|
Q:
Graphics Card Recommendations:
A:
Lighting Technologies' software products utilize OpenGL
graphics libraries. Different graphics cards and graphics
drivers work with these libraries to various levels
of success. When the graphics driver settings are incompatible
with the manner in which our software needs to communicate
with the graphics card, various types of problems can
result, including:
1.
Slow graphics responsiveness.
2. Poor graphics display via incorrect polygon depth
sorting or no screen refreshes.
3. General program crashes whether related to a graphics
function or other general program interface interaction.
These
types of problems are generally solved by one of the
following:
1.
Updating the graphics driver to the latest version produced
by the card manufacturer. Graphics drivers can be obtained
from the card manufacturer's website.
2. Running the card at the highest possible color setting.
Problems are more frequent at lower color settings because
the driver has to do more work to convert desired colors
to the limited range available.
3. Turning off the use of optimizations within Lumen
Designer. To do this, make sure that Lumen Designer
is NOT running. Run the LTI Customer Support Utility
(accessed under Programs...Lighting Technologies). Click
the 'System Info' button and deselect Designer's use
of the hardware acceleration. Close the Utility and
run Lumen Designer.
4.Turning
down or off driver optimization (acceleration) settings.
These settings are generally accessed via the Advanced
button described in the graphics display settings dialog.
There is usually a tab labeled Troubleshooting (a label
curiously indicating the settings can lead to trouble).
In
many cases, all of our graphics functionality works
as it should with the card optimizations set to full
when the graphics driver is up to date and the color
setting is set to the highest level. But this is not
the case for all types of graphics cards and can even
vary for different card models within the same product
family. In some cases where turning off the driver optimizations
is the only solution other software can be negatively
affected. In order to solve this problem, Lumen Designer
now includes the ability to turn off the card optimizations
and card double buffering within the program’s
own INI file, thus isolating the setting to Lumen Designer.
Graphics
cards and drivers are in a constant state of change,
which makes it impossible for us to guaranty full
compatibility with any particular product. Given
the current state of affairs in the graphics industry,
the best recommendations we can offer are to choose
the most common cards available since these will
be the cards we are most likely to orient our software
towards. At this time, the nVIDIA GeForce product
line is quite common and in use on many of the computers
at Lighting Technologies. Note however, that even
within this product line the same software behaves
differently on different card/driver combinations.
Nonetheless, this is still a product line that we
consider safe to work within since we have good success
with many of the products within it. The nVIDIA Quadro
cards are a higher end card set for which we have
seen more difficulties. Without the proper driver
settings, our software will generally crash as soon
as a CAD view is used. See the FAQ for this particular
card for instructions on how it should be configured.
Q:
nVIDIA Quadro graphics card recommendations:
A: There
are 2 possible configuration options that allow this
card to work with Designer. If the card is not configured
with one of these options, then Designer is likely
to crash as soon as anything is done in a CAD view.
1.
The first option is the preferred method. This involves
setting the card's Custom OpenGL settings to be compatible
with SolidWorks™. Even if you are using a different
CAD program, this setting seems to be compatible
with most other CAD software as well as Designer.
To do this, follow these steps: Start menu -> Settings
-> Control Panel -> Display Properties -> Settings
tab -> Advanced button -> This brings up a
new dialog with 6 tabs. They are General, Adapter,
Monitor, Troubleshoot, Color Management & Quadro.
Select the Quadro tab. An additional window should
pop up to the left of the dialog. Select the “Additional
OpenGL Settings” link. Now at the bottom of
the main dialog with the Quadro tab, you should see
an option labeled Custom OpenGL Application Settings.
Select SolidWorks™ from the drop down list.
If you do not see the “Additional OpenGL Settings” link
on the pop up window, then you have a newer driver
version with a different interface. In this case,
select for the “Performance & Quality Settings” link.
Then select SolidWorks™ from the Active Profile
drop down list in the Quadro tab of the main dialog.
2.
The second option is to turn off the card optimizations
for Designer. Using the Lighting Technoloiges' Customer
Support Utility (located via Start -> Programs ->
Lighting Technologies), click on the System Info
button. At the bottom of the screen, uncheck the
two check boxes regarding graphics card accelerations/optimizations.
Close the Utility and run Designer.
|
