Dialogue boxes not docking + flashing

[Electroform]

I have Mastercam x4 mu2 and I run both Wire and Mill. Around about the time of the mu2 uprgrade I also "cross graded" from Autodesk Inventor 2010 to the Professional version and the graphics driver was updated.

 

Computers are hp xw 6600 workstations with Intel Xeon quad cores 8 gb ram and the graphics ATI FireGL V5600 512Mb. These 2 run XP pro 64 and are networked to a XP 32 pro. License is by way of nethasps.

 

The problem I have as Default User on both workstations is that some of the normally dockable dialogue boxes eg chain manager, offset etc always return right in the middle of the graphics screen. Also if I start a drawing command eg a line I get a momentary flash of the ribbon bar and again when I exit the command.

 

I have tried 1) rolling back the graphics driver, 2) Toggling "Do not reset" / "Reset" in "reset" in properties from the mcamx4 control panel applet; to no avail. I`m aware that there were issues between ATI cards & Mcam

 

I understand that the UK agents have sought help from CNC Inc but so far I`ve not heard back.

 

I mentioned this to the CAD firm that sold me Inventor & one of their Techies suggested creating a New User with Administrative rights, which I duly did and Mastercam works fine.

 

Does anyone know for sure what is happening and what to correct in the Default User? : Is it a registry issue ? and if so, does anyone know the Mastercam dialogue boxes by number and description so I can tinker perhaps.

My guess is that it may be a permissions issue or other blocking write back of the screen co-ordinates to the registry, but both users do have Administrative rights.

 

I really would appreciate some help with this problem which must be the most annoying one I`ve had since problems machining multisurfs in v5..........

[gcode]

are you running dual monitors on the workstations?

I can offer no ATI advice, but NVIDIA Quadro

dual monitor support is a utility called Desktop Manager and is enabled from the Control Panel.

It gives you a lot of control over how and where

windows open.

Perhaps your ATI drivers have something similar..or perhaps they are missing..??

In my case with Quadro drivers and Dell workstations, Dell strips Desktop Manager out of

the driver package and you have to install factory drivers to get it back.

If you are running HP drivers, I'd try the latest available from ATI instead.

 

Another thing to try is turn off all the Windows eyecandy on the video performance page..

some of the fading, sliding , transulcent

and minimizing features are very pretty put can

cause Mastercam all sorts of grief.

 

Not much help, but its all I've got. I gave up

on ATI/Mastercam in V8 days

[Electroform]

Thanks for your reply.

Yes dual monitors on both hps.

Yes there are control boxes in the ATI , so I`ll look at these and the video performance pages.

It`s still a bit of a mystery that Mastercam is OK for one user but not for another on the same computer.........

[gcode]

Another user (Rickster) was having

serious issues with crashing due to

an inability to access temp folders and such.

The solution was to make sure the username

using Mastercam has ownership of all drive

and folders on the computer.

Despite having admin rights he was being denied

access to his temp folder during surface toolpath regens on a random basis.

This caused and immediate and irrecoverable lockup and lose of work.

Granting ownership of all drives and folders

on the machine solved the problem.

Perhaps this could be the cause of windows positioning data failing to stick, especially with the new account you set up.

 

[ 02-26-2010, 03:41 PM: Message edited by: gcode ]