Windows 7 graphics issue

[Jeremy St. Peter]

We are having an issue with the graphics on our windows 7 machines. They all have quad core 2.66 GHz processors with 6 GB ram. They have NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 graphics cards. The problem we are having is that on occasion the screen will display random toolpath geometry or the screen will go blank entirely. When this happens a movement of the mouse or zoom will correct this problem but it can be problematic when trying to manipulate surfaces. We use these machines to model electrodes in surfaces and to do surface machining. Is anyone else having a similar issue? Any fixes for this?

[Chris Rizzo]

Do you have graphics set to "best performance"? My computer > right click > properties > advanced system settings > performance> settings > adjust for best performance.

[Jeremy St. Peter]

Do you have graphics set to "best performance"? My computer > right click > properties > advanced system settings > performance> settings > adjust for best performance.

 

I tried this setting but doing this basically disables everything windows 7 and makes things appear like xp. We operated for a long time with x4 with no issues, this problem just started happening 2 or 3 months ago.

[MotorCityMinion]

No offense but a comp like that should never have to be set for best performance. Only use that setting to trouble shoot. Sounds like you have some conflicting software issues. I don't have WIN7 or X5 so I'm stretching a bit here. Try shutting off some apps, better yet all apps not required while running MC. Try older drivers and newer drivers for your video card. Even swap the card out if that's possible.

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

Right-click on the Mastercam desktop icon, go to Properties and then Compatibility. Make sure "disable desktop composition" is ticked. restart Mastercam andf see if that fixes your problems. If it already is ticked, I suggest you try going direct to the Nvidia website and download their latest drivers for that 'card.

[RandleXX]

The fact that you would need to degrade the performance of an operating system software to properly run a brand new released version of Mastercrash is just another fine example of how far out of touch MC developers are with modern computer technologies.. Once again..

[gcode]

degrade the performance of an operating system software

 

 

its not performance... its eyecandy..turn it off and the computer has more resoursea availble for real work.

Catia Solidworks, NX Vericut, and Mastercam all run better with graphics set to "best performance" .

I run a custom settng myself.. with most but not all the eye candy shut off

[Leandro]

I have the same blanked screen. I think this happens when MC autosave your file and if the file is very big this blanked screen keeps longer. I don´t know how to fix it but i think this had something to do with the autosave feature

[gcode]

autosave feature

 

back in V9 days I had autosave destroy a couple of large files.

It would be writing an autosave file which might take 30 to 90 seconds depending on file size.

Unaware of this, I'd be working away, banging on the key board, deleting geometry , regenning etc etc.

Sometimes this causes a 0 byte crash resulting in a total loss of both the active and the autosave file.

I shut autosave off and havn't used it since. I have no idea if it works better now or not.

If you got Mastercam's backup utility set up properly, there is no need for autosave.

[Jeremy St. Peter]

I tried your suggestion Rich and this put me in windows basic display mode. I then set my theme to this and have tried if for a while. This disabled a frequently used windows 7 feature for me. There was no longer a preview when you move your mouse over the program in the start menu which is very helpful when multitasking. I agree with randle that some of this eye candy is actually part of usefull features within windows 7. Thanks for all your help but I would really like a solution that would allow me to leave the visual themes alone. My IT guy updated the drivers but this did not resolve the problem.

[Jeremy St. Peter]

Also, autosave is off for me, I am just in the habbit of frequently clicking the save button.

[CarbonCAD]

I had the same problem. Rich Thomas's solution worked for me. NVIDIA Quadro 5000

 

Wait.... toolbars went missing... I'll keep that for another topic.

[jeff]

Just re-read the OP,..

does this happen on ALL of your Win7 machines?

[Jeremy St. Peter]

Yes, we have 4 windows 7 machines in the shop and it is happening on all of them.

[jeff]

My first guess would be that it's a driver issue.

You say that you've tried a couple of drivers, I would suggest that you keep trying older drivers until you find one that works.

Heck, you may have to go back a year or 2.

 

Do your cases have good airflow? both intake and exhaust?

Since it's happening on all 4 machines, that kinda rules out overheating, or a bad vid card, or maybe even a CPU that is getting too hot.

[gcode]

are you referring to the AeroPeek feature??

[jeff]

It could be a program that is hogging resources.

Do you have Norton installed on all 4 machines? What other programs are running on these machines?

In my experience, Norton = resource hog from hell.

[gcode]

In my experience, Norton = resource hog from hell.

Several years ago, this was true .. in spades..

no longer.. NIS as a very light footprint now.. one of the lightest actually..

[jeff]

Well it's good to see they changed that.

Still I don't pay for AV software when there are some really good free ones out there like AVG.

Couple that with Spybot and your machine is almost bulletproof from a virus.

[CADCAM3D5AXIS]

I thought this might fit in here,does anyone have any issues of moving 32 bit Win XP files in MC5 to a 64 bit win 7 MC5 Machine, I am having solid models come out a little different than how they were in xp32 mc5.

[gcode]

I thought this might fit in here,does anyone have any issues of moving 32 bit Win XP files in MC5 to a 64 bit win 7 MC5 Machine, I am having solid models come out a little different than how they were in xp32 mc5.

 

 

come out different visaully .. or really different...???

We've got thousands of files .. from V8 to X5

with 2 programmers running XPx32 and 2 programmers running Win7x64

and I havn't noticed anything like that

[gcode]

Well it's good to see they changed that.

Still I don't pay for AV software when there are some really good free ones out there like AVG.

Couple that with Spybot and your machine is almost bulletproof from a virus.

 

LOL.. 90% of the machines people bring me to devirus have free AVG on them.

$45 a year for 3 computers is nothing..

[Jeremy St. Peter]

are you referring to the AeroPeek feature??

Yes

[gcode]

I've got both Areo Peek and Mastercam running on my home machine.

On this machine the option isn't on the graphic's performance page

see the attached screen shot..

on my home machine, right under

"Enable Desktop Compostion"

there is another setting called

"Enable Areo Peek"

I have them both checked and both MC and Areo Peek work..

I'll post a screen shot off my home machine when I get home this evening

 

This is a screen shot of graphics settings on my work machine and they work very well

I don't know why the Areo Peek option is not available .

I must have graphics set to Windows Classic somewhere else

[gcode]

I figured it out..

You have to have Windows 7 Areo enabled..

Then set your graphics performance like this..

Arero Peek works and X5 runs with minimal graphics issues..

Not as good as in Windows Classic with the setting in my last post, but OK