@hazza said:

I had a weird problem that the screen would be black after I panned until I selected something.

as I've mentioned already: OpenGL issues

disable hardware acceleration (= OGL) in the SU settings and give it a try.

Norbert

@watkins said:

...is running Ubuntu.

CAx apps like SU which are relying on a reliable OpenGL 3D graphics output may not work very well in this area (i.e. slow, artefacts) on platforms which do not comply with the system requirements...

... but running XP Pro x32 in a e.g. VMware emulation might fix this 'problem'...

hth,
Norbert
http://www.sketch3d.de/

@dofoogan said:

I've already installed the most recent driver for my video card.

if HP doesn't provide you w/ more recent drivers check if the Omega Driver might be a solution for this issue:

(www.omegadrivers.net)

hth,
Norbert

@tomot said:

...a lot lot cheaper than all other mentioned here.

list price ViaCAD 3D is U$ 99, bargain pricing at Amazon.

intuitive interface w/ intelligent snaps/cursor; IGES, STEP, SAT, STL, DXF/DWG, Rhino, SketchUp, AI data interfaces already included.

Norbert
(option #3)

@hazza said:

...can do the same thing on their home PC for free.

facetted, mesh based models created by SU and exact, feature based models made of NUBRS surfaces and volumes created by e.g. Catia or Pro/E or ICEM Surf are not really comparable...

... but you're right anyhow, feature based NURBS modeling is starting for a handful of bucks now:

http://www.punchcad.com

jm2cs,
Norbert

@dangre said:

Yes, that plug-in does work, but the triangulation of stl is a real pain in the...
I modeled a simple airfoil in Solidworks and stl converted it into hundreds of triangles which is not very user friendly. I guess I will seach for a 'cleaner' solution to import curved surfaces.

sure, STL means triangulation of facettes, simply needed because SU - as a mesh based surface modeler - cannot handle exact NURB spline based surfaces (and volumes neither).

give ViaCAD 3D (OSX/Win) and it's ACIS .SAT filter a try: dynamic, feature-based NURBS surface and volume modeling with histroy tree and many vector-based CAD filters as IGES, STEP, DXF/DWG (which often need to be purchased w/ other products) for 99 U$ only... and does have a SU as well a Rhino import too

Norbert

@kenny said:

In the meantime PDFCreator worked perfectly again...

if one pdf creating software works fine with the same file, the file names of textures are probably not be the cause of the problem, otherwise the result would be the same, i.e. not working. Regardless of the used pdf software I in generally doubt, that the used file names do have any effect on the print output if the display output does not show any problems.

@kenny said:

It happened again today with another file, again with lots of textures. Also what often happens is while the PDF is saving the background and some of the textures change to different textures on the screen. Then when it is saved I get white components.

my assumption is, that the print output process of SU and/or the consecutive Windows GDI get some problems either simply because of the size of the print job to be created (width x heigth x resolution x color depth) or the involved OpenGL support required for rendering the output does have some glitches (btw, which video card and driver version do you use?).

Norbert

@nrschmid said:

Any ideas?

have a thorough look at the "Cooking CAD" threads posted to the @Last forum in those days too.

Norbert

@verrou said:

So the problem is that on XP and other OS' when you drag to select something a box appears around the area which you dragged from and to. Well on my computer when I drag nothing comes up!

check if disabling the 'fast feedback' option in the SU display settings fixes the problem, if not disable the graphics 'hardware acceleration' (= OpenGL) too.

if disabling either one or both of the above settings cures the effect, your video driver resp. the OpenGL support of the driver is causing the problem.

this problem can regularly be avoided by using a video card with a driver optimized for and supporting the full OpenGL stack as e.g. the nVidia CAD series 'Quadro FX' instead of gaming cards optimized for speed only as e.g. the ATI Radeon series or shared and slow low-end solutions as e.g the Intel GMA series etc.

hth,
Norbert

@darkhelmet said:

FYI you will never find 'mobile' GPU drivers on nVidia's Web site - these cards and related software/drivers are the sole responsibility of the mobile platform OEM.

jfi, in the meanwhile nVidia offers some GeForce 8M and Go 7 mobile series video drivers for several Dell XPS systems on their driver download page... maybe because of the thermic problems of the GPU casing which recently has arised.

Norbert

@kenny said:

...including Adobe which I'd like to think would work perfectly, considering they invented the format!

without providing information which flavour and version used as well as the way creating the PDF (i.e. PDF Writer vs. Distiller <= latter rec.) this is a pretty useless statement.

Norbert

@sorgesu said:

hypercosm?

not to forget Adobe Acrobat Pro Extended (formerly aka Acrobat 3D) for creating and editing interactive 3D PDFs displayable on every system w/ a recent Adobe Reader installed, i.e. w/o installing another unwanted plug-in.

30-days trial avail.

Norbert

would check something like e.g.:

http://www.yworks.com/en/products_yed_about.htm
http://www.inforapid.de/html/knowledgemapeng.htm
http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/products/mindmap/main.php

Norbert

deskriptiver 'Betreff'...

@ralph_b said:

Hat jemand schon irrgendwie etwas von einer neuen Version von Sketchup gelesen oder gehört.

hier wird schon eifrig diskutiert...

... gut informierte Quellen wissen zu berichten, dass eine neue Version in Entwicklung ist, Aussagen zur Funktionalität lassen sich wg. NDA latürnich nicht machen.

Speed bei grösseren Modellen (aka 'High Poly') wird eigentlich am meisten nachgefragt. Rendering scheint mir vernachlässigbar da aufwendig in der Implementierung (GUI) und genügend, auch in SU integrierte Lösungen verfügbar.

Norbert

@ralph said:

Liegt die Ursache für diesen Bug bei SU oder Vista?

probier doch mal, ob das mit admin. Rechten besser wird: Rechtsklick > Ausführen als... > Administrator" .. oder so ähnlich.

Norbert
http://www.sketch3d.de

Scott,

simply buying the most expensive hardware components available doesn't mean to have an appropriate, balanced system for your needs but having much money.

2 quad cores (= 8 kernels) and 32gb do most of your mentioned apps not help at all, because probably most of them are not multi-threaded and cannot access more than roughly 2gb working memory anyhow. So most of the time greater parts of kernels are idling and consuming a lot of current and thus producing a lot of heat/noise.

The system you are describing is surely pretty good running a 64-bit server OS with 64-bit business database apps but not surely overkill for the mentioned purpose.

Choosing an OS based on the installed RAM is maybe the wrong way too, choosing an OS based on the requirements of the needed tools and applications should be the way. Knowing this and knowing that Vista and the currently available video drivers do show a lot of glitches using OpenGL based applications as e.g. SU, Shark and even AC, WinXPpro (32-bit) is currently the best choice at least of professionals in this area. If 3D modelling s only some minor use you can of course ignore this and hope, that time will bring some useable video drivers for Vista.

Two 8800 are good in the sense of throughput of vertices/triangels but surely inferior to a Quadro FX if quality of OGL support is relevant whereas much more expensive of course... hey, that's what you are seeking for, why not having two of them

hth,
Norbert

@guru said:

I'll probably buy for this system the fastest / best AGP card I can get!

which is (under Windows) a nVidia Quadro FX (or GeForce) only. Don't buy ATI Radeon, dunno the FireGL stuff of them.

Norbert

@unknownuser said:

I understand that running any app in emulation is not good but with enough RAM it should not be an issue. I will be running 32GB so I will probably designate 8gb to the PC side (64bit Vista ultimate) and 24gb to the MAC side. That should be more then enough.

having enough RAM (32GB seems to be expensive overkill anyhow) is a requirement but obviosuly not sufficient, actually running a 2D application in an emulation is regularly no problem whereas routing the 3D screen output of an OpenGL based application through the video subsystem of the emulator as well as the hosting operating system might not be that easy and may result in a significant speed decrease as well as display problems.

another thing not recommendable is using a 'fresh' operating system like Vista especially if a reliable OGL support of the used video card resp. video driver is required. Being aware of this, currently XP Pro as 32-Bit version is the best choice for getting video drivers with mature OGL support even not being able to address more than ~3,x GB of RAM.

@unknownuser said:

...I wanted 3...

probably overkill too and probably doesn't help really in the sense of stability and speed, better invest in a mid-range nVidia Quadro FX and put the rest of the money in the fastest CPU you can get. Fastest in the sense of clock frequency.. SU does currently not make use of multiple kernels.

htc,
Norbert

@guru said:

loooong list snipped

okie, sounds safe

if an older ATI driver version doesn't help, you mabye should get rid of the ATI card and switch to an e.g. nVidia GeForce 7900 GS/GTX (starting by approx. 100.- U$) which is probably the fastest (from nVidia) you can get for the AGP slot...

... or drop the whole system, which is obviously not a recent one, and invest the money in something more current as e.g. an Intel Core Duo w/ a nVidia 88xx series (PCIe).

Norbert

as always, a clean driver installation requires to uninstall the existent driver first (w/ admin. rights), restart the operating system, install the new driver (w/ admin. rigths) and restart OS again...

... but as a guru you surely know this already

btw, it's in general a good idea to mention the platform/operating system used... at least w/ hardware/driver related problems.

Norbert