Docking Preferences for Docked Dialogs

MicroStation delivers a default docking preference file named MicroStationDockingPrefSeed.xml that determines where certain dialogs are docked by default. The first time a user starts the product, it makes a copy of this file for them, and then uses the copy to store any changes related to the location of any docked dialogs. The next time the user starts the product, it looks at the information in the user's personal docking preference file to see which dialogs should be docked, and where. If the user's docking preference file ever gets deleted, the product simply makes a new one for the user, again based on the delivered default docking preference file.

The configuration variable MS_DOCKINGPREFSEED tells the product where to look for the MicroStationDockingPrefSeed.xml file, and the configuration variable MS_DOCKINGPREF tells the product how to name and where to create the user's docking preference file. The default value for MS_DOCKINGPREF is $(_USTN_PREFNAMEBASE).docking.xml, so if your user preference file is named untitled.upf, then your personal docking preference file will be named untitled.docking.xml. The default location for this file is in the same folder as the user preference file.

If you are an administrator and you want to set up a different default docking preference file, use the following workflow:

Start the product and open a file.
Change the docking layout for dockable dialogs as needed.
In Windows Explorer, find your personal docking preference file.
Make a copy of this file and place the new copy in some other folder.
Delete your original personal docking preference file.
In the product, edit the value of the MS_DOCKINGPREFSEED configuration variable so that it now points to the copy of the docking preference file you just made, rather than the delivered MicroStationDockingPrefSeed.xml file.
Exit the product.
Have your users delete their personal docking preference file.
The next time any of your users starts the product, it will make a new personal docking preference file for them, based on this new default docking preference file.

Note: Docking changes related to toolboxes are not stored in the user's docking preference file, nor is the opened or closed state of dockable dialogs. That information is stored in the user preference file. For example, if you dock a dockable dialog, exit the product, and delete the user preference file (but not the user's docking preference file), the previously docked dialog will not be docked when you restart. However, since in this example your personal docking preference file is still intact, when you open the previously docked dialog, it will be automatically docked to the location it was last docked, according to the information in your personal docking preference file.