Black screen in work area wont go away CREO 2.0

[ptc-6486887]

I run on a mac pro using parallel software to run windows. My graphics card is ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB and from what I have read, there is an issue with my graphics card. When I start up Creo 2, and select a work directory, and open a part, a black screen appears and I am unable to do anything.

What can I do to resolve this issue? I have read a few things about changing the configuration settings, but in my copy, I am unable to touch that folder because It says I dont have admin rights.

Anyone have any ideas? Any help would be much appreciated!

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[TomD.inPDX]

This is likely a driver issue. If I update to the latest NVidia drivers, I get all sorts of artifacts.

You can try the config.pro option: graphics win32_gdi. This normally fixes opengl issues.

[ptc-6486887]

How do I do that though? I cant find that option in the config editor in parametrics

[TomD.inPDX]

This is better done before you open Creo. Save the default Creo start shortcut to a new name. In the new shortcut, change the "start in" folder. In the Start-in folder, create a file called config.pro. the only thing to add into the file is:

graphics win32_gdi

Now use the new shortcut to start Creo. This will read the new config.pro file from the start folder. once Creo is open, you can confirm the settings is in effect by looking in File>Options.

[ptc-6486887]

Should the config file just be a text file? I tried it and it didnt work..

[dgschaefer]

The config.pro is simply a text file. Creo will read it from the "text" directory within the Creo installation directory first, the user's "home" directory (as specified by Windows environment variable) second and the "start in" folder as Antoious mentioned above. If multiple files are present, Creo will load them all, adding the options up. If an option is in two files, the last one loaded wins.

That said, I'm not at all sure how running in parallels changes any of that.

BTW - That option takes the graphics card out of the picture and runs all graphics through Windows. I believe it is meant for testing graphics issues, not for running full time.

[ptc-6486887]

Does the fact that I am running Vista on Parallels software on my mac affect the graphic driver at all? do I need to get a PC driver for my graphics card for the vista side of things?

[TomD.inPDX · Accepted solution]

Creo is super particular to the environment it is run on. I suspect you are pushing the bounds to the edge.

...and i really cannot comment on anything not Windows... not having any experience with MAC or emulation.

However, in Windows, when you try to simply edit a text file, it tries to add a hidden extension of .txt. The file name must be config.pro, all lower case, and located in the start folder where Creo is pointed to.

The win32_gdi setting is only a rough guess at what might fix your issue. Graphics issues on non-approved hardware is just something PTC will put very little effort into. Hopefully someone will reply that has done this with a similar platform. The fact that you actually got Creo to open is huge milestone.

If you go to File>options>Find... type in graphicsfor the search... do you not get the win32_GDI option in the dialog?

you need to confirm that you actually get the startup to see the config.pro. You can do this by saving your config.pro from the options dialog and making a few changes. When you restart Creo, those changes should be reflected in your session. Remember that finding a config.pro option, it will revert the choice to default. Only the reference dialog will tell you the current setting.

[dgschaefer]

As far as I know, Creo 2 isn't intended to run on Vista. So you've got a non-standard OS (running in emulation), non-standard hardware and a game oriented graphics card rather than the ATI FirePro series workstation card. Gamer cards can work OK in normal circumstances, but you are not running in normal circumstances.

[ptc-6486887]

I actaully did that! I looked at a video and I got someone elses file that they created and just used that because I couldnt get the .txt file to change to .pro.

I got it to work though! I just needed to restart both my machines and now I see a white screen with an axis, so thanks guys!

And its actually windows 7 not vista, doug, I mispoke