The Preferences window, shown in :numref:`Figure %s<Preferences-Preferences>`, contains controls that allow setting global options that influence VisIt_'s behavior. The top portion of the window contains a collection of miscellaneous options. This is followed by collections of options that are grouped by functionality. The groups are contained in the Floating point precision, Databases, Session files and File panel properties areas.
The preferences window
The Clone windows on first reference option clones all attributes of the active window to a new window when a window is made active for the first time. To control this behavior check or uncheck the Clone window on first reference check box.
When a postable window, such as a plot attributes window is brought up, the window manager is free to show the window wherever it likes. When using VisIt_ on a large display where the windows might pop up very far away from VisIt_'s Main window, it is sometimes convenient to make sure that windows that can be posted to the Notepad area are initially posted to the Notepad area instead of popping up wherever the window manager puts them. To make postable windows post to the Notepad area by default when they are shown, check the Post windows when shown check box.
Many of the file formats that VisIt_ reads contain a single time state, making accurate cycles and times unavailable in VisIt_'s metadata for all but the open time state. To get accurate times and cycles for these types of files, VisIt_ would have to open each file in the database, which can be a costly operation. VisIt_ does not go to this extra effort unless Try harder to get accurate cycles/times option is enabled. This option allows VisIt_ to create meaningful cycle or time-based database correlations for groups of single time state databases. Note that databases that are already open will need to be reopened in order for VisIt to retrieve updated cycles and times.
The File panel is a deprecated feature that will be removed in a future release of VisIt_. The File panel is enabled by checking the Show selected files check box. It is not recommended for use.