3.15. Application Settings

File › Settings opens the Application Settings dialog. These are program preferences — how IQcad looks and behaves — as distinct from drawing settings such as layers, styles and drawing variables, which live with the drawing and are covered in Format Settings.

The dialog has eight tabs. OK applies and closes, Apply applies without closing, Cancel discards.

3.15.1. General

Setting	Default	Meaning
Theme	Metro Dark	Ribbon and window colour scheme. Also on the File › Theme menu.
Show menu bar	On	Shows the classic menu bar above the ribbon. File › Toggle Menu Bar does the same thing.

3.15.2. Display

Setting	Default	Meaning
Background	Black	Drawing-area background colour. Entities drawn in the “white/black” colour follow it so they stay visible.
Snap marker	Yellow	Colour of the object-snap marker and its tooltip.
Grip size	5 px	Half-side of the square grip handles on a selected object.
Crosshair size	50 px	Arm length of the cursor crosshair.
Pick size	5 px	Half-side of the pick box. A larger box makes objects easier to click and overlapping ones easier to catch.
Snap aperture	15 px	Radius within which an object snap engages.

3.15.3. Grid

Setting	Default	Meaning
Show grid	On	Draws the reference grid. GRID toggles it per drawing.
Grid spacing	10	Minor grid interval, in drawing units.
Major every N	5	Draws a heavier line every N minor intervals.
Show coordinate labels	Off	Prints the coordinate value along the major grid lines.
Grid style	Lines	Lines, Dashed or Dots.

3.15.4. Ruler

Setting	Default	Meaning
Show rulers	On	Rulers along the top and left edges of the drawing area.
Ruler width	28 px
Ruler background	System button face
Ruler text	Black
Opacity	200	0–255. Lower values let the drawing show through the ruler.

3.15.5. UCS Gizmo

Setting	Default	Meaning
Show UCS gizmo	On	The axis indicator described in Navigation.
Display at origin	Off	Draws the gizmo at the world origin instead of in a screen corner.
Icon size	80 px
Corner	Bottom-left	Which corner the gizmo sits in when it is not at the origin.
Background opacity	80	Opacity (0–255) of the gizmo’s backing plate.

3.15.6. ViewCube

Setting	Default	Meaning
Visible	On	The 3D orientation cube. Click a face, edge or corner to snap the view to it.
Corner	Top-right
Size	100 px	Cube size on screen.

3.15.7. Advanced

Setting	Default	Meaning
Enable debug logging	Off	Writes iqcad_debug.log next to the executable. Useful when reporting a problem. Requires a restart.
GPU rendering	Auto	Auto uses the GPU when a usable OpenGL context is available and falls back to software rendering when it is not; On forces GPU rendering; Off forces software. GPU rendering is what makes large surfaces and point clouds usable — see Point Cloud Module. GPUTEST reports what the machine actually supports.

3.15.8. DWG

Setting	Default	Meaning
Reader Backend	Native (in-process)	Which engine opens DWG files: Native, LibreDWG CLI or ODA File Converter. Native is fastest and needs no external install; the CLI converters remain in the fallback chain.
Save Version	R2018 (AC1032)	Target version for the native writer: R2000, R2004, R2007, R2010, R2013 or R2018. Older versions are more widely compatible.
Survey objects	Points + surface, with labels	How COGO points and TIN surfaces are exported — as genuine Civil 3D objects, as plain geometry with or without labels, or not at all.

DWG Compatibility covers all three in full, including which mode to send to whom.

3.15.9. Where Settings Are Stored

Settings are written to settings.json as soon as they are applied, and reloaded at startup:

Platform	Path
Windows	%APPDATA%\IQcad\settings.json
Linux	~/.config/IQcad/settings.json

The same file carries state the dialog does not show: window geometry, panel widths, the recent-files list, custom map providers, plugin enable/disable state, and the Blade Runner editor’s session. Deleting the file resets IQcad to factory defaults — the full list of which is in Program Defaults Reference.