Artifacts in model

[Partenheimer]

I have a large model that I have been working with for the last two weeks. The model has 4 proposals, 3 that I have been using to generate videos and one I used to test the effects of different roadway styles. Suddenly yesterday all proposals began to exhibit an odd behavior. Artifacts began to appear in the model. (See attached image for example. This started after I applied a different style to a 30 mile road segment import. No amount of un-doing "reset" my model to its pre-artifact state.

Further, I had a full backup from the day before stored on a different drive. Now, opening that previously artifact-free generation of the model exhibits the artifacts. That would indicate a problem with my InfraWorks installation... yet, no other project model presents these artifacts.

Has anyone else seen anything like this?

InfraWorks 2014 r2 (a version upgrade is not an option on this project)

TIA

Michael Partenheimer

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi Michael,

this is really odd and I have not seen such artifacts before.
If you have the chance to share the model with me via Autodesk 360 I could test on my system if I also get the artifacts in versions 2014 and 2015.
We would then know if it's a program or a model issue...

Regards,
Karsten.

[lippola]

Hallo Michael,

looks like some of your data sources create defect meshes in the scene. Did you try to hit F6/F5 to resume generation or regenerate?

One thing you could do is:

Can you open the model and go through the different asset layer and turn them off (Model Explorer) in order to identify when these artifacts will disapear?

Then it might be good to create a backup or copy of the model and delete the data sources for this particular piece by piece. Then we might figure out where these artifacts relate to.

Hope this leads to the source of this issue

Andreas

[Partenheimer]

Karsten and Andreas,

Thank you both for your suggestions.

Karsten:

I was able to try out my model on InfraWorks 360 2015.2. It does exhibit the same artifact effects so I must conclude that it is a problem with the model, although why my older copy of the model now exhibits the issue is a mystery. I wish I could share this model with you but it contains project data that I'm not at liberty to share. Additionally, the InfraWorks file folder is now upwards of 8GB in size and would, in any case, be difficult to share.

Andreas:

I have many odd data imports in the model which may be the source of data mesh defects. (Barriers with custom JPEG matierials used as billboards, .fbx 3D Highway Shields and Landmark labels built with AutoCAD & 3dsMax, a dozen Sketchup Warehouse buildings converted to .fbx with 3dsMax, a 30 mile long roadway alignment imported and draped from AutoCAD). I recently "upgraded" my Highway and Landmark labels with 3dsMax materials and text ("upgraded" from the original AutoCAD materials & text which weren't as attractive). I'll have to see if that has any connection.

I started rebuilding the model from scratch and oddly now see artifacts with only the surface rasters + the aerial image rasters imported (See attached jpgs). Both data sources were acquired from the USGS National Map web site. There are 4 elevation .img files at about 38MB each and 137 aerial .jp2 files at about 20MB each.

I think I need to open this on a different workstation to rule out hardware as a factor.

I'll keep you informed if I find anything significant.

Regards,

Michael Partenheimer

[Partenheimer · Accepted solution]

I have discovered the source of the artifacts in my model. I thought I'd post this follow-up for anyone who experiences the same issue.

It is a hardware issue.

My workstation has an Nvidia Quadro 600 video card.

While creating video flyovers, I tweaked some settings over a period of time that finally accumulated to appear as artifacts in my InfraWorks model.

These are the settings I changed (and have now reset).

• Nvidia Control Panel: "Set PhysX" changed from "Auto-select" to "Quadro 600".
• Nvidia Control Panel: Adjust Image" changed from "Let application decide" to "Use advanced 3D settings".
• InfraWorks: "Application Options: changed "3D Graphics" "Display Detail" from mid-level setting up 3 notches to 2/3 high (see attached image)

Unfortunately, I need the higher InfraWorks "Display Detail" to generate a video that's acceptable to the client.

In real estate, the mantra is "location location location". In visualization it's "hardware hardware hardware". I'm just pleased that I ruled out a model corruption.

Good luck to all.

Michael Partenheimer

[Karsten.Saenger]

Hi Michael,

thanks for the follow up post.
It's good to know what caused the issues on your side...

Regards,
Karsten.