Advanced Configuration
NEW in X!
With the articy configuration file you can customize different starting parameters to your preferences and workflow. It is also the place to add OpenAI and DeepL auth keys, if you want to use AI Extensions, or the auto-translate in the Localization View.
The most relevant commands are already included in the articy.cfg file and you can find a complete list of available commands further down on this page.
Lines starting with ';' are skipped while processing, remove the ';' to activate a switch, or add a ';' at the start of a line to deactivate it,
Each switch needs to be on its own line. Switches that require a value need that directly after the name. It is not required, but encouraged to add “ ” around values that contains spaces.
These switches are part of the default articy configuration file.
-loglevel
When using this switch a numeric parameter in the range 0-3 is required. The higher the number the more verbose is the output. Where 0 means no logging and 3 means full logging.
0: no logging. A logger is present but all messages are discarded
1: normal logging: only Critical, Error, Warning & Info messages are logged
2: extended logging: Trace, Debug, and Note messages are additionally logged
3: full logging: all known entry types are logged
-nosplash
Does not require an additional parameter.
Disables the creation of a slash screen. Can be used when debugging bootstrapping issues and when using an application in automation mode, or just to remove it.
Disables auto-save feature.
-autosave.Interval
Time between auto-saves. 5-999 minutes. 15 minutes default.
-autosave.NoticeTime
Time the countdown timer for auto-save is visible. Between 0 – 60 seconds, default timer is 10 seconds.
Replace the YOUR_API_KEY part with your DeepL API key. Free & Pro API keys are supported. Learn more about the auto-translation feature here.
-ai.openai.apikey YOUR_API_KEY
Replace the YOUR_API_KEY part with your OpenAI API key to enable the use of the AI Extensions plugin. Learn more about the use of AI Extensions here.
-flushlog
If this switch is present every log entry is written to disk immediately. Normally only messages of severity “Warning” or higher get written directly to the log file. Informational messages are cached in a buffer.
-forceprofile
If you want to override that you can use this command-line switch. For example:
Y:\ => Home of the currently logged in user (~)
Z:\ => Root of the file system (/)
-log.NoEnvDump
If this switch is present, the user’s environment variables are not dumped into the log-file.
-noautoclose
When this switch is present the progress dialogs are not closed automatically when no error or warning is present.
-cleartn
If objects are pasted by a copy & paste operation their technical name is also present in the copy and will lead to duplicated technical names you need to fix later on. If that switch is present the technical name property is cleared instead and you might add a new one.
-ui.gradients
Turns on the old articy:draft 3.0 style of flow objects.
-flow.textscale
A floating point value is required as parameter.
Modifies the main box text size of nodes in the Flow view. 0.81 is default text size, a smaller number decreases text size, a bigger number increases it.
-toolbar.pinned
Does not require an additional parameter.
When working in the flow or with locations there is a secondary toolbar that is normally only shown when an object is selected. If you add this switch, the space for the toolbar area is always occupied and visible.
-tv.useoldflowsorting
Does not require an additional parameter.
By default the current articy:draft version uses a topological sort of nodes in the flow for presenting them in the navigator. The older version sorted the content alphabetically independent of their flow position. If you add this switch, the old alphabetical sort is used.
-Fav.OutlineColor
Sets the highlighting color for display in Navigator, Flow, and Content Browser. Set desired color with color in hexcode.
Defaults are yellow and true for all.
-Fav.HighlightInNavigator false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Navigator.
-Fav.HighlightInFlow false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Flow.
-Fav.HighlightInContentBrowser false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Content Browser.
Sets the scaling mode for images in the location editor to nearestneighbor, ideal for pixel art or an 8bit graphics style. Other options are linear and fant. If no switch is used the default scaling mode is linear.
Set the opacity range between primary and secondary selections. Range: 0.1 – 1.0, default 0.5
-p4log
If you use the Perforce source control provider you can enable command logging with this switch. You will find the log file “p4.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\4.x\Logs”
-scmlog
This switch enables high-level source-control logging. You will find the log file “SourceControlManager.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\4.x\Logs”
-svnlog
If you use the SVN source control provider (Either internal or external) you can enable command notification logging with this switch. The entries are forwarded to the main log file “articy.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\3.x\Logs”.
-forcesvn
Using this switch enables you to enforce a given SVN library set to be used by articy. Valid values are:
SVN versions greater than 1.9 still use this internal library set.
This switch is useful if you use an own SVN client that uses a different version/working copy format.
By default articy:draft tries to match the library to match an installed TortoiseSVN as the most commonly used SVN client. If no match can be found the latest version is used.
-admin
Starts articy:draft in “Admin” mode. Welcome has no “projects tab”, server can be selected, on the user page the user name is fixed to “serveradmin”
-host
This parameters is followed by a string specifying the host name to use for pre-populating the hostname of the welcome screen.
-port
This parameters is followed by a integer value specifying the port to use for pre-populating the port of the welcome screen. If missing the default 16707 will be used
-username
This parameters is followed by a string specifying the host name to use for pre-populating the user name of the welcome screen.
With the articy configuration file you can customize different starting parameters to your preferences and workflow. It is also the place to add OpenAI and DeepL auth keys, if you want to use AI Extensions, or the auto-translate in the Localization View.
The most relevant commands are already included in the articy.cfg file and you can find a complete list of available commands further down on this page.
Open the articy.cfg with any text editor. You can find it in %Appdata%\Articy Software\articy\4.x
Open the articy.cfg with any text editor. To find it, select Finder – Go To Folder and enter the following path: ~/articy draft/Profile/4.x
Lines starting with ';' are skipped while processing, remove the ';' to activate a switch, or add a ';' at the start of a line to deactivate it,
Each switch needs to be on its own line. Switches that require a value need that directly after the name. It is not required, but encouraged to add “ ” around values that contains spaces.
Please note that installing a new articy:draft version will not overwrite an existing cfg. If at some point new switches get added to the cfg file, it will be mentioned in the patch notes and they will be added to the list on this page, so you can add them to your cfg file if they are useful for you.
Default switches
These switches are part of the default articy configuration file.
-loglevel
When using this switch a numeric parameter in the range 0-3 is required. The higher the number the more verbose is the output. Where 0 means no logging and 3 means full logging.
0: no logging. A logger is present but all messages are discarded
1: normal logging: only Critical, Error, Warning & Info messages are logged
2: extended logging: Trace, Debug, and Note messages are additionally logged
3: full logging: all known entry types are logged
-nosplash
Does not require an additional parameter.
Disables the creation of a slash screen. Can be used when debugging bootstrapping issues and when using an application in automation mode, or just to remove it.
Auto-save
-noautosaveDisables auto-save feature.
-autosave.Interval
Time between auto-saves. 5-999 minutes. 15 minutes default.
-autosave.Interval 10
-autosave.NoticeTime
Time the countdown timer for auto-save is visible. Between 0 – 60 seconds, default timer is 10 seconds.
-autosave.NoticeTime 20
3rd party service API keys
-translate.deepl.apikey YOUR_API_KEYReplace the YOUR_API_KEY part with your DeepL API key. Free & Pro API keys are supported. Learn more about the auto-translation feature here.
-ai.openai.apikey YOUR_API_KEY
Replace the YOUR_API_KEY part with your OpenAI API key to enable the use of the AI Extensions plugin. Learn more about the use of AI Extensions here.
Other useful command-line switches
These switches are not part of the default articy configuration file, but can be added as needed.General switches
-flushlog
If this switch is present every log entry is written to disk immediately. Normally only messages of severity “Warning” or higher get written directly to the log file. Informational messages are cached in a buffer.
-forceprofile
This switch requires a path. Usually articy:draft writes all information that needs to be stored between different starts into a directory structure located at %Appdata%\Articy Software\articy (The “%Appdata% is resolved to the base path of the currents users profile directory). This includes the recent projects list, search folder for Plugins, downloaded In-App notifications and such things.
This switch requires a path. Usually articy:draft writes all information that needs to be stored between different starts into a directory structure located at ~/articy draft/Profile. This includes the recent projects list, search folder for Plugins, downloaded In-App notifications and such things.
If you want to override that you can use this command-line switch. For example:
-forceprofile "D:\My Articy Profile\"
-forceprofile "Y:\My folder\"
Y:\ => Home of the currently logged in user (~)
Z:\ => Root of the file system (/)
-log.NoEnvDump
If this switch is present, the user’s environment variables are not dumped into the log-file.
-noautoclose
When this switch is present the progress dialogs are not closed automatically when no error or warning is present.
-cleartn
If objects are pasted by a copy & paste operation their technical name is also present in the copy and will lead to duplicated technical names you need to fix later on. If that switch is present the technical name property is cleared instead and you might add a new one.
UI presentation related switches
-ui.gradients
Turns on the old articy:draft 3.0 style of flow objects.
-flow.textscale
A floating point value is required as parameter.
Modifies the main box text size of nodes in the Flow view. 0.81 is default text size, a smaller number decreases text size, a bigger number increases it.
-toolbar.pinned
Does not require an additional parameter.
When working in the flow or with locations there is a secondary toolbar that is normally only shown when an object is selected. If you add this switch, the space for the toolbar area is always occupied and visible.
-tv.useoldflowsorting
Does not require an additional parameter.
By default the current articy:draft version uses a topological sort of nodes in the flow for presenting them in the navigator. The older version sorted the content alphabetically independent of their flow position. If you add this switch, the old alphabetical sort is used.
Favorites
The following switches can be used to customize the Favorites feature:-Fav.OutlineColor
Sets the highlighting color for display in Navigator, Flow, and Content Browser. Set desired color with color in hexcode.
Defaults are yellow and true for all.
-Fav.OutlineColor #00FF00
-Fav.HighlightInNavigator false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Navigator.
-Fav.HighlightInFlow false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Flow.
-Fav.HighlightInContentBrowser false
Disables the highlighting of Favorites in the Content Browser.
Scaling mode for images in the location editor
-location.bitmapscalingmode nearestneighborSets the scaling mode for images in the location editor to nearestneighbor, ideal for pixel art or an 8bit graphics style. Other options are linear and fant. If no switch is used the default scaling mode is linear.
Multi-Select in Document objects
-nav.MultiSelectionOpacitySet the opacity range between primary and secondary selections. Range: 0.1 – 1.0, default 0.5
Multi-user only switches
The following switches are only meaningful if you work with the multi-user version of articy:draft.-p4log
If you use the Perforce source control provider you can enable command logging with this switch. You will find the log file “p4.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\4.x\Logs”
-scmlog
This switch enables high-level source-control logging. You will find the log file “SourceControlManager.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\4.x\Logs”
-svnlog
If you use the SVN source control provider (Either internal or external) you can enable command notification logging with this switch. The entries are forwarded to the main log file “articy.log” in the logging directory “%Appdata%\Articy Software\Articy\3.x\Logs”.
-forcesvn
Using this switch enables you to enforce a given SVN library set to be used by articy. Valid values are:
-forcesvn 1.6
-forcesvn 1.7
-forcesvn 1.8
-forcesvn 1.9
SVN versions greater than 1.9 still use this internal library set.
This switch is useful if you use an own SVN client that uses a different version/working copy format.
By default articy:draft tries to match the library to match an installed TortoiseSVN as the most commonly used SVN client. If no match can be found the latest version is used.
-admin
Starts articy:draft in “Admin” mode. Welcome has no “projects tab”, server can be selected, on the user page the user name is fixed to “serveradmin”
-host
This parameters is followed by a string specifying the host name to use for pre-populating the hostname of the welcome screen.
-port
This parameters is followed by a integer value specifying the port to use for pre-populating the port of the welcome screen. If missing the default 16707 will be used
-username
This parameters is followed by a string specifying the host name to use for pre-populating the user name of the welcome screen.