Circles in AutoCAD look eliptical or elongated.

[CastingDesigner]

My boss came to me a while back & showed me his new Dell M70 laptop & the circles in AutoCAD look eliptical or elongated from the bottom to the top. Yes the circle really is a real circle.

It my be the machine as well though because if he opens an attachment in outlook it switches to 800 x 600. It also loses the res. setting when ever he shuts down at night. He starts the machine & it's in 800 x 600 again & for life of me I am at my wits end trying to figure this thing out.

HELP.

I had posted this in the Unigraphics section & have a good fix for UG but still need one for AutoCAD.

 

[zdas04]

The problem with circles appearing as ovals is almost always one of screen resolution. Luckily if your IT department hasn't locked him out he can just right-click on his desktop, got to properties, settings, and move the slider to max. This will generally make the circles round again.

Your company is doing something in house to keep changing his resolution.

David

 

[CastingDesigner]

I think your rite about the copany defaults changing the res. on his PC but what are they doing is the question now & can I get it fixed?

I will have to contact our IT dept. & have a chat with them as well. The problem is I am in Indianapolis & they are in Waukesha Wis.

Do have any idea what they have set to keep making this thing go back to low res.?

 

[zdas04]

I think you can be sure that you are being bitten by the "law of unintended consequences". IT was probably trying to reduce the bandwidth used in e-mail and thought that no one would object to a lower resolution. People that primarily do text stuff often act that way.

David

 

[TDAA]

It is not something the IT department is doing, but that the Laptop is doing. The Laptop works with an LCD screen, as do the standard flat pannel monitors now.

The issue with this is that they have a built in resolution . . The one they are designed for. This will be shown as the resolution, or default, or best, depending on the manufacturer. The monitors can be set to show a different resolution, but the image is not as good. For example, try to show five dots over four pixles. You will loose something.

On a CRT, you can work within a range of resolutions, then can vary from the normal aspect ratio to widesreen. Switching between them will show your circle in varoius oval shapes. You can also then adjust the area over whch the tube displays, typically being able to change the orizontal different to the vertical, and thus correcting the hor. and vert. scale. This doesnt happen on the LCD. That is why (partly) CRT is still better for CAD work.

 

[Ashereng]

On ours, the circles look like a hexagon (6 sided) on the screen.

It prints out as a circle.

I think it's just an autocad thing.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[debodine]

Ashereng:

You probably already know this, but for the benefit of others, when you have circles that look like hexes are typically due to view resolution.

If you type the command "viewres" and answer yes to the first question "Do you want fast zooms?". You will get another question that asks "Enter circle zoom percent". If you have a powerful computer, you can enter the maximum of 20000 and you will get circular circles.

HOWEVER, I am not aware that this fixes elliptical circles. I just wanted to explain why there are sometimes hexagonal circles on the display that print as genuine circles.

debodine

 

[Ashereng]

Yes, I do know. Thanks.

I was simply sharing the fact that on our machines, our circles look like hexagons on the screen, due to the resolution of the monitors and limitations.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[DanDel]

It's actually the aspect ratio, not the resolution that is making the circles appear elongated, correct? At least that would be the issue on a CRT. If you adjusted the edges of the display on the CRT, you could correct the problem.

 

[CastingDesigner]

Yes it would "IF" it was elongated from side to side with a wide screen monitor. But it is elongated from top to bottom with a wide screen monitor so I don't think that is it in his case. If I adjusted is this way then he would lose a portion of fis monitor to each side.

 

[DanDel]

Can the adjustment top-to-bottom be decreased instead of side-to-side being increased?

 

[CastingDesigner]

Yes but that still is just a work around for a problem that should be fixed by another option some ware. That is our option for now but I need to find the real problem & fix it.

I haven't said this yet but thanks to everyone for all the help & keep the suggestions coming I have no doubt that we will figure this out.

 

[DanDel]

Since AutoCAD (or any other CAD software) draws 'virtual' perfect circles, I used to adjust my screen edges so that the circles would be round, which, to me, would be calibrating the screen to the correct aspect ratio. Another way is to draw a square with all equal sides, and then see if it looks square or if it looks like a rectangle. I used to actually measure it on the screen and compare the sides.
If the square you draw with the same side dimensions looks perfectly square, and the circle is elongated, then I would agree, there is some other problem. If the square is elongated, why wouldn't you think that it's just set to the wrong aspect ratio instead of the wrong resolution?

 

[cfee]

This is a problem that has existed with ACAD since its earliest days. The answer (mentioned above) is aspect ratio, and CAN SOMETIMES be corrected by screen resolution. (Don't even fool with shortening width or height of the display- that's a losing proposition: you PAID for that screen, use it!) However, screen resolution may not solve your problem. If setting it to the "ideal" resolution doesn't help, and it may not, you'll be forced to pull the display drivers for your monitor (if they haven't been loaded previously). Yes I know its "plug and play" and on a laptop, at that... ALWAYS load and run the monitor drivers (MS standard generic actually work pretty well, but we're not typists or excelists) If you don't have access to these drivers, get help from I-T or from the manufacturer. All I've run across have an "auto" or a "pre-set". Find it and run it. The best ones have settings you can choose, but even if not, they'll at least "auto-sense" the resolution you are running and match it to the screen width (adjusting the height accordingly). If you need to call your manufacturer, please remember to share your solution with I-T. They are almost ALWAYS too embarrassed to admit a CAD guy knew something about computers that they didn't.

On Hexagon circles, if the problem persists after running this drill, reset the VIEWRES setting as mentioned above, but since you can't see more than 1000 circle segments, 1000 (maybe 2000) should be plenty. 20000? well-

Anyway, good luck, and post back here with the reults?

C.Fee