Quadro FX 1400 - Disappointing so far

[phwarren]

Hello all:


I just got a new computer (Win XP Pro, 2Gb RAM, 3.4GHz P4, Intel MB) and I have been very disappointed with the Pro-E graphics performance from the FX 1400 thus far. I have checked and I have the latest drivers (7.1.8.4), and it is optimized through the graphics card settings for Wildfire 1.0(Which is what I am running). I also have the graphics setting set to OpenGL in my config.pro.


Here are two of my biggest problems... In shaded mode, the resolution is horrible. Here is an example:





As you can see, the text on the part and the line resolution around the edges is pretty bad. While spinning shaded models, it is worse than this.


Then, in drawing mode, when zooming in and out of drawings, I see this occasionaly:

Here, there are diaganol lines all over the place.. Sometimes they go across the drawing, other times they stay in a single view.


I was under the impression that this would be a decent graphics card.. I can't afford tobuy a $2500-$4000 card, but I thought for just under $1000 this one would work well. My pro-e assemblies are not that large (between 10 and 50 parts) and are all made with standard features (No complex surfacing, ISDX, etc..)


Has anyone else had similar problems with this card or does anyone have a fix for this?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Phil

 

[jrobi]

make sure you have the model quality set higher as well...

 

[Uros]

I'm on WF 2, and according to your pic. 1 I think it is the problem of shading small surfaces. Go to wiev->Display Setings->Model display->shade and check small surfaces. there are also other options to get better display quality. Most of the settings are set to lower quality by defaullt to save system resorcues.

 

[PERformer]

I've seen the exact same problemwhen testingdate code m150. We were running m080 without thatgraphical problem. Therefore I think it is a bug.


We are running FX 1000 by the way.

 

[phwarren]

I'm on WF 2, and according to your pic. 1 I think it is the problem of shading small surfaces. Go to wiev->Display Setings->Model display->shade and check small surfaces. there are also other options to get better display quality. Most of the settings are set to lower quality by defaullt to save system resorcues.

Thanks... This solved the original problem with the graphics...


As for the lines on the drawing, I agree, that looks like a bug. We just found out that we will be upgrading to WF2 in a few weeks, so I will see if that fixes it.






Edited by: phwarren

 

[Vesh]

I also have the graphics setting set to OpenGL in my config.pro.

How do you do this?

 

[moriarty]

The display default in ProE results in a very poor look - it actually makes your high performance card look like a crappy one! Thanks PTC!


The random lines in drawings seems to be a bug - try opening the model at the same time the drawing is open - the lines go away for me.


Here's a bunch of settings that work well for me onFX700. I use these for part modelling- you may need to pull back on some of these in complex assemblies.


In Pro/E Wilfire 2


First thing make sure under Options, graphics is set to OpenGl


Under View>Display Settings>Model Display
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Edge/LineTab</BLOCKQUOTE>
<UL dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<UL>
<LI>set edge quality to v.high or high- this seems tomostly affect the display of arcs and circles.</LI>[/list]
<UL dir=ltr>
<LI>
<DIV>Options there is a smooth line option here that somehow affects anti-aliasing - doesnt seem to work very well with LCD display. I dont use it - does anyone know what it does?</DIV></LI>[/list][/list]
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
Shade Tab
<UL dir=ltr>
<LI>
<DIV>set Quality to 10 - this improves the detail of the shading - sometimes you can get chunky shading at lower settings, this fixes that.When visually checking your surfaces use10.</DIV></LI>
<LI>
<DIV>turn small surfaces on - this fixes little white holes in the shading</DIV></LI>[/list]</BLOCKQUOTE>
Nvidia Graphics card settings
In windoze under Display Props>Settings>Advanced>Nvidia FX ??? make sure you use the base Pro/E Wildfire setting. Then adjust the anti-aliasing to the highest setting - the better your graphics card the more anti-aliasing it will run. This mostly affects the display of edges and has a big impact on display quality. There is a trade-off here though - the display of lines in sketcher can be affected - try different settings. You need to re-start ProE each time you change these settings.

 

[Dell_Boy]

regardless of the potential solutions above, according to the nVidia website

http://www.nvidia.com/object/ptc_certified_drivers.html



AND the PTC website

http://www.ptc.com/partners/hardware/current/support.htm



the FX1400 does not appear to be certified for Wildfire.




While driver version 71.84 is not the latest version of Quadro driver (there are newer reference drivers 71.85,
72.13, 77.18, 77.56) it is also substantially NEWER than the latest Wildfire certified
driver and later drivers are not necessarily better than earlier ones.
Try several different versions older and newer and record the results.





PTC publish lists of certified platforms for precisely this reason. The
fact you are having problems is not that surprising; you are running,
at best, untested hardware, at worst it may have been tested and FAILED.



The choice to run uncertified hardware and drivers also means that you
will get very limited support from PTC to resolve your problems. Your
best hope for the extra lines in drawing mode is that it is a bug (does your build code tie in with the listed codes) that will
be resolved in a later build code or that PTC can reproduce your
problem on "similar"
certified hardware.


You were right in not spending large amounts of money on bleeding
edge graphics cards that can only be justified by those who are truly
pushing the
envelope however it would have been better invested in older,
fully supported hardware.





DB


Edited by: Dell_Boy