SolidWorks Graphics Issues

[Hoian]

I am experiencing gaphhics problems in Solidworks. When in an active sketch, dimension colour/disply fades to Cyan from the original black and is barely legible.

Problem two is with entities in the active sketch being drawn behind referenced entities in the inactive sketch. An active sketch can appear to be empty as all visible enities are drawn grey (colour of inactive sketch entities). Clicking on an entity will allow selection however and properties are displayed if it is in the active sketch.

I run SolidWorks on a few differnt systems.

Sys 1. Dual athlon MP on Tyan Thunder mb c/w 2GB Corsair ram, Wildcat 6110.

Sys2. Athlon XP on ASUS c/w 1GB ram and Quadro 900XGL.

ASUS laptop with ATI chip and P4 processor. No graphics issues but system hopeless if I open more than three windows.

Both systems are running WinXP with teh latest drivers.

Sys 1 originaly had a FIREGL2 and did not have these problems. IT used to give a BSOD at least once a day however hence the switch to Wildcat. Since this card has been installed have not had a BSOD.

Rebooting the computers fixes the problems for about 30min then it reappears. Also applying a service pack or reinstalling the software fixes the problem for a couple of days and then it comes back.

A simple test is create a new assembly and save it as test.sldasm. Create a driving/reference sketch in the assembly (on top plane say)and draw a circle (circle1) with centre at the origin. Now insert a new part and save as test.sldprt for example. Edit the part in context (from within the assembly) and open a sketch on the top plane. Select circle1 (in the assembly) and then click on "on edge". The new on edge entity (circle2) will display normally in the active sketch. Now draw another circle (circle3)in the active sketch. If your system is like mine both entities in the active sketch will display as grey. A BIG problem in large models.

This is driving me crazy with reseller, Solidworks and Wildcat having not experienced similar problems although reseller could replicate sketch issue.

Help anyone

 

[Theophilus]

I've had similar problems with a laptop as you seem to be having with your regular systems (although I also have had the laptop problems you mentioned). I don't know, but this could be related to RAM. Do you have enough (at least 512MB)?

With my laptop, I figured it was a combination of a weak graphics card and RAM, since any assembly with three parts or more would cause problems if I did any work on the parts while the assembly open--no good.

The graphics cards you mentioned are approved from the SW web site, I take it? Also, are you working in shaded mode?




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[macPT]

SW can act very strangely with some tips of hardware.

If your mb as VIA chipset, buy a new computer. For some time I have ad drawing files corrupted (?!) and that was only in computers with VIA chipset.

I tried some tests with various systems (PII, PIII, PIV, W98, W2K, WXP, all sorts of memory and discs and system isntall): all have performed without the bug, except VIA chipset computers.

For your graphic card try the latest drivers.

Regards

 

[macPT]

Sorry, in my last post in mean "types" instead of "tips" and "had" instead of "ad" and...

Damn, I should have stayed in school!

Regards

 

[JNR]

us inganeers ain't sposed ta b able ta spell right - dincha no that? No pologys kneaded.

I agree with the graphics card thing, but have you looked in the advanced driver setup to check for a "Solidworks" setting? We had some really wierd things a few revs back until we did this. (And it worked fine on the SW previous rev.)

I was - and he did. So at least I didn't get coal.....
OK, OK, It's a reference to my holiday sig. "Be naughty - Save Santa a trip..."