Basic Preferences

Owned by thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 29 Jun, 2015

RealFlow provides far more than a hundred commands, a wide range of → panels and → windows, network capabilities, and several, so-called solvers (a solver is a dynamics engine, e.g. → Hybrido or → Caronte). Furthermore, RealFlow can be used with many different 3D programs. All these elements can be configured to match almost any need. For this purpose we have added a comprehensive “Preferences” section.

Before you start to adjust RealFlow to your needs you have to distinguish between three different types:

  • Application preferences are used to configure RealFlow's UI, network settings, folder and file locations, and more. Please open “Preferences” from the main menu.
  • Global simulation preferences are valid for every scene and the settings made here will be used as defaults. These settings can be found in the main menu under File | RealFlow > Preferences > Simulation.
  • Scene simulation preferences are only valid for the project that is currently open. They are also called → “Simulation Options”, and split into four sections. You can find them in a menu next to the “Simulate” button (see below). “Simulation Options” are stored with a project. Here you will find the basic adjustments: → “Simulation Quality”

 

RealFlow's scene-based options are located next to the "Simulate" button.

 

Here we want to go through the most important and fundamental preferences to get you off to a quick start. Please open

Main Menu > Edit (Win/Linux) | RealFlow (OS X) > Preferences

General

 

 

Scenes Folder

Specify RealFlow's default folder here. This location will be opened when you create a new scene or open an existing one. “Scenes Folder” can also be a network path, but please make sure that the location will be available when you open RealFlow.

Axis Setup

Synchronize RealFlow with your 3D application.

Geometry scale

You should leave this value untouched. If necessary adjust “Geometry scale” in the → “Simulation Options” for every scene individually.

Simulation

 

 

Simulation > General > FPS Output

Adjust RealFlow's default FPS rate here. This value can also be changed for each scene individually in the → “Simulation Options”.

Simulation > General > Threads

If your chipset supports hyper-threading the displayed number of processors can be higher than the actual number of CPUs/cores. We recommend enabling “Use max threads” and adjust the number of threads for each scene individually under → “Simulation Options”.

Backup



Backup

You should enable RealFlow's backup mechanism in any case.

Layout

 

 

Default Layout

Here you can specify which layout template you want to use as RealFlow's start-up layout. It is also possible to assemble and store your own layouts. Please follow this → link to learn how to do this.