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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 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).
4. If the card has a specific driver version and driver
settings that are shown to be compatible with SolidWorksTM,
then try that version and the recommended settings.
This has proved successful in configuring some cards
to work with Photopia and allowing their optimization
settings to be turned back to “full.”
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.
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:
The graphics window in the Import Luminaire Wizard and
the Reflector Design View screens are offset so that
they overlap with other parts of the dialogs. In the
Reflector Design View this prevents entering values
in some of the grid cells. Is there a way to fix this?
A: This problem is seen on some graphics
cards when the font size setting in Windows is set to
Large or Extra Large. If this is a problem on your graphics
card, then you need to reset your font size back to
Normal. To do this, right click your mouse on your desktop
and choose Properties for the pop-up menu. Then go to
the Appearance tab and set the Font size to Normal as
shown in the image below.
Q:
nVIDIA Quadro graphics card recommendations:
A: There are 2 possible configuration
options that allow this card to work with Photopia.
If the card is not configured with one of these options,
then Photopia 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 Photopia. 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. In regards to the driver version,
in general most customers have found that changing the
settings is all that is required, however some customers
have reported that their problems are only solved with
a particular driver version. For the best information
about choosing a driver version that works, see the
www.solidworks.com website and follow the link on their
main page to information about graphics cards. You will
then be taken to a screen where you can choose your
card manufacturer (nVidia), a version of SolidWorks
(choose all) and your operating system. We have had
some customers with the Quadro FX Go 1400 card recommend
driver versions 76.50, 03-24-2005 and 84.26, 06-12-2006,
with which they have had success.
2.
The second option is to turn off all card optimizations.
This is not ideal however, since it could have a negative
impact on other applications. 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 Troubleshoot tab
and slide the slider bar all the way to the left, so
the optimization settings are set to None.
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