Win 8 and Solidworks 2013

[BerP]

I'm running Solidworks on an older laptop with a ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 card. It has been running fine for my purpose, and performance has actually been surprisingly good running Solidworks 2012 on Vista. However, after upgrading to windows 8 and solidworks 2013 it has become useless.
It's running nice and smooth for a couple of seconds, but then the system just pauses for ~10 seconds - let's me spin or zoom again, and then back to 10 seconds pause. During the pauses nothing happens. No CPU or GPU activity. Everything just sleeps. It happens both with larger assemblies and small parts.

I think it might be the openGL support in windows 8 (AMD is not very active on supporting older cards), but I'm getting pretty much same result when switching to software openGL.

If the video card was just to old an weak I could accept it, but I'm sure the problem is somewhere else.

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[BerP]

Installed AMD System Monitor, which confirms I have no hardware acceleration in solidworks - even though OpenGL is checked and runs smoothly during a openGL-test (some benchmark program), the GPU is not doing anything when running solidworks.

 

[AnnaWood]

You do not want the Software Open GL box checked. With it checked your GPU is not being used, video is being processed by your CPU.

With SW launched, but no files open, uncheck that box.

Cheers,



Anna Wood
SW2012 SP4, Windows 7 x64

http://www.renderbay.com

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Anna, I don't believe the Radeon will allow that option to be unchecked.

 

[AnnaWood]

It may or may not. When I run SoiidWorks 2013 on my MacBook Air with a GeForce card the box is unchecked. The graphics card is processing the graphics window in SW.

If SW will not run without re-checking the OpenGL box then the OP will be SOL.

Cheers,



Anna Wood
SW2012 SP4, Windows 7 x64

http://www.renderbay.com

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[BerP]

I know software OpenGL is NOT a solution. I've only tried it to see if I could see any difference - which was not really the case. Even though the Radeon card is not exactly a recommended video card, it has been running just fine until now (with full hardware acceleration). The problem is that for some reason it behaves strange after the update. I'm not even sure it's the video card that is the problem. I updated both windows and solidworks at once. Maybe it's a driver issue??? (though hardware acceleration works fine during gaming and other programs - think that maybe just openGL is the problem).

After some more testing, it seems to zoom and rotate smooth and without any problems, but when I'm done moving the model - it freezes for 5-10 seconds. Same thing happens when I for instance pick a surface. It works, but after the action I have to wait again?!?

I think I'll try and install SW2012 (which worked fine under Vista) to narrow down the unknown.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried upating the video driver?

 

[BerP]

Yes, newest drivers. However AMD states the following when dowloading the drivers "... only supports WDDM 1.1 driver level features.". Does anyone know what it means, and if it has any influence on solidworks?

 

[BerP]

Just re-installed what turned out to be version 2011, which worked perfectly under Vista. It runs brilliantly under windows 8 also. So - it seems my problem lies with solidworks 2013 and not with my video card and drivers. Have no idea what to do though! Guess I have to stick to 2011

I'm a little puzzled about the hardware acceleration though. I installed AMD System Monitor which shows me the GPU load. In 2013 I discovered the GPU load was zero during zoom /spin etc., which made me think it was a problem with the hardware acceleration. But now I can see it is also zero under 2011 which runs perfectly??!?! Checking the "use software openGL" makes no difference!! Neither on the GPU-meter or on the perfomance??? But it runs smooth and nice, with even reasonably large assemblies?!?

 

[DesignerGuy16]

Looks like it's time to invest in a new video card. As the software improves, there could be new features it needs to use for normal operation that might not be available on the card you are using.

Have you looked at the video card compatability list on the solidworks website? It's possible your card is usable, but you might need to use an older driver. What's more likely is your card is now obsolete for use with the Windows 8 and SW 2013 combination.

James Spisich
Design Engineer, CSWP

 

[ctopher]

Try a clean uninstall of SW, then reinstall SW 2013.
There may be some conflict with your new install of Win 8.

Chris
SolidWorks 11
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[mjcole]

Past 2012 I wouldn't expect any "Gamer Card" no offence to work on SolidWorks. I ran 2008 and 2009 on a GeForce card with no issues other than Real View not working. Real View has no place in design unless you are analysing the shapes of an Industrial Designed product. You can get a low to med range Fire Pro or Quadro card for not too much money as long as you don't need over a Gb of graphics memory.

Also make sure your PCs settings are for Best Performance and get rid of any checked settings for shadows or menu unfolding or even Gradients in your title bar. Making windows appear smooth and animated may just be a bit of Windows trickery to make you think you are using a way better OS.

Congrats Anna on running SW on a macbook. You should do a SolidWorksWorld presentation using one
SolidWorks may be able to ignore Mac for a long time but it probably won't last when Mac users switch to another software.

"It's not the size of the Forum that matters, It's the Quality of the Posts"

Michael Cole
Boston, MA
CSWP, CSWI, CSWTS
Follow me on !w¡#$%
@ TrajPar - @ mcSldWrx2008
= ProE = SolidWorks

 

[AnnaWood]

There are a lot of people that I know running SolidWorks on their boot camped Mac's. Our VAR visits his customers all the time with boot camped MacBook Pro running SolidWorks.

Kinda old news actually.... Have had mine setup that way for a couple years already. Have zero interest running SolidWorks in OSX.

FWIW,


Anna Wood
SW2012 SP4, Windows 7 x64

http://www.renderbay.com

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com