High Resolution Display

[Anonymous]

I'm running Fusion 360 on an i5 Surface Pro 4 with a 2736 x 1824 display running Windows 10, and I'm struggling to get it to utilize the high resolution screen. By default, Fusion will load in a reduced resolution mode (presumably 50% resolution)...

I've tried overriding the high DPI behaviour in the shortcut properties, choosing 'Application' gives me full resolution but small icons and other interface problems...

The 'System' override option is the same result as default, and 'System (Enhanced)' is the same as default but the actual rendered bit of the screen is scaled down to about 50% of the screen. I've also tried running with windows scaling set to 100% (default is 200%), but that just results in tiny everything. 

I've seen various screenshots that show Fusion running in high DPI mode correctly (high res icons etc.), does anyone know how to make it work correctly?

Also, if anyone is running a high DPI screen could they post a screenshot to confirm it's possible?

Thanks

[masa.minohara]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for posting! I think this article contains helpful information to solve the issue you are experiencing. Could you give it a try?

Hopefully this information helps!

[Anonymous]

Hi Masanobu, 

Thanks for the link, the disable display scaling option recommended in the article has been replaced on newer versions of windows with the following...

Those 3 options were the ones I was describing in my first message, unfortunately none of them work correctly. Do you have any further suggestions?

Thanks, 

Graham

[masa.minohara]

Hi Graham,

Thank you for your response. Honestly I don't have any other suggestions right now but I'll check with my teammates and post more information as soon as I have one!

[chengyun.yang]

Hi, 

Have you tried to uncheck the "run this program in compatability mode for" option in your image? 

Thanks

Chengyun

Fusion Development Team

[alexA3RDM]

FWIW, I'm pretty sure this is just because F360 doesn't properly support display scaling - all the suggested solutions are workarounds to get different, but still not optimal, behavior. You can have your pick of:

1) Everything looks correct, but at low resolution: Override scaling settings disabled. 

2) Everything high res, but some UI elements the wrong size, and text often cut off as a result, some elements break totally: use "Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by: Application"

A last option, that actually works pretty well if you've got great eyes and you're willing to see 24.6 inches of screen real estate in 12.3, is

3) go to system settings, devices, display and set scaling to 100% (rather than the default of 200%). In this way, F 360 will show all UI elements properly and high-resolution, but also very, very small.

3 may be quite useful if you're not switching back and forth between tasks, have good eyes, and are okay burying your face in a tiny screen.

Personally, I'd just like proper application-level support for display scaling.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

For anybody that comes across this thread, Autodesk has implemented a solution as a "Preview Feature." Under the "Preview Features" tab in Preferences, there is an option for "HighDPIScaling (Windows Only)" that fixed it for me. I run F360 on a Surface Book 2 which has a screen resolution of 3000x2000px, and after turning this feature on F360 looks awesome at the native resolution.

[ihollerbach216]

When you're hopelessly reading through a 2017 thread, and then someone has randomly replied a solution in 2021. Thank you

[ihollerbach216]

shoot, now I can't adjust the camera with my fingers. (surface Pro 7)

[alexA3RDM]

Man, this is... still really bad. I've been using F360 on a mac primarily (i.e. retina display) for the last year or two, and this is the experience:

* UI is scaled reasonably by default

* All UI icons are high-res and crisp

* Workspace, by default, is low-res (half-res), but there's a setting under Graphics>Display to use native resolution, obviously at the expense of graphics resources.

On Windows, it sounds like the experimental highdpi scaling option @Anonymous mentioned just brings the "high resolution workspace rendering" option to Windows, but doesn't touch any of the UI elements.

So options are: 

Windows "Override High DPI scaling>Application": tells the application it's normal-DPI but has a huge screen. Everything is crisp and high-res, but very small.

Window "Override High DPI scaling>System": Tells the application it's normal DPI, and has a screen 1/2 the resolution it actually is. Everything is scaled nicely, but half-res.

New HighDPIScaling option: Normal scaling, awful looking UI, high resolution workspace.

I guess I'm sticking with the first option above, and just suffering small icons.

[pete.oxenham]

Hi Alex,

This shouldn't be the case, there is a certain combination of settings that should work for you. Both the workspace and the UI elements scale properly for me (4k 28" monitor). I believe I'm running scaled to 175% which I was pleasantly surprised to see actually works in the beta.

When I get back to the office tomorrow I'll check my exact settings and let you know what they are. Hopefully these settings can also be added to the f360 documentation too, I know I had to fiddle with it for a couple of minutes to get the scaling correct.

Pete

[Anonymous]

It looks good on my end. I'm at 200% scaling for Windows in general, then started using the preview feature. I'm even on the 13.5" SB2, and the icon size seems more than adequate. Can you submit screenshots of how yours looks, @alexA3RDM?

[pete.oxenham]

Good morning,

Looks like I actually have all "native" windows scaling options turned off (see screenshot). Give it a shot and see if you have some luck.

[alexA3RDM]

I appreciate all the replies.

As a baseline, here's F360 on a MacBook Pro, with Preferences>Graphics>Display>"Use high resolution" set. Crispy icons, crispy workspace, all scaled reasonably.

Here's Windows, with a 4K 27" display set to 150% (which I find pretty comfortable - UI is small enough to be spacious, but not like, tiny tiny). Preview Features> HighDPIScaling checked, and Graphics>Display>Use high resolution graphics also checked.

Note the UI is kind of goofy-big - I think it should be smaller at 150% scaling. They look similar in screenshot, but keep in mind my MBP display is 55% as large physically. At 150% scaling, UI elements on the Mac are similarly-sized to UI elements on Windows, i.e. I have a lot more working real estate on the 4k display, as I like it. And that's actually just the icons - the UI text is sharp and reasonably-sized. But also, all the icons look like half-res crap.

Compare to "Override UI scaling>Application" below. The UI is a BIT too small (half the size as above, where I think it should be somewhere in the middle) but everything UI or workspace is nice and full-res crispy. An interesting thing to note also: zoom in on the workspace above and below. The preview feature version is indeed high-res, but if you look close on the verticals, the rendering isn't good. Vertical segments have aliased jaggies on what are, in fact, perfectly vertical lines. The view below has no such artifacts.

So all in all, the Mac behavior is far and away the best - perfect, even - where on windows, overriding scaling is the best experience save for small UI elements. 

[alexA3RDM]

It looks like the forum software resizes/resamples the images, so those aren't really illustrative. Here they are in the same order, cropped to show what I'm talking about:

Mac:

Windows, Preview feature:

Below, I've circled the artifacts in the workspace rendering to make them more obvious. But because this image is a jpeg where the above is a .png, it looks like the forum resamples/antialiases it a bit, so the image above shows them more clearly (though still not as clearly as on my display)

Win, override:

It's pretty annoying, trying to show pixel rendering issues, that the forum smooths them all over to make everything look decent, when it's eye-gouging on my display.

Edit: OH: If you open these crops full-size, they aren't resampled or resized, and you can see just what I'm talking about. They all look about the same unless you view full size!

[pete.oxenham]

I see what you mean, and I wish you wouldn't have pointed it out, because now I notice it! My UI elements are a bit blurry (also "goofy big" as you put it). I hope the Fusion team works on this. Looks like it's not an issue with your config IMO.

For the record, I keep anti-aliasing off because I prefer the sharpness even though it's a bit pixelated. My menu bar looks exactly the same as yours.

[alexA3RDM]

Ugh, the worst kind of problem. Sorry to ruin your UI 🙂

[15zengz]

Good for you because it just makes it more pixelate than a blur