Where preferences live
The User Preferences dialog stores defaults that follow you between projects on the same browser. They're saved in localStorage, so:
- Settings persist across sessions in the same browser.
- They don't sync between devices.
- They don't sync between users.
Find the dialog via the link or button labelled User Preferences in the app navigation. The dialog title is User Preferences with the description "Change default settings used in the application.".
The settings
Legend Colour
A colour picker that sets the default colour for legend markers when a new drawing is opened. Pick something distinct from your AOI colour — you'll be looking at both side by side in Stage 1.
The colour applies to new drawings opened after the preference is saved. Drawings you've already worked on keep whatever colour was active at the time.
AOI Colour
Same as Legend Colour but for AOIs. Choose a colour that contrasts with both the drawing and the legend colour so AOIs are easy to spot.
Stage 3 Thumbnail Size
Five radio buttons numbered 1 to 5. Controls how large detection-group thumbnails render in the Stage 3 sidebar. 1 is the smallest, 5 the largest.
- Pick
1or2if your sidebar gets cluttered with many groups. - Pick
4or5if you want to easily distinguish similar-looking symbols. - The default is
1.
This is purely visual — it doesn't affect counts, the export, or anything else.
Detection Border Width
A number input. Range: 1 to 50. Sets the default stroke width for detection marker borders on the canvas.
Smaller values produce thinner outlines; larger values make markers stand out more on dense drawings. Each Detection group can override this with its own per-group width (see Group appearance) — the user preference is just the starting point for new groups.
Legacy Controls
A toggle. Off by default.
- Off (default): ⌥ pans the canvas. CTRL / CMD is used for multi-select.
- On (legacy): Roles swap — CTRL / CMD pans, ⌥ is used for multi-select. This matches a number of older CAD tools.
Turn this on if you're coming from an older application and the default control scheme feels backwards. Otherwise leave it off — the default is the more common scheme.
Default Scale System
A dropdown with three options:
- Metric (default for UK / European projects) — scale presets like
1 : 50,1 : 100. - Architectural (default for US projects) — scale presets like
1/4" = 1',1/8" = 1'. - Both — both lists in one dropdown, grouped with headers.
This sets the starting Scale System for new drawings. You can change it per drawing from the toolbar without affecting the preference.
See The scale system.
Saving and closing
Changes save automatically when you close the dialog with the Close button. The button is styled as an outline button at the bottom of the dialog.
There's no separate "Apply" or "Save" — the closing event commits whatever you've changed.
What's not in this dialog
A few things people look for but won't find:
- Skip Stage 1 — covered in the same place as other Stage flow settings; mentioned in the catalogue of features but lives separately. Check the editor's preferences menu rather than the User Preferences dialog if it's not here.
- Auto-save interval — there isn't one; everything saves continuously over WebSocket.
- Theme — the dark / light theme follows your system preference automatically.
- Currency — pricing is handled in the estimating side, not in ZeroCount itself.
Resetting preferences
To wipe all preferences and start over, clear your browser's localStorage for the ZeroCount domain. The next time you open the app, every preference reverts to its default value.