User Settings

The User Settings window contains options for configuring workflow appearance and system resource usage to optimize performance.

System resource usage can be configured in three different areas: User Settings, System Settings, and Workflow Configuration. Settings configured in User Settings override settings in System Settings, and settings in Workflow Properties override settings in User Settings and System Settings.

To edit settings, click through the tabs and edit settings as desired, then click Apply.

The Defaults tab lists the Alteryx default runtime settings. The System Settings section shows settings configured in System Settings.

  • Override System Settings: Select to configure settings different from settings configured in System Settings.
    • Default Dedicated Sort/Join Memory Usage: Define the minimum amount of memory the Engine uses to perform sort and join operations in a workflow. Generally, this value should not be changed. For more information on how Designer uses memory, see Memory Use.
    • Default Temporary Directory: Displays the path to the location where temporary files used in workflow processing are saved.
    • Logging Directory (blank for no logging): Displays the path to the location where output logs produced during workflow processing are saved.
    • Run Designer x64 at a Lower Priority: Select to run other memory intensive applications at the same time as Designer. This setting impacts workflow processing speeds.
  • Use AMP Engine for all new workflows: Check the box to use the AMP Engine for all new workflows that you create going forward.
  • Collect and display data profile information: Enables data profiling in the Browse tool. Deselect to disable data profiling features. If disabled, the Browse tool does not display data profile information. This does not improve runtime performance. See Browse Tool.
  • Show Start Here at startup: Select to display Start Here when Alteryx starts. Start Here displays a helpful set of starter samples when Alteryx starts up.
  • Pop Up Dialog at Completion of Workflow: Select to display a notification when a workflow finishes running. The workflow status is always displayed in the Results window.
  • Open Alteryx files as new workflow tabs in same Designer window: Select this option so that when Alteryx file types (.yxmd, .yxmc, .yxwz, .yxwg, .yxzp, .yxi) are double-clicked, they open as a new workflow tab within an existing Designer instance.
  • Use classic mode for the Input/Output tool menu options: Select this option to use the classic configuration window instead of the Data connections window when using the Input Data Tool or the Output Data Tool.

On the Dataset Defaults tab, you can set your default datasets for all tools that require an installed dataset. When the tool uses a dataset, the dataset you selected will be used. If you have not installed a dataset, you will not have an option to select.

The Canvas tab lists the settings that control the appearance of items on the canvas including the workflow background, tool connections, and annotations.

Adjust your Default Canvas Settings to change how the canvas workspace appears.

  • Background: Click to select the color of the canvas on which workflows are created.
  • Containers: Click to select the default color for Tool Container Tool.
  • Show Grid: Select to display a grid over the canvas.
    • Grid Color: Click to select the grid color.
    • Grid Size: Type or click to set the width of boxes in the grid. The size is defined in pixels.
  • Snap Tools to Grid: Select to place tools and annotations so they align to canvas grid.
  • Zoom Level: Click to select the zoom level at which to display the workflow.
  • Remember last zoom level per workflow: Select to remember the last zoom level used for the previous workflow. The zoom level is determined by the zoom level at which the workflow was last saved.
  • Layout Default: Click to select a vertical or horizontal orientation for workflows on the canvas.
  • Display macro indicators on tools: Select to show on any tool that is a macro. Right-click a macro tool to open its source workflow.

For more on the workflow canvas, see Workflow Configuration.

Adjust your Connection Settings to change how connections between tools look and behave.

  • Type: Select the type of connection.
    • Auto Route Bezier: (default) Draws connections with curves.
    • Auto Route Perpendicular: Draws connection with perpendicular bends.
    • Straight: Draws connection with straight lines.
  • Lines: Click to select the color of the connection line.
  • Progress: Select when to show the progress of workflow processing. Progress displays the record count and the total record size of data passing through each connection, and the line width adjusts to the data passing through it.

For more on connections, see Connection Configuration.

Adjust your Annotation Settings to change how the tool configuration label displays on the canvas.

  • Font: Click to select font, font size, font style.
  • Text Color: Click to select text color.
  • Background: Click to select the annotation background color.

For more on annotations, see Tool Configuration.

The Advanced tab lists settings related to memory usage which affects program performance.

  • Undo Levels: Type or click to set the number of actions Alteryx remembers and allows you to undo. The default value is 10. Increasing the value negatively impacts performance.
  • Disable Auto Configure: Select this option to manually configure tools in a workflow. With this option selected, press the F5 key to manually refresh tool configurations. This option may optimize performance.
  • Display XML in Properties Window: Select to view the XML of the configuration for each tool in a workflow.
  • Display Asset Management in Properties Window: Select to view the file dependencies or assets for each tool in a workflow.

Alteryx automatically saves at least one of the files being processed in a workflow. Go to File > Open Workflow >Open Autorecovered Files to view auto-recovered files.

  • Autorecover Interval in Minutes: Type or click to set the time Alteryx waits before saving automatically saving a file. The default is 10.
  • Autorecover per File: Type or click to set the number of times a file is saved before it is saved again as a new version. The default is 3.
  • Days to Keep Autorecover Files: Type or click to set the number of days to keep autorecovered file.

These settings control the size of the data that displays in the Results window for each output anchor in a workflow.

  • Override System Settings: Select to edit the default setting.
    • Memory Limit per Anchor: Select to set a memory limit per anchor. Then, type or click to set the memory limit value in KB. The default value is 1024 KB (1 MB).
  • Enable Proxy Credentials: Select to use a proxy to access the internet instead of directly connecting to an internet host. The following tools and connections will work with a proxy: Download tool, Amazon Redshift Bulk loader, Amazon S3 Upload tool, Amazon S3 Download tool, and HDFS connections via the Input Data, Output Data, Data Stream In, and Write Data In-DB tools.

    You must manually configure a proxy in order to use this setting.

    • To set up a proxy, go to Network and internet settings on your computer, or Internet Options in Internet Explorer. In Internet Explorer, Internet Options, click the Connections tab, click LAN Settings and deselect Automatically Detect Settings, then select Proxy Server.

    After setting up a proxy, select Enable Proxy Credentials and click Configure. Once configured, Designer will Autodetect proxy in use.

    1. Confirm the correct proxy is selected.
    2. Select Proxy requires password.
    3. Type credentials in Username and Password.
    4. Click OK.

    Admins can configure a proxy in System Settings. Go to Options > Advanced Options > System Settings > Engine > Proxy.

On the Macros tab, you can create a repository of macros and set a default location to save macros. Alteryx displays the macros in the Tool Palette for you to use in building workflow. Each macro must have a unique name.

To add a path to the repository:

  1. Click to open the Add Search Path for Macros window.
  2. Category Name: type a name. The default name is Macros.
  3. Search Path: Click to browse to the location where you save macros on your computer or a network.

Any macro .yxmc file in the selected location displays in the tool category on the Tool Palette.

Sub-folders in a search path cannot be added individually if their parent folder already exits in the Macros repository.

To set a default repository location:

  1. Click the repository search path in the list.
  2. Click Set as Default. An asterisk (*) displays next to the default repository.

The Localization tab lists settings related to internationalization and localization, including language and measurement conversion.

Interface Language: Select the language version for Designer.

Tool Paletter Order: Sort your tool palette to follow either Current Language Alphabetical or English Alphabetical.

Sort Method: Set the sorting method that Designer uses. This setting affects the sorting method of the Results window, the Sort tool, Select tool (and other tools that use the select functionality). This sort method does not affect the Tool Palette. Options include...

  • Dictionary Order: Sort by dictionary order. Note that this is the default selection for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish languages.
  • Unicode Code Point: Sort by unicode code point.
  • Gojūon: Sort by Japanese pronunciation (Gojūon) dictionary order. Default selection for the Japanese language.
  • Pinyin: Sort by Simplified Chinese pronunciation (Pinyin) dictionary order. Default selection for the Simplified Chinese language.

Localization Number Settings: There are 2 settings that you can customize to change how numbers display in Designer: Thousand Separator and Decimal Symbol. The settings don't affect the data types themselves, only how they display. This applies to all numeric values, except data in the Results grid. These settings affect how numbers display on the Designer canvas, the Results window, and the Browse tool Data Profiling. The default settings depend on the language that you select for the Designer interface, but you can always update the defaults.

  • Thousand Separator: Choose the thousand separator symbol that you want to use to display numbers in Designer. Choose from None, , (Comma), . (Period), ' (Apostrophe), and Space.
  • Decimal Symbol: Choose the symbol to use as the decimal separator: Period or Comma.
  • Example: As you update the Thousand Separator and Decimal Symbol settings, the Example field shows a preview of how your changes will be applied when you save.

Code Page: Select the code page to be used in encoding your tool set in Designer. See Code Pages.

Default Predictive Tools Code Page: Select the code page to use in encoding your Predictive Tools in Designer.

  • This settings applies to all new workflows that you create in Designer.
  • This setting does not apply to any workflows created by another user that you open in your Designer.
  • You can customize the code page for a specific workflow via the Workflow Configuration Runtime tab.

Default System Font: Select the default font used by Designer.

Default Distance Units: Select the default units for measuring distance. Spatial tools use the selected unit of measure.

Date Format (Messages): Choose how you want to display dates in the Messages tab of the Results window. Your options are:

  • mm/dd/yyyy (Default for English)
  • yyyy/mm/dd (Default for Japanese)
  • dd/mm/yyyy (Default for French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish)
  • dd.mm.yyyy (Default for German)

Use the following options to customize your Help settings.

  • Source: Click to select the source of Help. By default, Auto-Detect displays online Help when internet is available and displays offline Help when internet is not available.
  • Language: Click to select the language used to display the online Help.