The Options menu provides commands that affect the environment in which PC1D runs on your computer, but which have no effect whatever on the problem or its solution. The features you select with these commands are stored on your computer in a file named PC1D.INI which is normally stored in your WINDOWS directory. Consequently, they will be used whenever you start PC1D on your computer. They will not apply if you save a problem file on disk and subsequently work with it using a different computer.
| File Locations |
This command opens a dialog box which allows you to specify which subdirectory you would like to serve as the default location for each type of external file used by PC1D. By segregating your files into separate directories, you will find it much easier to locate the files that you need later. If a field is left blank, the default location is assumed to be the directory from which PC1D was started. |
| Store Node Data |
This command, when ticked, instructs PC1D to store the current solution on disk whenever it stores the current problem parameters. This is useful if you are in the middle of examining a solution in detail but need to quit the program for a period. Saving the node data preserves the most recent solution details, preventing you from needing to repeat the solution when you return, but it also increases the size of the saved PRM files substantially. The default is for this option to be disabled. |
| Device Update |
This command, when ticked, instructs PC1D to update all of the on-screen graphs whenever a change is made in any of the parameters that define the device. This can be quite helpful when setting up the device parameters, because you can immediately see the impact of a change in doping, thickness, etc. The default for this option is for it to be enabled. However, some computers may not be fast enough to keep up. If your computer seems to be lagging behind you when you are setting up a problem, consider disabling this option. |