Digital Design Studio Settings

Opening projects has one setting, Automatically open the last project: when you sign in on this device, it reopens the last Cloud project for the current account and organization. There is no runtime start or idle-timeout setting. Use the current job queue and supported cancel/recovery controls; a theme or settings change does not start a server job.

Overview

Digital Design Studio shares application preferences across its workspace, including integrated ISA views. Ordinary preference changes apply immediately; there is no separate ISA app to configure.

This guide describes Settings in the Windows app and Cloud. Older packages can show different controls. Check Downloads for the currently published installers.

Open Settings

Open Settings from the product header or workspace settings control. Settings has navigation on the left and the selected page on the right. Desktop product settings can open a separate native window, with an in-app dialog as a fallback. Use the close control shown by your host; Esc closes a dialog where supported.

Project settings configures the selected design, including ISA-specific configuration. In DDS and ALcad it opens as a separate tab in the main editor. Select an existing editor tab to continue working, or close the settings tab to return to the previous view. Opening project settings again selects the same settings tab. Open files and unsaved edits stay in place. Project settings does not change global appearance.

Use Settings on a narrow screen

Digital Design Studio 2.0.3 keeps the navigation panel from covering Settings content when a page is opened on a narrow screen. Dashboard actions keep their labels together, circuit Properties handles long headings, and the project-invitation dialog keeps keyboard focus inside it while open.

1. Open the navigation panel and select the required Settings page, such as Billing & usage. On a narrow screen, the panel closes to show the selected content.

2. Read the page title and scope before changing a value. Reopen navigation when you need another page; existing personal, organization and project settings keep their own scope.

3. On Dashboard, use New project after confirming the account and organization. A smaller screen does not grant project-creation permission.

4. In an ALcad circuit, select the component to read Properties. Read the complete heading and units before editing, then apply the supported change and inspect its result.

5. When you open a project invitation link, the Join a shared project dialog opens. Tab and Shift+Tab move among its controls and keep focus inside the dialog. Choose Join project only when you intend to accept that invitation. The dialog has no close button; to leave without joining, close the browser tab.

These are presentation and focus changes. They do not enable participant execution, real-time co-editing or an unsupported mobile engine. Current consent, sharing roles and project restrictions still apply. See Projects and runners for project access.

Settings Pages

The integrated workspace uses the Digital Design Studio settings set. Old standalone ISA settings are compatibility data, not a second settings product. A configuration page does not itself prove that its engine, provider, or native operation is installed, authorized, or ready.

Appearance presets and XML

1. Open Settings → General → Appearance and choose a theme. Automatic appearance follows the device’s light/dark preference.

2. For a custom theme, give it a name and review the light and dark palettes. Adjust the supported workspace, text, search, tab, panel and control settings using the preview.

3. Apply the reviewed settings. Use Export XML to keep a portable appearance preset.

4. Use Import XML to load a DDS theme file, review its draft and apply it deliberately. An invalid or unsupported file is rejected without replacing the applied appearance.

DDS theme XML is limited to 64 KiB and carries supported appearance values. It does not contain project source, credentials, engine settings or a complete panel-layout backup. Keep those files and backups separately. A theme imported in one browser or desktop profile does not automatically configure another profile.

Choose System, Light, Dark, Graphite, High Contrast, Teal, Dracula or Desert. The selected appearance applies across Dashboard, Settings, DDS, ALcad and Live Run in the same profile.

HintsBox is Digital Design Studio’s code suggestion feature. Enable it in Settings → General → Editor → HintsBox. Under Appearance → Custom → Detailed colors and shape → HintsBox, customize the suggestion and details backgrounds, suggestion and details text, secondary text, selected background and text, and hover background and text.

Under Detailed colors and shape → Display, GDS viewer background changes the layout canvas independently of the workspace background. HintsBox and GDS colors have separate light and dark values. Apply saves the reviewed draft; Discard changes keeps the applied theme. XML import and export include these colors.

DDS theme XML version 2 stores these optional colors inside <tokens mode="light"> or <tokens mode="dark">, using <color key="gdsBackground" value="#cddfeb"/> for example. Use six-digit #RRGGBB values. Export a theme first, edit its supported color keys, then import it to review and apply the result. Omitted HintsBox colors follow the shared palette; the default GDS background is #e2e8f0 in light mode and #0b1220 in dark mode.

Create and share your own theme with the Theme XML reference, including downloadable light/dark XML, all 28 role colors, supported metrics and recovery steps.

Language and Region

Change Language & Region to update the shared interface, including ISA navigation, function tabs, and bottom-panel labels. Source identifiers, file names, and output produced by external tools are not translated.

Locale preferences are shared by Altifigence surfaces in the same browser profile. A different browser profile or desktop WebView has a separate storage boundary. Changing the web app does not necessarily change an installed app.

Stored Preferences and Migration

Migration reads earlier IDE and ISA appearance records when the new record is absent. Workspace settings and layout likewise preserve legacy IDE data where supported. Do not clear old storage merely to force a rename: use the application migration and retain backups before resetting a profile.

These browser-local records are preferences, not project source, credentials, device trust, or entitlement authority. Copying them to another machine does not transfer a licence.

Keyboard and Focus

Review or change shortcuts in Keymap. Commands can depend on the active surface and host. With focus in the left panel, Ctrl+F searches its current items; with focus in a source editor, it searches that file. Project-wide search is a separate action.

If a shortcut does nothing, check focus and capability availability before changing it. A disabled native operation is not repaired by rebinding its key.

AI and Engine Settings

Select only a provider or runtime you intend to use. Review the destination, credentials, selected project context, and cost before invoking an online action. An API key or provider endpoint is not ordinary theme data and must not be committed with a project.

In the AI panel, choose Agent and an available effort. The app labels company-provided AI as Agent without displaying its underlying model name; the AI Notice lists models and providers. Review the task, selected organization, approved project context, consent and remaining QUOTA before sending. BYOK is a separate explicit connection with your provider’s fees. A displayed model or effort does not grant an engine or project permission.

Reset and Troubleshooting

Save files before changing layout or resetting preferences. Keep a project backup separate from application data. Report the app version, host, language, affected setting, and exact error; do not send passwords, API keys, or licence files.

For Windows package validation and installation recovery, see Windows installation. The Windows app needs no device licence for My PC projects. Account sign-in and the open project each show their own status in the running application.

Persisted Settings from the CLI

alti ide workspace settings read --project ABS reads the current DDS project format in .alti/ide-settings.json. The matching settings patch subcommand takes --project ABS --request FILE_OR_DASH and recursively merges a JSON object. Unknown keys and literal null values are retained. The limit is 256 KiB and depth 8, with the same native UI lock. This CLI path does not create a separate desktop-global settings scope. Native settings mutations require Linux. See CLI workspace operations.

Apply settings at the right scope

Changing a preference does not restart a stopped project or run an analysis. After a project switch, verify the project-specific settings before using a saved preset.

Updated web and desktop chat

Digital Design Studio 2.0.2 and its updated web service select extended output limits for supported BYOK chat and preserve arrived text when a reply reaches the limit. There is no separate preference to turn on.

The extended ceilings are 16,000 tokens for supported Claude chat and 25,000 for supported OpenAI chat. Thinking/reasoning uses the same output budget as the visible answer, so these are not promised answer lengths. Grok and GLM remain at 4,096. Your provider can apply other limits and bills use of your own key separately.

Continue or retry

If text arrived before the limit, the conversation keeps it and marks the reply as incomplete. Use Continue to request the next part, or Retry to make a new attempt. If no answer text arrived, use Retry. Both actions make another provider request and may incur additional provider charges. Review generated code and factual claims before using them.

The saved conversation keeps the full reply. To fit the next request, the client may send only the end of a long earlier reply with a note and omit the oldest earlier replies when necessary. User messages are not shortened. If earlier detail matters, add the relevant context again after reviewing it.

Older clients and tool requests

An older app keeps its earlier ceilings and failure behavior. MCP does not opt into partial replies; project-tool turns keep their separate 4,096-token ceiling. Updating only one side does not guarantee the expanded limits. These BYOK limits do not increase company AI’s shared weekly QUOTA or make your provider usage free.

Choose company AI or your own key

Agent uses company AI and shared QUOTA. A provider model from your own AI connections uses BYOK and separate provider billing. Review the selected mode before sending. For company AI consent, supported tasks and data-processing details, read the company AI guide.

Using Digital Design Studio 2.0.2

Supported task classes cover explanation, RTL generation/editing, testbench generation, diagnostics, simulation-result analysis, project investigation, ISA design, circuit reasoning, document writing and long-context work. Availability is checked for the actual task and host. AI suggestions do not execute an unavailable simulator or ISA engine and do not establish correctness; review changes and run independent checks.

In Settings → Agent, use Agent, models & behavior; Context, search & connections; History, data & consent; and Limits & organization rules. Web-search, connection and consent controls appear inside these categories when available. Check whether a value is personal, organization-wide or project-specific. Organization rules and project data restrictions take precedence; changing a preference does not bypass consent, age, permission or capability checks.

Public web search is off by default and requires its own consent. Review and confirm the public query; do not put source, private paths, PDK/NDA data, personal data or secrets into it. Search-tool charges and token use in both search and answer steps count toward Agent cost × 1.1 and shared QUOTA, within the reservation. Requests that fail or are refused before any answer is delivered, failed search attempts and search charges that cannot be confirmed are not deducted. If an answer stops partway, the part already delivered is deducted. Retrieval from an organization document database (RAG) is excluded from this release.

New adult account conversations default to 30-day account history, with 7 days or off available. Minors default to off. Existing device conversations are not uploaded automatically. Turning storage off and deleting existing records are different actions. Account history, 90-day operational/safety records, provider retention and backups have separate rules; an account-history setting does not promise zero provider retention.

Company Agent is for users who are at least 19 and legally adults where they live, subject to supported country, account, consent and organization rules. Access for ages 14–18 is not open at launch; an existing guardian approval does not activate it. Children under 14 cannot use the service under the product policy. AI-use approval, international-transfer consent and approval of a paid transaction are separate.

Free, Plus and Pro include the cost-equivalent of 1, 11 and 31 standard one-core hours per organization in each seven-day window, shared by eligible Cloud compute and Agent. This is a cost allowance, not continuous runtime or separate AI hours. Existing monthly/legacy allowance keeps its original expiry; weekly funding does not overlap it. Changing a plan or cap does not restart the current window. The smaller of the member’s personal weekly Agent cap and the owner/admin-set cap for that member applies. No automatic purchased-Credit spend, extra purchase, postpaid charge or switch to BYOK occurs at exhaustion.

BYOK does not deduct company QUOTA. Its daily spending cap estimates this user and organization’s DDS requests across connections and resets at 00:00 UTC; it does not cap the entire provider account or guarantee the provider invoice. If a cap is set and the request’s price is unknown, the request is refused. Search and answer requests can each incur your provider’s charges.

Cloud time packs are in preparation and are not on sale. Hours, prices, validity and purchase terms will be announced before sale. There is no purchase or automatic top-up action, and existing purchased Credit is not converted to time packs. Max and Max+ are not currently sold; Enterprise follows its contract.

The interface selector offers 14 languages: English, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Vietnamese, French, Indonesian and Italian. Newly added DDS languages es, zh-cn, de, pt-br, hi, vi, fr, id and it can fall back to English for untranslated strings. This release’s revised documentation is prepared in English and Korean; existing translations are not proof that the 2.0.2 revision is translated. Use the English revision for current details when another language is older. Community’s forum interface is English.

2.0.2 environment support

Find a setting and check its scope

1. Open Settings and search for the setting’s English label, such as HintsBox or QUOTA. Select the matching current page.

2. For appearance, open General → Appearance. For a remaining balance, open Billing & usage or the navigation panel’s Usage entry.

3. Before editing Agent settings, check the account, organization and project scope shown by the page. Review consent separately from a preference.

4. For desktop close behavior, open Desktop → When the window closes. Choose Hide to tray or Quit the app; tray Quit still checks unsaved work.