Graphics Issues in Inventor 2014

[ChrisMitchell01]

There have been several postings regarding graphics issues with Inventor 2014.

One type of issue was related to using Quality mode specifically with AMD GPU HW. This has been fixed by AMD; it was a Defect in their GPU drivers for certain ranges of their GPU HW.

However, other graphics issues prevail on both AMD & nvidia & fall into what is being called “ghosting”, where geometry is displayed incorrectly in various ways; e.g. deleted geometry reappears, wireframe instead of shaded, additional surface connections, or in worse cases, either badly corrupted graphics or crashes.

So far, there are two common aspects to these problems in our investigation:

1. They are very difficult to reproduce in a simple set of easy steps leading to a reproducible outcome.
2. They often seem to be connected with extensive use; closing Inventor and restarting will “fix” the problem … for a while. Sometimes they can be worked around by using the Compatibility or Software settings from Tools, App Options, hardware, but not consistently. Also switching from one view mode to another, will clear it up but only for a while.

These indicate that we may be dealing with a memory corruption issue which may or may not exist in the Inventor graphics layer code.  The graphics layer is similar to a "canary in a coal mine"; any memory corruption will typically appear in the graphics first, even if it has no direct connection with the graphics layer code.  If the graphics layer code is being given corrupted data, it will display it as very strange results or in the worst case, the data will trigger a crash.

What would be very helpful to us, is if anyone has a simple set of steps with a given data set that can reproduce a problem, every time. This will give us something definite to dig in to as whereas at present, we tend to be chasing ghosts ourselves...

If you prefer to send me a dataset, just email to chrisDOTmitchellATautodeskDOTcom

Thanks very much in advance for your help,

Chris on behalf of the Inventor team

[ChrisMitchell01]

We plan to release some graphics related fixes in the next update for 2014 SP1; this should be available the first week of March.

Prior to that, you'll either need to use the Compatibility mode from Tools, App Options, Hardware tab, or change the graphics view mode from, say, shaded to shaded with edges, to clear any graphical problems.

Thanks,
Chris

[stephenson513]

sounds great 

[stephenson513]

Hi Chris

Does it look like we are getting lucky this week with a fix? 🙂

thanks

[ChrisMitchell01]

Sorry, but no it's not going to be this week. The next update is somewhat delayed due to all the current activities around preparing the Invnetor 2015 release. The latest ETA I heard for the next update is around the end of the month.

If you are still seeing graphcis issues, can you confirm that in your specific graphics driver "control" panel, that you are allowing the applicaiotn to control the 3D settings ? This is usually the installed default but often gets changed. That's the best way to leave it for Inventor.

-Chris

[jdits7]

Looks like Update 3 for Service Pack 1 for Inventor 2014 got released today, to help fix some of the graphics issues.

http://inventortopix.blogspot.com/2014/03/inventor-2014-update-3-for-service-pack.html

[Mark_Wigan]

thanks for the heads up jdit7

[cnewmanVIK]

I applied Update 3 this morning, but I still have ghost lines.  

(Shaded with Edges, just moving some parts around in my assembly)

Autodesk Product Design Suite Ultimate 2014, SP1 Update 3

NVIDIA Quadro 4000

[ChrisMitchell01]

Can you please check your nvidia control panel & ensure that you have the settings applied to "let the 3D application decide" as opposed to any other non-default configuration ?

We've seen this make quite a difference.

Thanks
Chris

[cnewmanVIK]

It took longer before the ghost lines came up today it seems, but that is the setting I have it on.  (I think, unless there is somewhere else it needs set, you can see in the picture I've attached)

[Rory_M]

'm seeing the same issue as cnewmanVIK in the post above this. The ghost lines appear and disappear depending on zoom level.

NVidia settings are all at the default by the way.

Driver is WHQL certified. Video card is a 2Gb Geforce GTX 560 Ti.

Windows 7 64 bit.

[WHolzwarth]

I've seen that here today in CE, with zoom operations

Walter

[stephenson513]

ive still got the same issue...... pic attached 

comes and goes with zooming

[ChrisMitchell01]

All,

If you are still seeing these ghosting issues when moving things around in assemblies can you please confirm:

1. Whether the parts/sub-assemblies leverage appearances which have a level of transparency assigned to them. This is the only issue that we are still actively investigating for these on-going graphics problems.
2. That using the compatibility mode (from Tools, App Options, Hardware tab) instead of Performance or Quality addresses the issue.

Many Thanks,

Chris

[stephenson513]

please could you explain question 1 again - 

also if asigning colors to parts in assemblies and then using those assemblies in other assemblies, the colors dont always appear right.

[cnewmanVIK]

I don't believe the parts this is happening to have any transparency assigned to them.  (But I'm not entirely sure how to check this).  It seems to be random parts.

I've since been using the compatibilty mode and haven't had any more ghosting, but this causing some weird graphic things to happen in my idw's so I think I'm going to switch back to one of the other modes.

[WHolzwarth]

Here are two other ones.

Walter

[LishuangLu]

Hi Walter, We could reproduce the problem in picture Zykloidenrad.jpg stably, we will track this in our internal bug system and have more investigation. So far, so workaround for this case as I know, all hardware options have such problem. For the problem in Ghosting faces.jpg, I guess there are some transparent enties, eg. the parts with transparent appearances or surface bodies. Could you send us the dataset of Inventor 2014 version so that we could confirm whether this is the known issue we identified? Thanks, -Lisa

[LishuangLu]

Hi Stephenson, For Chris's first question, we just want to check whether the assemblies containing the parts with transparent appearances, eg. clear, etc., or surface bodies. If not, when you meet the ghosting problem, could you highlight/select on the ghosting edges to see whether they can be selected? Thanks, -Lisa

[LishuangLu]

For Chris's first question, we just want to check whether the assemblies containing the parts with transparent appearances, eg. clear, etc., or surface bodies. If not, when you meet the ghosting problem, could you highlight/select on the ghosting edges to see whether they can be selected? Thanks, -Lisa

[WHolzwarth]

Good morning, Lisa

I've tried again to get the ghosting faces with the F16, but no luck. My 4 years old grandson is the real artist.

No transparent faces in the dataset, but it's zipped about 7,5 MB. Too big for an attachment here.

Walter