2020 SP3 Display performance setting and section/rendering issues

[JMR]

Hi all,

 

Section, best performance setting. Most of the stuff is missing:

 

 

Section, good performance and compatibility setting. Missing stuff comes back:

 

 

 

Same project, elevation, good performance and compatibility setting: Color are invisible, except while zooming:

 

 

Same project, elevation, best performance setting: Color are visible:

 

 

-> Why this mess???!!  I constantly have to skip between different settings to properly see what I'm doing. This has been going on at least from 2018. The graphics card is the 1050Ti, however these issues are there with other machines and cards as well, eg. Quadros and 1070Ti's. And yes, the computers and drivers are up to date.

 

This inconstistency affects dwg exports from section and elevation viewports, too. One can never be sure what is the end result, most often stuff beyond section line is not visible in the export or the line types are wrong, even though the initial section viewport is ok.

 

Something is amiss with the graphics system, unfortunately.

 

 

[Dave Donley]

Hello JMR:

 

Is Unified View on or off?  It might be that Unified View is off.

 

[JMR]

Thank you, the unified view is on by default when I work.

[Jeremy Best]

Hi @JMR, I see I'm late to the party but you've indicated this is a long-persisting issue for you, so; 

 

May I suggest you rule out 'far out objects,' as they cause an extremely broad range of symptoms and seeing as the intensity of the symptoms seems to correlate with the level of computational pressure generated (using 'Best Performance' vs 'Good Performance and Compatibility'), and in light of the other factors you've ruled out, then I'd say it's worth checking. 

 

I've encountered users suffering this condition so often I've written a dedicated script to identify and remedy the problem. See here: 

 

[JMR]

Thank you for the tip, however the internal and user origins are at the corner of the site, only about 20 meters away from the building.

 

I've come across with this with other projects as well - it seems anything that is visible beyond / before section line is problematic.

 

Curiously, these inconsistencies export into DWG and PDF as well, with varying results. Mostly anything that is visible before/beyond section line is not exported as a dashed line, even though other dashed lines in the section were ok. Maybe these are two different issues.

 

Sometimes the result varies between screen-dwg-pdf, with a different end result in all of these.

 

First I thought this would be a graphics card issue, but since the erros export to both PDF and DWG I think that is unlikely? We've also tested this with Quadro's and 1050Ti's with same results, so it can't be a specific model graphics card issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by JMR
typos

[Jeremy Best]

On 6/2/2020 at 9:17 PM, JMR said:

the internal and user origins are at the corner of the site, only about 20 meters away from the building.

 

That's good to hear, but what about 'stray' objects. Even a single line, far enough away, can cause the problems associated with 'far out objects.' 

 

Given that I'm not getting any users reporting this, it remains more likely caused by something particular to your computer, installation or file/s. In these circumstances if you rule out 'stray' and far out objects, the following are more likely causes/solutions. In order of ease: 

• Corrupt Workspace: Try one of the default workspaces. If your custom one uses the same name as a default, you'll need to remove the custom one from your User Folder. 
• Corrupt Vectorworks System Files: Perform Resetting Vectorworks Preferences. 
• Corrupt object/s. (Have to use halving-method to identify. Delete half objects by Class or Design Layer, then test. Repeat until symptoms cease. Narrow down causal object/s)

Unfortunately as this is occurring on other computers as well, it makes it more likely to be (primarily far out objects, but if you've ruled that out then) due to one or more corrupt objects. Maybe even a resource, which would probably be harder to determine. Maybe you can sense a pattern considering which files have this issue and the ones that don't. I recently encountered a user's file where a corrupt texture was making walls render as solid black if they were repositioned. 

 

In order of likelihood, before potentially faffing time away trying to isolate potentially corrupt objects or resources, given that it takes comparatively little time if I were in your shoes, before Resetting or searching for corrupt objects, I would first try:

1. Performing a 'clean' install of my graphics card driver. Just in case. And failing that, - for the same reason - 
2. Try using the 'Repair' command in the Vectorworks Updater app. (In 'Advanced Options'). And failing that, - for the same reason - 
3. Uninstall then reinstall Vectorworks using the latest installer. (Total of 30 mins on a good computer, once the installer is downloaded).