svnignore?

What is the equivalent of the CVS .cvsignore file?

I have a lot of files that I don't want to get into the repository
because they are only temporary files created by the compiler every
time I do almost anything in the IDE. These are ignored when we use
CVS by the use of a global cvsignore setting plus .cvsignore files in
projects that need some more files ignored.
My main cvsignore file has something like 40-50 entries..

I tried to study the svnbook on this matter but the closest I get is
to use:
 svn propedit svn:ignore
But this seems to be an exercise to be done on directory levels and my
IDE creates a lot of directories that are not versioned to begin
with...
Is there no way to make a global setting on the client side such that
the known files types will be ignored from svn?

If it matters I use the SmartSvn program as a user interface on my
development PC. It was recommended for users wanting a GUI interface
like we had for CVS.

-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden