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Strange Display Behavior

Question asked by James Denney on May 19, 2010
Latest reply on May 20, 2010 by Kelvin Lamport

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This won't be straight forward to explain; I searched the forums and saw many posts regarding display issues but none similar to this problem. Recently working with a large assembly that crashed and required a SW re-start. Since then, I've had trouble getting the assemblies and sub-assemblies to display when loading. When selecting an assembly to load, I initially get a brief glimpse of the assembly before the screen jumps to a gray, blank display that covers the entire SW workspace. If I right click in the workspace, and select the "View" button, the assembly then displays appropriately. However, if I open a new assembly, I again get the brief glimpse of the assembly, the gray-ed out display, right click and click "view", and the assembly displays as appropriate. This behavior doesn't permanently occur when opening parts.

Now I have the added step of right clicking and clicking "view" when jumping between assemblies, opening new assemblies, moving to simulation. That, a I lost many of my menu preferences.

Anyone else experience this?

EDIT: Some pics might help...

After the "view" magic button!

Voila!

Kelvin Lamport May 20, 2010 12:32 PM

Correct Answer

Before jumping into a re-install;

Make sure you are using an approved graphics card and driver per http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

With no files open, go to Tools > Options > System Options > Performance and select Use software OpenGL

If that option is already selected and greyed-out, your card does not support OpenGL.

For the menu selections, right click on a toolbar and select Customize > Options and select both Show all options.

See also https://forum.solidworks.com/message/145266#145266 for details on how to reset the registry ... which is probably the next best thing to a re-install.

See the reply in context

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Mike Hattingh May 19, 2010 7:44 PM

Have you tried opening the orientation dialogue box (spacebar) and double clicking a std view?

This usually refreshes graphic display (something about recalculating the bounding box of the model) and fixes (temporally?) some display probs.

Cheers

Mike

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James Denney @ Mike Hattingh on May 20, 2010 12:10 PM

No such luck...thanks for the help anyways! Looks like a re-install is in order, and a half-day of valuable time lost...

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Jeff Mirisola @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:16 PM

Have you restarted your PC since then? What precipitated the original crash? Have you tried to repair the install versus reinstalling?

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James Denney @ Jeff Mirisola on May 20, 2010 12:31 PM

I made several hard re-boots letting the computer power off for several minutes to no avail. I didn't think about repair install...lesson learned. Prior to the original crash I was working with the assembly in Simulation and went back to the solid model to make a structural change. It was at this point the crash occurred. The program had started to run much more slowly than expected. Simple tasks like opening sub-assemblies, updating parts, updating mat'l properties in Simulation were taking quite a lengthy amount of time.

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Jeff Mirisola @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:54 PM

What you're describing, with everything slowing down, sounds like your resources were getting sucked up. I've had instances where I experienced something similar, but never had it affect my graphics like yours. Where you've restarted, thereby freeing up your memory, you should follow Kelvin's recommendations next, before reinstalling.

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James Denney @ Jeff Mirisola on May 20, 2010 1:08 PM

I agree on the resources being sucked up. I would have thought with 8GB of memory that this wouldn't have been much of an issue, but shows how little I understand the relationship between hardware and the software. Fortunately I was able to stop the re-install and can now try Kelvin's recommendations.

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Kelvin Lamport @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:32 PM

Before jumping into a re-install;

Make sure you are using an approved graphics card and driver per http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

With no files open, go to Tools > Options > System Options > Performance and select Use software OpenGL

If that option is already selected and greyed-out, your card does not support OpenGL.

For the menu selections, right click on a toolbar and select Customize > Options and select both Show all options.

See also https://forum.solidworks.com/message/145266#145266 for details on how to reset the registry ... which is probably the next best thing to a re-install.

Actions

James Denney @ Kelvin Lamport on May 20, 2010 5:52 PM

Registry re-set for the win! Thanks for help folks!

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Kelvin Lamport @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 6:11 PM

OK, if the registry reset worked, set all the SW settings to your liking and then SAVE THE SETTINGS so that you won't have to do it again.

Go back to the registry and export the new SolidWorks key. If the settings get screwed again, simply double click the exported .reg file to do the reset, ... but this time with all the customised settings.

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John Burrill May 20, 2010 1:21 PM

It looks like either a display adapter or a registry problem.

Since you didn't mention any configuration changes between the crash and now, I assume you didn't tweak anything in control panel. So I'm not going to tell you about double-buffering and backpane settings.

So, if it's not something you changed, then it's something that changed as a result of some kind of corruption-which would be consistent with problems that arise during memory swaps.

Two things I would try

-1) log off and log on as a different user, if the problem is goes away then delete from the registry the solidworks settings for your original user account and let Solidworks rebuild them,

2) delete your windows profile. (obviously the second step is more drastic than re-installing solidworks)

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10 Replies

Mike Hattingh May 19, 2010 7:44 PM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
Have you tried opening the orientation dialogue box (spacebar) and double clicking a std view?
This usually refreshes graphic display (something about recalculating the bounding box of the model) and fixes (temporally?) some display probs.

Cheers
Mike
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- James Denney @ Mike Hattingh on May 20, 2010 12:10 PM
  Mark Correct
  Correct Answer
  No such luck...thanks for the help anyways! Looks like a re-install is in order, and a half-day of valuable time lost...
  Like • Show 0 Likes0
  Actions
  - Jeff Mirisola @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:16 PM
    Mark Correct
    Correct Answer
    Have you restarted your PC since then? What precipitated the original crash? Have you tried to repair the install versus reinstalling?
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
    Actions
    - James Denney @ Jeff Mirisola on May 20, 2010 12:31 PM
      Mark Correct
      Correct Answer
      I made several hard re-boots letting the computer power off for several minutes to no avail. I didn't think about repair install...lesson learned. Prior to the original crash I was working with the assembly in Simulation and went back to the solid model to make a structural change. It was at this point the crash occurred. The program had started to run much more slowly than expected. Simple tasks like opening sub-assemblies, updating parts, updating mat'l properties in Simulation were taking quite a lengthy amount of time.
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
      - Jeff Mirisola @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:54 PM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        What you're describing, with everything slowing down, sounds like your resources were getting sucked up. I've had instances where I experienced something similar, but never had it affect my graphics like yours. Where you've restarted, thereby freeing up your memory, you should follow Kelvin's recommendations next, before reinstalling.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
        James Denney @ Jeff Mirisola on May 20, 2010 1:08 PM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        I agree on the resources being sucked up. I would have thought with 8GB of memory that this wouldn't have been much of an issue, but shows how little I understand the relationship between hardware and the software. Fortunately I was able to stop the re-install and can now try Kelvin's recommendations.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
  - Kelvin Lamport @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 12:32 PM
    Unmark Correct
    Correct Answer
    Before jumping into a re-install;
    
    Make sure you are using an approved graphics card and driver per http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html
    
    With no files open, go to Tools > Options > System Options > Performance and select Use software OpenGL
    If that option is already selected and greyed-out, your card does not support OpenGL.
    
    For the menu selections, right click on a toolbar and select Customize > Options and select both Show all options.
    
    See also https://forum.solidworks.com/message/145266#145266 for details on how to reset the registry ... which is probably the next best thing to a re-install.
    Like • Show 0 Likes0
    Actions
    - James Denney @ Kelvin Lamport on May 20, 2010 5:52 PM
      Mark Correct
      Correct Answer
      Registry re-set for the win! Thanks for help folks!
      Like • Show 0 Likes0
      Actions
      - Kelvin Lamport @ James Denney on May 20, 2010 6:11 PM
        Mark Correct
        Correct Answer
        OK, if the registry reset worked, set all the SW settings to your liking and then SAVE THE SETTINGS so that you won't have to do it again.
        
        Go back to the registry and export the new SolidWorks key. If the settings get screwed again, simply double click the exported .reg file to do the reset, ... but this time with all the customised settings.
        Like • Show 0 Likes0
        Actions
John Burrill May 20, 2010 1:21 PM
Mark Correct
Correct Answer
It looks like either a display adapter or a registry problem.
Since you didn't mention any configuration changes between the crash and now, I assume you didn't tweak anything in control panel. So I'm not going to tell you about double-buffering and backpane settings.
So, if it's not something you changed, then it's something that changed as a result of some kind of corruption-which would be consistent with problems that arise during memory swaps.
Two things I would try
-1) log off and log on as a different user, if the problem is goes away then delete from the registry the solidworks settings for your original user account and let Solidworks rebuild them,
2) delete your windows profile. (obviously the second step is more drastic than re-installing solidworks)
Like • Show 0 Likes0
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