Graphics Card Issue

[rikonen]

Work computer

Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz
1Gig Ram
Windows XP Pro (latest service pack)
ATI Radeon 9200 Graphics card

Question is:

When set to full hardware excelleration I lose all my graphics in things like the view pallet, all prints and all the icons on file open are blank. What I mean by prints is I can take a part and hit print preview and it shows a blank screen, print it and it's a blank sheet. If I goto the properties for the graphics card and under the troubleshoot tab and slide the hardware acceleration down to the next to last lowest setting everything comes back into view. I have the same problem using an NVIDIA QUADRO FX1400 at home. Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Theophilus]

Well, first, I don't think that graphics card is recommended--that series seems to have problems with SolidWorks. However, that doesn't explain why you would have difficulties with the FX-1400 (a great card) at home.

Do you have trouble with no hardware acceleration?



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[rikonen]

Slide the hardware excelleration all the way down and everything works fine, except all my dynamic rotation, zooming, etc, etc get dead slow. I've been running with it down low but why have a good card if you can't use it?

 

[Theophilus]

Well, if you're talking about the ATI card, it's not a good card (for SolidWorks). You're doomed with loads of problems no matter what you do if you use this card--for some reason it seems to get "full" when you have more than one window (part, assembly, whatever) in use, which makes the good flow of editing multiple parts rather useless--it's not worth the slow-down and crashes not to upgrade the card to something approved on the SW web site:

http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html

If you're talking about the FX-1400, this shouldn't happen (I use the same card on my machine and don't have any issues with it.) Perhaps there's another issue behind the performance problems if the FX-1400 is causing problems? How large are your assemblies? What happens if you disable the hardware acceleration? What version of SW are you using?



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[SBaugh]

Because when you use a certified card (not a good card), you will have full ability to use SW. With a limited card, you have to make hardware changes just to make it run sometimes.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Which SW version are you using?

Which driver are you using for the FX-1400?
6.14.10.7756 SW2007
6.14.10.7756 SW2006
6.14.10.7184 SW2006
6.14.10.7756 SW2005
6.14.10.7184 SW2005
6.14.10.6722 SW2005

If you have to replace the driver use Scotts faq559-1194
This would be a good idea even if you are using the correct driver anyway.

 

[sldwkmin]

The main difference between gaming cards such as the Radeon from ATI and the Geforce from Nvidia is that they are developed with technology that is focused on having a single window open as you normally do when playing games, the technology in the approved cards is developed for multiple windows and different graphic technology. You can buy an extremely expensive gaming card that won't hardly work at all with a CAD app and vice versa.

Cole M
CSWP, CSWST, CSWI, CPDM
SW06
SW07
IBM T42p, 2g proc., 1g RAM,ATI Mobility Fire GL T2
HP XW4100, 3g proc., 3g RAM, Nvidia Quadro 980 XGL
HP XW4300, 3.4g proc, 2.5g RAM, ATI Fire GL 3100

 

[rikonen]

I ordered a FX1400 for work to alleviate this. I stand corrected on the home computer I thought I had the same problem when I first put the card in but when I got home and checked I saw that I was on full hardware acceleration and there are no issues. This computer at work was built by a computer outlet that our shop uses and they were supplied the specs and built around them. I never gave it much thought until I tried using the hardware acceleration and saw that there were problems. Thanks for the input.