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Cannot draw using mouse

Question asked by Martyn Simmons on Feb 1, 2016
Latest reply on Feb 8, 2018 by Dave Johnson

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I decided to try Draftsight Free for personal, not for profit work, but could not, initially, get it to work. I have, in the past, used AutoCad.

Firstly; it will not install to My desktop, which is running Win XP SP3. I just get an Installer Error 1722 and the installation rolls back. I have never seen this before with any other installation and have tried various suggestions on the web but to no avail. I have posted on another forum but no-one seems interested - https://swym.3ds.com/#community:70/iquestions:29389

Secondly; I have installed, successfully, onto my laptop (i5 Processor, 8Gb RAM, Nvidia graphics). The program runs but I cannot draw using either a mouse or the touchpad. The mouse/touchpad will select menus and select drawing buttons (line, rectangle, circle etc) but I never get past the prompt to specify the start point. The only way I can draw, say, a line is to use the keyboard to input a start and end point vector. The line then appears.

I managed to fix the second fault by forcing Draftsight to run with the Nvidia GeForce GPU rather than the Integrated GPU. However; after I powered down for a few days (I normally just close the lid) it reverted to its old ways and I can now not use it again. I cannot even print from a Window or selection. I have tried forcing the GPU selection to Nvidia and have even uninstalled and re-installed but to no avail. I am not even sure that anyone is interested.

This is not a good start. I had hoped for a lot more than this rather poor start and am just glad that I did not pay for the Pro version. Please help.

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Mike Helsinger Feb 1, 2016 4:03 PM
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I don't know how to solve your installation issue & I have not touched Draftsight specifically, but if it works like the main software there is no freehand draw tool. The next closest thing is the spline tool, which allows you to select multiple points to define a curve. Look in the help menu for a tutorial, may be a good place to start. It will give you some insight to how the software wants you to think & operate.

Similar to learning AutoCAD I have found that not everything in SW is immediately intuitive. Once the software has sufficiently trained you, you will be able to do some powerful things. I hope this helps.
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- Martyn Simmons @ Mike Helsinger on Feb 1, 2016 5:06 PM
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  Thanks Mike. Further to my email - I guess that I am talking to the wrong person. Can you explain what the tie up is (if any) between Softworks and Dassault Systemes? I was guided towards Softworks after the installation and assumed that they were an agent for the software, but maybe I have got it wrong. I will copy the post onto the Dassault forum and see what happens. Cheers.
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  - Mike Helsinger @ Martyn Simmons on Feb 1, 2016 5:53 PM
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    Dassault makes SolidWorks & other software (SW is the flagship product). Do you know if you have a VAR (value added reseller)? They take care of service & support issues including what you are describing. I am adding a link below that may help you determine who to contact.
    
    Find a SolidWorks Reseller | SOLIDWORKS
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    - Martyn Simmons @ Mike Helsinger on Feb 1, 2016 6:15 PM
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      Well; I seem to be up and running again. Trouble is, I am not sure how or why. The only action that I can think cured it was setting 'Defaults' in the Nvidia GPU Settings menu and then re-assigning the Nvidia GPU to the Draftsight software. This, of course, has reset all other program requirements for GPU so I now have some catch-up to perform. It will be interesting to see what happens the next time I shut down.
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Brian Bump Feb 1, 2016 6:12 PM
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Martyn:

When installing onto your desktop, insure you log in with administrative privilege. If you've done that, you may have a corrupt download because error 1722 indicates a problem with the Windows Installer. Try downloading Draftsight again. Draftsight is very similar to AutoCad right down to many of the shortcuts. And you can change and create alias commands to match what you are used to in AutoCad. As far as the mouse not working, you've got me stumped. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
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- Martyn Simmons @ Brian Bump on Feb 1, 2016 6:26 PM
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  Thanks Brian but I am the administrator on the XP desktop and have attempted to install several times. You will see from the above that the Run As command simply reverts to me as administrator. I can load and run AutoCad on the desktop PC, though it be an early version..
  
  As you will see from my last post, I am now up and running again on the laptop under Win 10. That problem is clearly associated with the GPU - I have an i5 processor which has integrated graphics but Draftsight will only run correctly if I assign the second, Nvidia GeForce GPU to it. Just why it failed after working for two weeks is beyond me but it is very frustrating but the laptop had been shut down for a few days. There must something in the Nvidia setting that causes the problem and I guess that it got over-written during the reboot. There have been no updates during that period. I will post again if I manage to work out the exact mechanism. Thanks to all for your help.
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Dave Laban Feb 2, 2016 4:05 AM
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From http://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight-cad-software/free-download/#xtor=AD-508-[swfreetools]-[middle]-[intext]-[www.solidworks.com]

"Windows Users: DraftSight 2015 is unsupported on Windows XP and Vista."

Which would probably explain why it's not installing on an XP box.
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- Martyn Simmons @ Dave Laban on Feb 2, 2016 4:09 AM
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  I think that you will find that plenty of people are still using XP and running Draftsight. It is possible that an earlier version would be better but ?I have not found one. Are earlier versions available?
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  - Dave Laban @ Martyn Simmons on Feb 2, 2016 4:36 AM
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    I'm sure there are plenty of people running XP and Draftsight, whether they should be though is a different matter given that XP is no longer supported by Microsoft.
    
    You might be able to get a download of an earlier version of Draftsight from somewhere, might be worth contacting a local SW reseller to you for more information. Though they'll probably recommend you upgrade your OS instead.
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    - Martyn Simmons @ Dave Laban on Feb 2, 2016 5:10 AM
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      To be honest, I only keep the desktop PC, running XP, for a few legacy programs that will not run under windows 7, 8 and 10. Upgrading would, therefore, be counter-productive but thanks for the suggestion. I guess that the writing is on the wall.......
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Martyn Simmons Feb 3, 2016 5:05 AM
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I'll keep this thread running as it might help someone else. I have decided that the problem is associated with the laptop PC graphics adaptor and will be talking to Lenovo shortly. The i5 CPU has integrated graphics (Intel HD 4000) and Lenovo has built in an Nvidia GeForce GT635M graphics card as well. It seems that I am having difficulty in convincing the computer to use the Nvidia processor, although this is by no means certainly the case. Sometimes I can go into the Nvidia settings and assign the Nvidia GPU to Draftsight and it will work. When it works, the Nvidia icon in the notification area becomes coloured ( to show that it is selected) however, sometimes, the icon is coloured and Draftsight does not work, even though it is the only assigned program. What I can say for certain is that, once I get it working, it keeps working unless I restart the computer. A restart of the computer stops it again. I have managed to get it working on two occasions, now, and it was fine until I re-started the PC. Currently it will not draw using the mouse and I cannot figure out what I did to get it working although I thought that I had simply assigned the Nvidia GPU to the software. For those who are interested, here is some of the computer spec:
Lenovo Ideapad Z580
Intel i5 3210M Processor running at 2.5GHz
Intel HD 4000 AND Nvidia GeForce GT635M graphics
8Gb RAM
1Tb HDD
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Martyn Simmons Feb 8, 2016 3:53 PM
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By way of an update: I have now unistalled Draftsight, deleted all Draftsight references from the Registry and reinstalled. It still won't draw using the mouse or touchpad (I can still draw a line or shape by typeing in the start and end coordinates). I have tried turning Optimus on and off in the BIOS and enabling Vizualisation (Vanderpool Tech) but it makes no difference. The Nvidia icon in the notification area colours up as the program starts, indicating that the Nvidia GPU is assigned to Draftsight. I really cannot get my head around how I originally got it to work and continue working for about three weeks until I restarted the computer.

I loaded TurboCAD Double CAD XT 5.0 and that runs without any problem so I regret that I will now be uninstalling Draftsight permanently. I will be happy to try again if anyone has any more suggestions but, for now, that's it.
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Martyn Simmons Feb 14, 2016 10:11 AM
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This is weird. On Tuesday 9th Feb I opened up Draftsight as a demo to a friend of what was happening and I found it was working normally. I cannot think of any reason why that might be because I had given up trying to get it to work and was contemplating uninstalling it it favour of TurboCAD. I have opened it several times since and it has been fine. Today, I had to restart the PC after a Windows 10 update and, guess what, Draftsight has reverted to not drawing with the mouse/touchpad. This is really frustrating especially as no-one seems to have any answers as to what is going on. Since before it started working, the Nvidia GPU settings have been at Default so I think I can now rule out the GPU settings as a cause.
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Martyn Simmons Mar 8, 2016 7:17 AM
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Draftsight started to work again, the other day. This was coincident with a Windows 10 update notification, which started me thinking. Is it possible for the update process to trigger or change some settings which cause Draftsight to work again? As soon as the update was loaded and the associated restart completed, Draftsight stopped drawing again. It is not the first time that this has happened (Draftsight working when an update arrives). There has to be a clue there, surely.
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Dave Johnson Feb 8, 2018 7:58 PM
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I have had the same vexing problem for over a year on one of my PCs of not being able to use the mouse to draw lines and other mouse input functions, but can by inputting coordinates manually. I have a couple of i7 ASUS PCs with the same GeForce GT640 video cards running Windows 10, both being kept up to date. Here's what I stumbled on to, to fix it. I went into the Device Manager, selected the NIVIDA card under Device Manager, and did an Uninstall Device. I did not erase any files associated with the GT640. Then I rebooted the PC, brought up DraftSight and wa-la it worked fine. Don't know what prompted me to do this but I'm glad I did. I can only guess what had gotten screwed up.
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