Randomly Appearing Blocks

[JrSurgical]

Hey everybody, I need some help as this glitch is turning something so simple into pure frustration.
I'm adding a logo as a block to my print, a few here and there as laser marking instructions. I tried both dwg and dxf, as well as sketching my own and making it a block.
As soon as I save the print or go into print preview, random copies of the block appear, in varying sizes, that can not be seen in the standard print view, as well as logos that can be seen but cannot be edited in any way.
Is this something anyone else has encountered? is there a way around it?
I've read how blocks can dissapear but I am having the oposite problem. Where are these ghost blocks coming from?

 

[JrSurgical]

Forgot to mention, it is with Solidworks Office 2008 SP5.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

What video card and driver are you using? Strange video glitches are often caused by unsuitable cards and/or drivers.

What OS version are you using?

If your card and driver combination are good, perhaps try installing and reinstalling the driver.

Have you tried running a repair from the SW install disc?

 

[IvanaX]

I recognize that, with us was a ghost truck in the middle of the building.

It was allways comming up with layers and colors.

 

[JrSurgical]

I'm running windows xp on a Tosiba laptop w/ a Centrino Duo, and I think the video card might be integrated as nothing is listed under the device manager that catches my eye as a video card. So the glitch may very well be caused by an outdated under-powered video card (my quad core has yet to be loaded up with Solidworks).
But the same glitch occured when I sent the document to my boss's computer. Although his computer might be at the same level as the one I'm using, I find it weird that the same problem transfered over.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I'm putting my money on the card and driver.

Do you have access to a system 'certified' for SW to test on?

Try to find out the specs of your boss's computer for comparison.

Can you ZIP and post the block and drawing for testing by others here?

 

[EEnd]

Try faq559-1058 and see if that helps.

Eric

 

[JrSurgical]

Hey Guys,
Back again with a hardware update, but still without any luck.
I loaded up Solidworks x64 SP5 on my quad core HP running Vista 64 and I am still encountering this ghost block problem.

The graphics card on this laptop is a 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon 4650. It isn't listed on the Solidworks site as a certified card, but I am able to turn on OpenGL.

I attached an example of my print preview, the CE block in the lower left is the original (only block I added, disregard it's placement partially off the print, it is only for example) that can be plainly seen in regular view, except it is filled with a solid black and doesn't have such sharp angles as in the print preview.

I created the block as a dxf originally with Corel Draw and imported it into the drawing, could this affect it within SW?

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

The DXF and DWG translators are less than perfect for correct scaling into SW. Creating the CE symbol in SW would be far better.

Better still would be to use this font;

http://www.easyfreeware.com/files/marvosym_truetype_font.zip/12869

 

[EEnd]

Try opening the dxf with DWGEditor (comes with SolidWorks) and check it out / clean it up in there.

I would caution against usisng a non-standard font for this purpose if you plan on sending the SolidWorks drawings to other people as they would then need that font as well.

Eric

 

[JrSurgical]

I have created a CE sketch in SW before and then turned it into a block, and got the same results.

This print will be going to another company, so I am hesitant about loading up a new font.

I'll give the dwg editor a shot, but there's not much I could "clean up". The block looks perfect, it's only when I go to print or preview the print that it goes all wacky and throws mutant copies of my block all over the print.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

The font I linked to is free and can be distributed freely. It simply needs to be dropped into the C:\Windows\Fonts folder.

Can you upload the block created in SW here, so that it can be checked on a system using more suitable video cards. In this case it may not be related to the VC, but graphical glitches are to be expected when non-certified cards are used.