Open GL mode solves my graphics issue.. now what?

[TRKemp]

Since upgrading to 2022 SP5, Ive been having a graphics issue related to my models / drawings.

Without "enhanced graphics enabled" my model edges are washed out and underdefined, its hard to spot face tangency and ensure that edges aren't intersecting. This was never a problem pre-2022. My drawings are fine though, everything looks good and functions normally.

After turning on "enhanced graphics performance", model edge tangency and quality returned, however drawing performance took a bit hit. Text became fuzzy and washed out, refresh rate when zooming became worse, rebuilds cause break views to go a little haywire.. etc...

After much trail and error, myself and my VAR determined that maybe the graphics requirements for 2022 were just more than my old PC and card could handle, so we went ahead and purchased a new workstation, following all of the specifications solidworks provided.

The problem is that even on my brand new Dell Precision 3660, with a quadro RTX 4000, I'm having the exact same problems.

Running the software in OpenGL mode on the new machine restores model edge definition and my drawings look great, but how do I know what do change or fix now that I've isolated the problem?

Thank you for any help / advice ... this has been a rather frustrating development.

~ I'll also add, that I uninstalled SP5 and am now running SP4 to see if it was just a version issue.. but the same circumstance exists.

[SPerman]

but how do I know what do change or fix now that I've isolated the problem?

I suggest changing software. My recommendation would be a Siemens product

In all seriousness, I'm having the same issues since upgrading to 2022 SP5. Enhanced graphics on has one set of issues, EG off has a different set, but neither are as good as 2020 SP5, EG off.

I plan to do some testing on 2023 in the next few weeks. I will report back if it is any better.

[TRKemp]

At a minimum, at least I'm not in this boat alone. I was also on 2020 SP5 for a few years and agree it balanced both aspects well with EG turned off.

Maybe this will be a big benefit to others as more feedback comes in.

[Frederick_Law]

Get some screen shot of the washed out edge.
Could be graphic setting.
Turn Graphic setting to Performance. No fancy shadowing, anti-alias.

[TRKemp]

Model with Enhanced graphics turned off. Edges underdefined and washing into the next component.

Model in Open GL Mode

Model in Enhanced graphics

[TRKemp]

Get some screen shot of the washed out edge.
Could be graphic setting.
Turn Graphic setting to Performance. No fancy shadowing, anti-alias.
nVidiaSetting-01.jpg

I turned these options off, but no improvement unfortunately. Thank you though.

[SPerman]

Transparency with EG off. It looks like it was printed in a newspaper from my youth. (There's a name for creating shading with dots, but I can't think of it right now.)

Transparency with EG on. What is with the white edges? It looks like poorly rotoscoped VFX from olden times. (You might have to expand the image to see.)

[Frederick_Law]

From IV, no FSAA, no enhancement. Performance only.

[Frederick_Law]

Graphic set to "Quality":

Edge-02.jpg (12.44 KiB) Viewed 7815 times

Line get thick and burry.

[AlexB]

What graphics card and graphics driver are you using?

Looking up your specs, it looks like you should have R515 for your A4000 card in your Dell 3660. Can you verify?

Edit: Also, check to make sure you have Full scene anti-aliasing enabled in [System Options] -> [Display] -> [anti-aliasing]. This will help with the jagged edges look.
And, as others have said, your document Image Quality sliders should be set to allow some decent detail. Ours are about right in the middle for reference.

[TRKemp]

What graphics card and graphics driver are you using?

Looking up your specs, it looks like you should have R515 for your A4000 card in your Dell 3660. Can you verify?

Edit: Also, check to make sure you have Full scene anti-aliasing enabled in [System Options] -> [Display] -> [anti-aliasing]. This will help with the jagged edges look.

Here you go:

Some drawing references:

EG off : nice crisp lines / text . No refresh rate issues when zooming .. views rebuild effieciently

EG on: Fuzzy text.. constant refreshing.. everything looks "muddied" for lack of a better description

[Frederick_Law]

I turned these options off, but no improvement unfortunately. Thank you though.

Need to close SW, reopen to see any different.

SW running on Citrix, not much to show:

[SPerman]

What does it mean if that option is greyed out?

[Frederick_Law]

Crisp - no AA
Muddy - AA on, maybe setting too low.

If you want to test graphic settings, start with all settings off.
Start SW open part and drawing. Use same files for test.
You can take screenshot.
Close SW, change nVidia settings, start SW, check,repeat.
Higher AA might look better but will be slower.
There are different AA types, try and see which one looks better.

I don't mind AA in model, hate it in drawing.

[Frederick_Law]

What does it mean if that option is greyed out?

image.png

Graphic card not support Full Screen AA. Or "Unsupported Hardware".
My screenshot is from Remote Citrix Desktop, so SW won't recognize the Citrix Video.

[SPerman]

IMO, it is all a waste of time. There is no magic NVidia switch that will fix a SW problem. (But if you spend that time and find a solution, please share.)

[AlexB]

What does it mean if that option is greyed out?

That's odd, I don't know why that would be grayed out unless a setting in your NVIDIA Control Panel is locking it out.

For reference though, bolts and other items with interference or line-to-line fit won't show edges at the intersection.

[SPerman]

Graphic card not support Full Screen AA. Or "Unsupported Hardware".
My screenshot is from Remote Citrix Desktop, so SW won't recognize the Citrix Video.

Nvidia RTX4000, both SW supported and FSAA. Want to guess again?

[SPerman]

I will say that I am not using the driver recommended by SW, because it is no longer available for download. (R440)

[AlexB]

There's also this blurb at their link. Try to install the patch and see if that helps.
(The A4000 launched mid 2021 so I think this probably will help)

https://www.solidworks.com/support/hard ... ification/

[Frederick_Law]

I bet the patch just update the list of "certified" card for EG.

[SPerman]

At first I ignored that link, because a 4 year old graphics card shouldn't need a patch to be supported. But then I decided to install it anyway. I can't see a change.

SW help pointed out my AA problem.

[JSculley]

Model with Enhanced graphics turned off. Edges underdefined and washing into the next component.

image.png

Model in Open GL Mode

image.png

Model in Enhanced graphics

image.png

FYI: If you are running in 'Software OpenGL' mode, you are basically not using the graphics card to do any of the graphics processing mathematics. The CPU is doing it all and telling the graphics card, 'Here. Display this'. Things may look better in this mode, but performance (rotating, large assemblies, etc) will suffer and you are simply sidestepping the underlying problem. I posted a question about issues with this card in the SWYMP back when I got a new Workstation (441.66 drivers) and was test driving SW2020. I was seeing bad aliasing and washed out edges:

Notice the rear vertical edge is nearly invisible at the top, and then becomes more visible and then disappears again.
I haven't done any more testing since then, and we are still stuck on SW2017, so I haven't tried it with newer SW versions either.

[TRKemp]

FYI: If you are running in 'Software OpenGL' mode, you are basically not using the graphics card to do any of the graphics processing mathematics. The CPU is doing it all and telling the graphics card, 'Here. Display this'. Things may look better in this mode, but performance (rotating, large assemblies, etc) will suffer and you are simply sidestepping the underlying problem. I posted a question about issues with this card in the SWYMP back when I got a new Workstation (441.66 drivers) and was test driving SW2020. I was seeing bad aliasing and washed out edges:

image.png

Notice the rear vertical edge is nearly invisible at the top, and then becomes more visible and then disappears again.
I haven't done any more testing since then, and we are still stuck on SW2017, so I haven't tried it with newer SW versions either.

Thats how I understood it as well, but I just thought there might be some better knowledge on what exactly that "underlying problem" really was and how to manipulate the options to return to normal graphics performance. Seems like there really isnt a straightforward answer so far, everyone kind of doing their own testing and hoping for a better result.

Might have to get the VAR involved again... this time they can't use the "out of date" workstation excuse.

[bnemec]

I will say that I am not using the driver recommended by SW, because it is no longer available for download. (R440)

Which one would you like?

[SPerman]

My graphics problems are much better. Thanks for all of your help.

I can't say which of these solved the problem:

Install latest drivers
Install SW patch
Turn on full scene AA (I think this is probably what did the trick.)
Reboot.

[AlexB]

My graphics problems are much better. Thanks for all of your help.

I can't say which of these solved the problem:

Install latest drivers
Install SW patch
Turn on full scene AA (I think this is probably what did the trick.)
Reboot.

Full scene anti-aliasing is a game changer, so that is probably the biggest difference. Glad you got things sorted out better than before at least.

[TRKemp]

Full AA turned on

Edit: Full scene antialiasing does look terrible in drawings as mentioned. Going to be a non-starter for me.

[Frederick_Law]

Yeap

Edge-04.jpg (16.83 KiB) Viewed 7437 times

[TRKemp]

Not that I'd call it an improvement, but turning on "enhanced graphics performance" and turning off anti-aliasing produces a reasonable comprimise between the model and drawing. The edges on the model are at least defined with a consistent black edge, albeit a rather thin one. The drawing also doesn't have as much over exposure on notes and annotations and the performance when rebuilding break views is a little bit better.

It's lipstick on a pig.

[mp3-250]

Model with Enhanced graphics turned off. Edges underdefined and washing into the next component.

image.png

Model in Open GL Mode

image.png

Model in Enhanced graphics

image.png

I had one user that noticed the issue and I noticed that enhanced graphics would "fix" what was not an issue up to 2021 SP5.1
The backdraw in the drawings you notice in the drawings, according to SW KB is by design "to improve performance". This was back to 2009 and probably a legacy setting.

In fact it is turned off completely in OpenGL mode...

Why do the drawing views pixilate/blur when zooming in and out in SolidWorks 2009?

This is an intended behavior to improve the dynamic display speed of drawing views (see page 70 of the "What's New in SolidWorks 2009" document). The pixilated display will appear only during zooming (particularly when zooming quickly), and will return to its normal state once the zoom is complete.

Note: this behavior will not occur when the Performance, System Option, "Use Software OpenGL" is enabled. However, slower overall performance will be experienced.

I would like to disable that blurring while using hardware accelaration and test the results very hard... @Alin Do you know some hidden trick in the registry? It is really annoing on not so heavy drawings, making them lagging.

[Alin]

I would like to disable that blurring while using hardware accelaration and test the results very hard... @Alin Do you know some hidden trick in the registry? It is really annoing on not so heavy drawings, making them lagging.

With modern video cards this can be eliminated by applying these 2 settings:

Also make sure the Transparency boxes are both checked or unchecked.

[mp3-250]

@Alin thank you! I am going to test it asap!

OK, I tested the setting with a QUADRO P2000 and it does not work...maybe that videcard is too old?

[Alin]

@Alin thank you! I am going to test it asap!

OK, I tested the setting with a QUADRO P2000 and it does not work...maybe that videcard is too old?

Is that a screenshot of a Drawings view? Is the view set to draft quality?

[mp3-250]

Is that a screenshot of a Drawings view? Is the view set to draft quality?

@Alin

the screenshot is a portion of the screen during a zoom in with mouse wheel. all the views blur like that and come back to normal in about 2 seconds.

all our drawings are made WITHOUT draft quality. And every time I analyze a drawings is the first thing I check. I never saw a view set to draft at my company, but this blurring happens anyway. for small drawings it is barely noticeable.

If I set software opengl the zoom operation does not blur (this is coherent with what is written in the KB) and it performs better that opengl imho.

[Alin]

@Alin

the screenshot is a portion of the screen during a zoom in with mouse wheel. all the views blur like that and come back to normal in about 2 seconds.

all our drawings are made WITHOUT draft quality. And every time I analyze a drawings is the first thing I check. I never saw a view set to draft at my company, but this blurring happens anyway. for small drawings it is barely noticeable.

If I set software opengl the zoom operation does not blur (this is coherent with what is written in the KB) and it performs better that opengl imho.

That is very interesting! What did your VAR say?