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A
Anonymous
April 24, 2010
Question

Display Problem with Point in 3D

  • April 24, 2010
  • 3 replies
  • 7168 views
I wonder if anybody could point me to a solution of this. I use MC 14(M030) on several machines. Only one of them has an annoying problem. When I plot a single point in a 3D-Plot I make it look like a sphere. That works fine on most machines, but on a specific one, the point will show as a filled square. Same file loaded without changes. I even tried building the 3D-Graph from scratch on that computer but the shape remains a square instead of point (resp. sphere).
Anybody an idea what could cause that problem? I don't think its a MC Bug. Reinstallation of MC did not solve the problem.

BTW - All machines are running Win XP SP3 and all have the newest M$-Updates installed.

RMix

3 replies

R
RichardJ19-Tanzanite
19-Tanzanite
April 24, 2010
The 3D graphs use the openGL libraries. Is there something on that machine that could have installed a different version of open GL?

Richard
A
Anonymous
April 25, 2010
On 4/24/2010 8:46:24 PM, rijackson wrote:
>The 3D graphs use the openGL
>libraries. Is there something
>on that machine that could
>have installed a different
>version of open GL?
>
>Richard


Seems thart I forgot to press the post button on my last reply - so second try.

Ist pretty much possible that another program changed something.
How would I be able to check this or the required version of open GL and how would I repair it.

The machines in question all run the same image and are the computers our students shoul work on. So they host a whole lot of programs for a great variety of fields. As all machines have identical hardware and assuming its really an open GL problem (which sounds reasonable) its possible that the problem is with the video hardware and/or the videocard driver. Am I right that there is probably nothing I could do apart from trying to install the latest driver if its not already installed (hardware is rather old so chances are there is no newer driver available)?

RMix
A
AlvaroDíaz12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
April 26, 2010
On 4/25/2010 6:05:03 PM, rmix22 wrote:

>How would I be able to check
>this or the required version of open GL
>and how would I repair it.

First check if the file glr.dll under mathcad directory have all that it needs (like mfc libraries). Can use depends.exe, free at

http://www.dependencywalker.com/

Regards. Alvaro.
P
ptc-13682881-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 25, 2010
"I don't think its a MC Bug. Reinstallation of MC did not solve the problem."
___________________________

Commonly, some software destroy other(s). I don't think there is any means to isolate which one has destroyed what in Mathcad .

jmG

P
ptc-13682881-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 26, 2010
On 4/24/2010 8:01:31 PM, rmix22 wrote:
...
>When I plot a single point in
>a 3D-Plot I make it look like
>a sphere. That works fine on
>most machines, but on a
>specific one, the point will
>show as a filled square.
...
>RMix
______________________________

Once you will have finished checking for the other suggestions, consider next step. It could be that your Mathcad 14 suffers the same bug as my Mathcad 11 ... I say "my Mathcad" because I reported it many times, no collab acknowledged, was not asked for detail from Mona ... just preaching in the desert. On long work sheets specifically but on any size work sheet, Mathcad 11 loses the plot specifications, so critical that for some of the failed plots it's not even possible to reconstruct... A "pseudo virus" of some kind not detected and so on.
By reading you strictly, you are short of diagnostic. On that reluctant machine, you don't say if the specification is still for big dot or if the plot spec has turned itself to square. I would do that: CHECK. Can you do that, and if so that the big dot has changed to square, you then have a "pseudo something" that affects the 3D plot spec.

During the construction stage, you can plot lot of arguments but eventually, it might only be possible to remember only the f(x,y), possible with another one like a plane or a projected contour. Generally, it constructs very well 'f' and (X,Y,Z) but might not remember and turns red sometimes weeks or months later. In fact, (X,Y,Z) should be avoided and changed for Q:= [put X,Y,Z in a 3 vertical vector]. However, Mathcad plots well and always reconstruct 'f' and a matrix... whether the matrix is single or the matrix from Createmesh for instance.

You haven't attached a typical failed plot ! ?

jmG
A
Anonymous
April 26, 2010
O
>>When I plot a single point in
>>a 3D-Plot I make it look like
>>a sphere. That works fine on
>>most machines, but on a
>>specific one, the point will
>>show as a filled square.
>...
>>RMix
>

>machine, you don't say if the
>specification is still for big dot or if
>the plot spec has turned itself to
>square. I would do that: CHECK. Can you
>do that, and if so that the big dot has
>changed to square, you then have a
>"pseudo something" that affects the 3D
>plot spec.

I have checked that first, but the plot specifications did not change. The file is unharmed. It still says "dot" but simply shows nearly the same pictura as when I choose "boxes". But switching between "boxes" and "dots" for a point located at the origin shows a very slight movement, so there is something changing. So a problem with an too old OpenGL seems at least plausible.
BTW - Same effect with Mathcad 11 which is installed on those machines, too.

OpenGL32.dll in system32-dir is the same version as Richards, 5.1.2600.5512.
I found some other opengl32.dll in program dirs, service pack files and M$ SDKs dirs. Renamed them temporarely but no joy.

I am still looking for an update video-driver but until now was not able to find one. Is a rather old VIA-board with onboard S3 video. Current driver is dating from 2005!! OpenGL is Version 1.4 15. I understand that this is very very old, matching the machines.

While I was just now preparing a simplified Mathcad-File I noticed something strange. Cause there was no decent screen capture program installed I copied the 3D-Region to the clipboard and then inserted it in OO-Write and then in Gimp. Both times I saw the picture as it should be - a nice round point.

So while at first I thought that its not a Mathcad-Problem it now look like only Mathcad is not able to diplay the picture the right way. But as both Mathcad 14 and 11 are affected I am clueless.
Any ideas?
I post the prepared worksheet anyway but dont't think it will be of much help now. Probably it will display the right way on most machines.

Rmix

M
mzeftel1-Visitor
1-Visitor
April 26, 2010
I suggest checking if the video driver and graphic display driver are the same on that machine as on your other machines. Since the graph displays fine on the other machines, if there is a difference, then replace the driver on the problem machine with one from the other machines.

I hope this helps,

Mona
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