Graphics Problems Running Proe2001 in Windows x64 Platforms

[sf]

Hi All-

Background: I didn't know exactly where to start this conversation and only started it here because of similar questions I found in this section. If I got it wrong please advise so it can be corrected. Otherwise, I've been running proe2001 (student) on my old windows xp 32bit machine with a pentium 4 and 2gb ram and a 500mb nvidia graphics card in my home for personal use since I purchased it back in 2002 or 3?? It's actually the student edition and I have just kept it to use for designing personal stuff around the house. I'm a retired mechanical engineer so upgrading to anything...is not going to happen. So I did however upgrade my computer platforms over the years...first to windows vista x64 and now finally to windows 8.1 x64. Both of those machines are about 1000 times more robust than the old xp machine, so as far as graphics and processing power go....I'm pretty sure I'm covered. The win 8.1 x64 has 64gb ram and 4gb video ram or dual sli cards, if I so choose.

Problem: When running proe2001 on the vista x64 or win8.1 x64 machines, the part or assembly graphic redraws or regens every time I do any mouse click or move or query on the part or assembly...and it redraws and regens every component in the assembly line by line, piece by piece, to where it its visually evident what's happening.  So for example, if I do a mouse zoom or rotate...the part or assembly zooms and rotates perfectly fine and fast as usual, but when I let go of the mouse...the part or assembly stops and then regens bit by bit, line by line, part by part. It doesn't matter if shaded, line, hidden, or anything. An assembly with 20-30 parts could take as long as 4 seconds maybe, but however long it takes its annoying. My old xp machine 32bit is instant. If I do the mouse zoom or rotate, and let go of the mouse, the part or assembly just stops and is there instantly, exactly where it is when I let go of the mouse, no need to regen or redraw or anything...and shaded, line, hidden, no matter what state, the part or assembly is always there when I click on something or do a mouse edit. On the x64 machines it has to redraw and regen bit by bit. It doesn't make any sense. Luckily, I think it has something more to do with graphics, because I can rail off a string of mapkeys while the assembly is doing its redraw thing and the mapkeys will run fine, like in parallel or something, while the assembly is redrawing??

I've tried everything over the years so almost any config.pro entries wont solve this as I've tried just about everything I know of. I was a very proficient proe user, with a little over 10 years of experience using proe at work before retiring in 2005, so I've tried most common elements and even some not-so-common. I think its something to do with x64. Not sure what, but I think that's it. When I install proe2001 It sees my machine as only the i486_nt I think. So the programs installs fine on x64 machine, but only in the i486_nt mode, but then wont run afterward. So I had to edit the startup .bat file to set the PROCESSOR and the MC to the INTEL_486 and i486_nt respectively, just to get the program running. It wouldn't even run before doing that edit. I tried to set those to the INTEL_64 and ia64_nt but then since the directories that correspond with that data were never created during the program install because I couldn't pick them because they were grayed out during installation and not selectable. So even if I make that ia64 set, then it crashes the program at start up because no corresponding directories or files. Does this make sense?

I only use proe2001 about 1 time a year to design something for around my house, the latest being a pair of nightstands, so this problem isn't huge but my wife is getting on me to get rid of some of my old tech....the windows xp 32bit machine is at the top of the list, so it would be very nice to be able to get this running perfect on either of these x64 machines. Currently I can use proe2001 on x64 machine, but it is time consuming and annoying when I know I have more computing and graphic power than most small countries, so I know proe2001 only needs a fraction of what I have available, yet doesn't run perfect and flawless as it should.

A Clue Though: One thing I noticed during my investigation, over the years trying to solve this problem, about proe2001 on my x64 machine....is that when I go to the menu item- VIEW; DISPLAY SETTINGS; SYSTEM COLORS and the SYSTEM COLORS pop-out menu window is up and current, I can then mouse move, spin, zoom and everything is instant when I let go of the mouse. It acts exactly like it should....in fact it probably acts better than it ever did anywhere. But as soon as that SYSTEM COLORS pop-out menu window closes or changes to anything else or I use a mapkey command to perform another task then the graphics reverts back to the flawed regen and redraw everything line by line etc....

Thanks and I apologize for such a long read but I wanted to get as much out to avoid unnecessary questions.

So if anyone can help I would be most appreciative......

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[dguillette-2]

Hi , just guessing, lets call it three shots into the dark.

proe2001 is a workhorse from the past, to be honest I miss it. No pretty bells and bows, so kill aero

lol...we had a lot of nerve complaining about mouse click back then.

in the past nvidia nView had issues, uninstall or disable it.

if your running multi-displays try this setting, found in nvidia control panel

maybe try it even if your using single display

[sf]

Thanks for replying, unfortunately none of these fixed the problem.

I found something new though.....GRAPHICS OPENGL versus GRAPHICS WIN32_GDI settings in config.pro files. I thought I tried these in the past, but I think I must have missed it somehow because it 'sort of', and pretty light on the 'sort of', fixes the problem. My original setting was under OPENGL which had the redraw problem. Unfortunately for the win32_gdi setting is that it fixes one but creates another problem, a huge lag when doing mouse manipulations, moves, spins, zooms, etc....

So the GRAPHICS WIN32_GDI config.pro setting basically fixes the part or assembly redraw problem and instantly places the part or assembly graphic after mouse moves etc....but now the parts and assemblies lag while being mouse manipulated. Sort of the inverse of the OPENGL setting problem.

What do these settings really do and why are the various problems associated with each setting manifesting.

[Chris3]

Your problem is a graphics driver problem. This is a classic symptom of not using a PTC certified driver with PTC certified hardware.

[sf]

Thanks. Do you know where the list of certified drivers and hardware is located? I looked but cant find anywhere.

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

ProE 2001 is not supported at PTC for a long time. Because of this nobody knows what graphics driver will resolve your "OPENGL" problem. You can download and test any driver version available at web site of graphic card vendor. Maybe you can start with oldest version, because its "birth date" is close to ProE 2001 active "age".

MH

[sf]

Yes I know proe2001 is no longer supported by ptc. But is there still such a list for the programs that are supported? Like for Creo? or Wild Fire? The oldest driver I can find, or for that matter use, is still to new to be on an old support list for proe2001 since it was decommissioned long before either of my machines graphics cards were built. But maybe I can check what drivers and hardware are supported by the newer programs?

I've also discovered a memory leak in win vista machine, not exactly sure....but at least I think that's what it is, it kicks into a redraw mode in some circumstances where it just keeps redrawing over and over until I x out, so I think I will only be dealing with my newest win8.1 super computer since I was able to design and complete a roughly 500 part assembly with the only problem being that somewhat slow redraw problem and I don't really have anything on the horizon to design. That's why I wanted to work on this graphics thing now anyway before something comes up.

It still blows my mind that a crappy old 32bit xp, pentium 4, 2gb ram, and geforce 7300gt 256mb ram computer can run proe2001 like a top, yet a brand new computer with windows 8.1 x64 with 64gb ram, core i7-5960x cpu, dual NVIDIA geforce gtx980 graphic cards 4gb video ram each, running single or sli can't stomach the muster. And it all boils down to a driver?

I guess if I were still in the game for real I'd be using Creo, right?

[StephenW]

It really sounds more like a hardware/software compatibility issue. Other than trying every video card driver release and messing with video driver settings.

I know one time we put a hot new Nvdia card in a 2 year old computer and it got slower. Turns out the mother board didn't know how to handle the video card. Had to update the mother board drivers...I didn't even know the motherboard had drivers at the time.

You may also want to put your old video card in your new box, provided your have the right PCI slot (haha, unlikely).

[Chris3]

But is there still such a list for the programs that are supported?

Yes:

Product Calendar:

http://support.ptc.com/cs/product_calendar/PTC_Product_Calendar.htm#RANGE!A212

Supported hardware for newer releases.

Platform Support - PTC.com

[sf]

Thanks Everyone-

I've checked out the links you pointed to and looked through the compatibility tables and still stumped. Took me a second to find proe2001 in the drop list, I missed it the first couple times a checked....different name than I was looking.

I have some old graphics cards and even thought of pulling the card out of the xp machine as was recommended and test if that works in the new machine. Not sure it is compatible with pcie gen3 or not and not sure I even want to hassle with it since I'm not going to use that old card in teh new machine anyway.

I'm still stuck on the fact that for some reason proe2001 in OPENGL tells my video card to redraw 'one at a time' and proe2001 in WIN32_GDI tells my cpu (basically) to redraw 'all at once'. That really seems like a breakdown in OPENGL instruction interpretation more than anything??? And if that's the case I wish there was a setting or something to fix that.

I'm still listening to any ideas. So thanks to everyone for taking the time to try and fix something that has been decommissioned over 10 years ago. I should really update more often. But for now the xp machine, with a scrubbed hard drive, goes to Good Will and I'm going to have to make the new machine work good enough for future projects....at my rate could be a couple years from now, who knows.