Background color changes

[GrahameWard]

I'm in Creo (WF 5.0). Sometimes I change the background color. I might change it to white if I want a screen shot. Sometimes I decide I want to look at a darker background, so I load up the older, blue pre-WF .scl file. I have mapkeys to several different .scl files.

If I leave the background color alone, it's stays put, but if I change it, then change it back to the original, it never stays. Whenever I change a window or even activate the one I'm in, it changes the colors back to the one I changed it to. It's driving me crazy, the only way to stop it is to close the session and start it again. Does anyone else have this problem?

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[GrahameWard]

So nobody else in the world has this happen, just me?

[BrianMartin]

I have tried this on two workstations running both 32bit and 64bit Wildfire 5 and cannot reproduce the issue. I know it sounds lame but... graphics card settings or driver?

Wish I had more to offer!

[GrahameWard]

None of those things have changed since going from an earlier Wildfire 5.0 to the 5.0 release M080, now called Creo. It installed the new version in a different folder (and I uninstalled the earlier 5.0). The "starts in" folder is the same as it was before, the config.pro is the same as before, with the same paths specified to the same files as before, including the syscol.scl file. The graphics card settings are the same as before. In other words, nothing has changed, except that I cannot get it to change to a different color.

[BrianMartin]

I cringe when PTC says this to me... so I feel terrible suggesting it to someone else because I know how frustrating it is but...

Have you tried installing the latest version of Creo Elements/Pro (which is M100)? M080 is actually quite a bit back. We use M090 at my employer and we haven't seen the color issue you're reporting. If you go to the software downloads page, make sure to look under Creo Elements/Pro instead of Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 5. You won't see the download links for M100 under "Wildfire 5", only under Creo Elements/Pro.

[GrahameWard]

I don't blame you for cringing, I get really annoyed when PTC's solution is to install the latest datecode. It's their way of saying "I have no idea what the solution is, but try running this up the flag pole to see if anyone salutes it."

I won't be upgrading to M100 because we have had a policy at our company for several years here that we have to all be on the same datecode. The other guys don't have this problem but they all have 64 bit and I have 32 bit.

[BrianMartin]

I completely understand that policy. It's smart to keep everyone on the same build code. I do have one other thing you can try assuming the graphics card is the source of the problem (big assumption which could be miles off base):

In your config.pro you can try the option use_software_opengl and set it to yes

Apparently sometimes this can fix issues with graphics. The downside is that software graphics are not as fast as using hardware graphics. You might give it a try and see if it makes a difference.

You can also try setting the config.pro option graphics to win32_gdi This was a suggestion from another thread that seemed like it might offer some hope for your problem.

[GrahameWard]

Ah yes.. the old " the config.pro option "to win32_gdi ".

I used to (still do) get a crash with the std.out file telling me, " Exception - code was -1073741819". Been getting this from time to time for years on different computers on different versions of ProE at different employers on different continents.

PTC's solution? "Change your graphics from open_gl to win32_gdi. Oh, it's already win32_gdi? Then change it from win32_gdi to open_gl."

In other words, "we have no friggin' idea what we're doing!"

[GrahameWard]

Sorry Brian, I hope I didn't offend you. You were only trying to help. I'm a little frustrated in case you couldnt tell

[BrianMartin]

lol... yeah I figured it wouldn't work. I've heard it so many times though I figured it might eventually solve SOMEONE'S problem. It's never worked for me!

Sorry we couldn't figure this one out. 😕

[BrianMartin]

You definitely didn't offend me. I've been working with PTC products since '91 and I'm well aquainted with the frustration factor. Ugh!