Dual monitor question 1

[aroundhere]

I am running dual monitors. A 22"wide and a 20" with a quadro card and Nvidia set to Dualview. Is there any way to have a functioning solidworks window on each monitor? I guess Solidworks only runs in one display at a time. I just thought it would be nice to have a drawing on one display and a model on the other.

 

[jobiewan99]

Other than running (2) different sessions of Swx?

Solidworks 2007 SP3.0
2GB Ram/3GB Switch
Quadro FX1300
P4 3.40GHz Duo XP Pro SP2.0

 

[Standing]

Yes you can. You have to have the right card and right drivers. Go to the SolidWorks web site for Dual Monitor Setup Instructions in the Graphics and Hardware area.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP3.1
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[enginerd1959]

Yes - we have a few guys in our design group with dual monitors.

We run 1 instance of SWX double-wide (spanning across the 2 monitors), with the child windows (part, ass'y, or drawing) maximized to one monitor.

Check out the settings in nView Desktop Manager, Windows tab.

The only annoying thing is the child window always opens spanned across both monitors, even though I have that option unchecked. It's a simple click to send it to one monitor, but it should be automatic. And of course nVidia's tech support is useless.

 

[Standing]

From my understanding nVidia requires the same size monitors.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP3.1
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[ewh]

We're running nVidia with dual moniters of differing sizes and have not encountered any problems.

 

[aroundhere]

Well,

I took Enginerd1959'd advice. I was able to expand swks across both monitors, then split 2 seperate windows, one on each monitor. It will take some getting used to. So far ,so good. thanks guys

 

[4zengineering]

Are you actually able to maximize both windows to each monitor? The only way I was able to even come close was to basically size each window to its monitor, but no maximize

My goal was to start my drawing early in the modeling process and work on both at the same time.

I tried to regenerate and also saving, but the only way the drawing would update was if I closed and reopened.

Any tips or ideas.

I'd really like the ability to do this though. It would help me a bunch, and I'm sure it would help quite a few other people too.

Maybe this is something we'll see in a future version.

BTW do any of you know of a program out there that can currently do what I'm talking about?

 

[handleman]

4zengineering:

Did you have two separate SolidWorks windows open? That would explain why your drawing didn't update. You have to have only one instance of SolidWorks open, spanning both monitors. If you have two separate SolidWorks processes running, neither one can see changes made by the other one until (a) the changes are saved to the hard drive in one instance and (b) the other instance refreshes its data from the hard drive.

Do you have any comfort level at all with macros and VBA? I have two macros whose purpose is to maximize child windows to the left or right monitors of a spanned instance of SolidWorks. There are some integer values that you would have to adjust (just trial and error) based on your resolution and toolbar locations, but it should be pretty easy to set up. If anyone's interested I'd be glad to post 'em.

 

[kd1959]

handleman - Post'em! I would love to give them a try.

I have always had an issue with the model view on the second monitor. It will not rotate using the Mouse wheel!
As a matter of fact when I am on just one screen the mouse wheel will occasionally "get stuck" and try to pan only. I usually have to shut down and restart to solve this issue.
I use a Logitech optical mouse (wired). Does anyone know if this is a mouse, a graphics card, or a Solidworks problem?

kd1959
Solidworks 2007 SP3.1, PDMworks
4GB Ram,3GB switch
2x AMD Opteron 254,2x 19" Viewsonic
Quadro FX 3400

 

[TateJ]

I'm running 2 monitors also. I tried spanning, but didn't like it so much. I can see plenty on one monitor, I guess. But I do like to pull the COMMAND MGR & VIEW PALETTE onto a separate monitor. I wish I could pull the FEATURE MGR over there too.

I guess I'm really asking...
Is it possible to make the FEATURE MGR dockable?

Windows XP / Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2 / SpaceBall 5000
Lava Lamp

http://www.Tate3d.com

"Right-click... It's friggin' magic!" ... Jack L. Tate

FAQ376

 

[fcsuper]

Tatej, you and I use our dual monitors in the same way.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[TateJ]

Tatej, you and I use our dual monitors in the same way.

Now, that's just creepy...

Windows XP / Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 5000
SolidWorks 2007 SP2.2 / SpaceBall 5000
Lava Lamp

http://www.Tate3d.com

"Right-click... It's friggin' magic!" ... Jack L. Tate

FAQ376

 

[fcsuper]

I've been putting enhancement requests for years to try to get SolidWorks to make the Feature Manager fly-out/dockable so I could place on my second screen and open up the view window area even more.

Matt
CAD Engineer/ECN Analyst
Silicon Valley, CA
sw.fcsuper.com
Co-moderator of Solidworks Yahoo! Group

 

[4zengineering]

Handleman,

Alright I was confused. (I tried this a while ago and was posting based on memory, today I tried again and here's what I found)

Initially when I came up with this bright idea, I used one instance of solidworks. I spanned the one instance across both monitors. Then I sized the model approximately to one monitor and the drawing to the other monitor. I quickly found that I didn't like this because I use the command manager to the right and Solidworks didn't seem to "flow" for me this way.

Apparently that led me to open the 2 instances (with a vague idea of the things you stated in paragraph 1 in mind). But I figured that Solidworks would refresh the drawing with the hard drive data if I just saved my model, then moved back to the drawing, then refreshed. No dice though.

I suppose that I could just get used to the workflow of the spanned as opposed to the 2 instances. Or I'm wondering if it's possible to "mimic" 2 instances (by mimic I mean 2 menus and command managers) with VBA and macros in one spanned instance of SW???

Thoughts or feelings?

 

[handleman]

A lot of people don't realize this, but when you open a drawing or an assembly in Solidworks, it actually opens all the referenced files in the background. It then generates everything you see in the drawing or assembly from the referenced files it has open in memory. So the instance of SolidWorks that you thought only had the drawing open actually had both the drawing and the part open in memory. Refreshing or rebuilding the drawing only updated the drawing based on the state of the model when you opened the drawing.

I'm not sure about using two command managers. I've never tried that. Actually, the biggest workflow efficiency improvement I've found is to map the functions I use most to shortcut keys. Having to move the mouse somewhere outside the model view and zero in on a small button (depending on how high your resolution is set) can add a lot more time than you realize.

Sorry about not posting those macros. It slipped my mind. I'll try to remember when I get to work today.

 

[handleman]

Here are the left/right monitor macros. You'll have to fiddle with the constants to get it to fit exactly on your screens based on your toolbars and screen resolutions. The numbers are in units of pixels.

Sub Max2Left()
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks
Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

If swApp.ActiveDoc Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
With swApp.ActiveDoc.ActiveView
    .FrameState = 0
    .FrameWidth = 972
    .FrameHeight = 688
    .FrameLeft = -7
    .FrameTop = -8
End With

End Sub

Sub Max2Right()
Dim swApp As SldWorks.SldWorks
Set swApp = Application.SldWorks

If swApp.ActiveDoc Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
With swApp.ActiveDoc.ActiveView
    .FrameState = 0
    .FrameWidth = 996
    .FrameHeight = 688
    .FrameLeft = 963
    .FrameTop = -7
End With

End Sub