The preferences menu contains useful options for the interface, viewport behavior, file handling and your privacy preferences. The menu can be opened via:

• Windows: Help > Preferences, 'CTRL+,'
• Mac: Ultimaker Cura > Preferences, 'CMD+,'

Interface

• Language: Ultimaker Cura is translated in 15 languages, change it here and restart Cura
• Currency: Change this value to alter the currency indicator, this has no other effect on pricing or the application
• Theme: Ultimaker offers themes for color blindness and a dark theme for ease of use
• Slice automatically: This setting can be enabled to slice a 3D model as soon as it's loaded

Viewport behavior

• Display overhang: Display red areas on bottom parts of 3D models to indicate the model needs support material
• Display model errors: Display errors in your 3D model with a colored pattern for better recognition
• Center camera when item is selected: Automatically focuses the camera to your loaded 3D model
• Invert the direction of the camera zoom: Scroll down instead of up when zooming in on models
• Ensure models are kept apart: Allows models to be placed within eachothers safety perimeter

Caution: Allowing models to be placed tightly together might result in overlapping models. Ultimaker Cura does not warn when this happens

• Automatically drop models to the build plate: Disable this option to allow 3D models to float, useful when creating custom supports or manually aligning 3D models
• Caution message in g-code reader: ???
• Force layer view compatibility mode: This allows old graphical hardware to view a 2D layer view variant. There is no need to change this setting when your layer view works correctly
• Restore window position start: Disable this option to load Ultimaker Cura in the standard position and resolution every time

Note: This option may be useful to disable when working with external monitors, to ensure Ultimaker Cura is properly visible after a restart without the second monitor attached

• Camera rendering: Perspective and orthographic mode are available

Opening and saving files

• Use a single instance of Cura: Forces applications and the operating system to load all 3D models in the currently running Cura application
• Scale larger models: Automatically scales down models that are too large for the build plate. Could be useful when printing scale models often
• Scale extremely small modes: Automatically scales models up to a visible size. This sometimes happens when the units of the 3D model are scaled incorrectly (inch,mm)
• Select models when loaded: Selects the 3D model after loading on the build plate
• Add machine prefix to job name: Automatically adds 'UMS5_' to the gcode name to identify the purpose machine of the print job
• Show summary dialog when saving project: Disable this option to save project files without showing the overview every time.
• Default behavior when opening a project file: Allows choosing whether to 'load models', 'load as a project' or always choose what is preferred

Profiles and privacy

• Default behavior for changed setting when switching profiles: Change the behavior of asking to save changes, always keep the changes or never keep the changes when switching profiles. Read here how this works in practice
• Send (anonymous) print information: Allow Ultimaker to collect anonymous usage and slicing information to improve Ultimaker Cura
• Check for updates on start: Provides a pop-up when a newer version of Ultimaker Cura is available. Updates can be checked for the stable version or stable and beta versions
• Notification for plugin updates, downloaded via the Ultimaker Marketplace