Computer Hardware

[johns]

Has anyone out there had experience with a Spaceball or Cyberpuck with Mastercam? Where can I get one (Barrie area)? I would also like feedback on a video card. I have an ATI Rage (32 meg) but the dynamic rotation is poor in rendered mode and if I use the latest drivers, wierd things happen like I can't print a hardcopy and have to set the system to 256 colours. This is real ugly on a 19" monitor.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I personally recommend the Matrox Milleniun G400 cards. Mine is a 16MB card that ouperforms most all 32MB video cards. AGP of course. You may want to stay away from cards that use the "S3" Chipset as they contain an OpenGL Bug.

James

[Webby]

johns becomes the first full 'Member' of the Forum, having posted 11 messages or more.

Thanks to johns for his participation.

 

[BColman]

Try the ELSA Gloria II AGP. It helps if your mothrboard supports 4x AGP. Best card I've seen with all CAD/CAM Software available

to date.

[bstall]

Take a look at Intense3D's Wildcat 4110 Pro. It is an AGP Pro50 card designed for systems with a 50-watt AGP Pro 50 slot or a 100-watt AGP Pro slot. Frame Buffer: 64 MB

Texture Buffer: 64 MB. You can set your shade tolerance to .00005 and the card doesn't even hesitate at all. Shading is very realistic also. Worth the money.

[mtaustin]

We are currently using the Asus 6800 Geforce video card with great results.

Mark Austin

[jimp]

Iam using the Matrox Millenium with good results. Jim

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[Dave Eno]

I'm using a Diamond Viper 550 card which works well.

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Dave E.

[johns]

Thanks for all the input on the video cards. Any experience out there on a multi-button mouse ( more than 3 buttons ) or the other two input devices?

[bstall]

I use a Logitech wheelscroll/plus with a thumb button. Works great.

[johns]

I tried a Matrox G400 AGP, 32 mb, and found a 15% decrease in performance when I turn off multiple layers. Rendering and dynamic rotation are the same as my Rage 128. I have a 6 mb file I used as a benchmark. After turning on all layers, I rendered it, un-rendered, turn off all levels except one and waited for them to disappear. I timed each operation, and found no difference in rendering or the jerky effect with dynamic rotation. Removing or adding levels was slower on the Matrox. I also found that a Cadkey solid I had rendered incomplete with the Matrox, and an attempt to dynamically rotate the part froze my system.

[Jeremy]

I always wondered why some people seem so devoted to Matrox (especially the G400). It was good in its day, but how could it be faster than an nVidia GeForce? It has no GPU...

The g400 is a has been like the Rage 128 and the nVidia TNT. Radeon and GeForce are the new contenders in the consumer-price range arena.

 

[Leon Hulstroem]

Hi All,

We mostly use Matrox Mill. G400 Max 16/32MB, but a Gforce chipset work very fine too.

Best regards

Leon www.cimco.dk