Assistance needed....

polarisman · 26 Jan 2009, 11:35

Just bought a new laptop and installed Sketchup Pro 6.0. (haven't upgraded to 7.0 yet) Everything seems to be working fine but unless I am perpendicular to the object i can not execute any commands on the face surface or click on the lines etc. Looking for suggestions please.

Thanks - Tim

thomthom · 26 Jan 2009, 12:39

Are you using ATI graphics card, or Intel? I think these often have issues. Have you tried updating your graphic card drivers?

polarisman · 26 Jan 2009, 12:47

I believe I am running Intel...computer is brand new...do i still require and upgrade for the graphics card?

polarisman · 26 Jan 2009, 12:50

sorry...it is an ATI Mobility FireGL card

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2009, 12:57

@unknownuser said:

sorry...it is an ATI Mobility FireGL card

Well, this make much of what I wrote below useless so just have a look at the bottom paragraph

Useless stuff:

Laptops often come with integrated graphics chipsets on the motherboard instead of separate graphic cards fully supporting OpenGL (so unfortunately even if your lappy is brand new, it may not be the best fro SketchUp or other demanding 3D apps). "Intel chipsets" are typical examples for this.

You can try a test; go to Window > Preferences > OpanGL and disable harware accekleration. It helps most in the cases however note that it may slow down your SU with heavy models (and especially with large images and shadows on) or some plugins (like LightUp) won't run at all. The best would be to get a dedicated graphics card in case you have this chipset.

Maybe useful stuff:

If you have a "real" card, you may need to find a video driver that would support OpenGL better. Try to update your driver (though the best driver is not always and not necesarily the latest - yet you have more choice to run it smoother with the latet one).

thomthom · 26 Jan 2009, 13:04

@polarisman said:

I believe I am running Intel...computer is brand new...do i still require and upgrade for the graphics card?

Yes, you might. It might have been prepared a longer time ago with older drivers, and the manufacturer might not have installed the latest.

plot-paris · 26 Jan 2009, 13:13

my first guess would be the 'reverse picking bug'. go to 'window > preferences' and under 'openGL' activate the 'correct reverse picking driver bug' option. and maybe, if you are lucky, that will take care of all your problems.

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2009, 13:18

I also thought of that but the symptoms are generally that you can pick something - it's just not what you want to pick but somewhere behind.

Doesn't hurt trying though and if you're lucky, like Jakob says, better.

polarisman · 26 Jan 2009, 14:18

Thank you very much guys! Simply turning off the hardware acceleration seems to have done wonders.

Really appriciate your time.

Tim

Gaieus · 26 Jan 2009, 14:48

Yes, but as I said, it will slow down SU so eventully you will want to find better solution; a better card or n updated driver if your card is okay.