an interface thread and a task supervisor. This number can be anything between 1 and 64. If you want to be able to use video-conferencing in addition to using Openwind to optimize a layout, then it is a good idea to limit the number of worker threads to 2 less than the number of virtual cores (physical CPUs x cores per CPU x 2 if hyperthreading) in your PC.

Tab B

Figure 9: Preferences Tab B

• Bing Maps - which themes should be downloaded as Bing map overlays and how many map downloads should be requested and stitched together. Area is always square so 1=1, 2=4, 3=9 requests and so on.
• Startup Directories - without these options checked, Openwind will look in the current directory when looking for new files to load. For each option which is checked, Openwind will start looking in the specified directory.
• File format options – deduplication is the process of Openwind looking for duplicated data layers and then sharing memory for those layers which saves both working memory and storage space.
  • Compression with LZ4 decreases the saved size of the workbook using the LZ4 compression algorithm. This can increase save and load times but for network drives it may actually speed up saving and loading.
  • Compression with Zstandard – an alternate compression algorithm. Each level is more thorough but takes more time. At present it is not really practical to use higher than level 2.
• Info Mode Coordinates – this controls what information is shown in the new info mode cursor.
  • Show meters – this duplicates the projected coordinates shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window
  • Show geographic – this shows the cursor position in latitude and longitude.
  • Minutes and seconds – shows latitude and longitude in degrees minutes and seconds. When unchecked, decimal degrees are used.

Tab C

Figure 10: Preferences Tab C

• Periodic backups and Undo – you can specify the backups directory, the backup frequency and the maximum disk space that backups can use. These backups happen in the background and are automatic. Once the maximum storage is full, the oldest backup will be overwritten. It could be a good idea to dedicate an SSD to backups. If you suffer a corrupted workbook for any reason, please check to see if you have a usable recent backup.
• Undo storage limit – the undo functionality in Openwind allows any action to be undone and redone. It does this by saving changes to the workbook in memory. The more memory is available to do this the more undo actions can be stored. Also, large workbooks will likely require more undo memory.
• Suppress menu effects – under certain circumstances, under Windows, menu effects can bog down the software. It is not understood why but this option allows the disabling of such menu effects.
• Fix Zeros in WRGs – this feature is slated for removal. Please let us know if you are using it.
• Display internal info – this is intended for the software development team but it is available for general use. Displays various information in the tool bar. Also, enables additional menus that are useful for debugging.
• Enable logging – again this is mostly for debugging. Turn this on if you are having issues and support have asked you to send the software log.
• Edit Custom Color Profiles - activates the dialogue shown in figure 11. This dialogue can be used to create colour profiles to be used in colouring rasters and vectors in Openwind. These profiles, once created, will show up in the menus in raster and vector properties.

Figure 11: Custom Color Profiles

• Use the drop-down list to select an existing custom profile
• Use the Name field to change the name of the current profile
• Add Profile - adds a new blank profile
• Delete Profile - deletes the currently selected profile
• The grid shows the individual bands which make up this profile in order from lowest to highest. The entire profile spans a value range from 0.0 to 1.0. Each successive band has a starts where the previous band ends and the last band ends at 1.0.
• Add Band - adds a new band to the current profile. The minimum number of bands a profile needs is 1.
• Delete Band - deletes current band so long as there are more than one.