Graphics issue in WF3 on Win7

[egifford]

We have an internal training lab equipped with 6 PCs that we use for a variety of purposes including our periodic internal training for Pro/E. Last year we replaced all the PCs with new hardware running Windows7 Pro (64 bit). The hardware configuration isn't PTC certified, primarily in that it uses the basic on-board Intel Graphics chipset (B43 Express ) instead of our normal certified Nvidia card we get on the Dell T3500s provided for daily use to our Pro/E users. Then again, our current path of all new PCs running Wildfire 3 M250 and Intralink 3.4 M030 on Windows 7 isn’t supported either, but it works after a couple of tweaks to get us through migrating to PDMLink and WF4 or 5 later this year. The PCs in the training lab were working fine with all apps, including Pro/E, until last week. Now graphics in Pro/E exhibit serious issues when models are viewed in hidden line mode or if datum planes or the spin center are displayed (see attached screen captures). The only thing we are aware of that changed is the automatic application of standard Windows updates from Microsoft. We are in the process of removing Windows updates from the last week to try to determine which one, if any, caused this issue. I’ve already tried changing the Pro/E graphics setting from opengl to win32_gdi and setting compatibility for Pro/E to Vista and didn’t get any improvement in the graphics (win32_gdi made it worse). We may end up installing Nvidia cards in all these PCs, but for as often as they are used for CAD and the fact that they were working fine a little over a week ago leaves me wanting to know what happened. If anyone has seen this before or has other ideas on what to check, let me know. Thanks!

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[egifford]

Update:

I received one reply from a user indicating they had some graphics issues with WF4 onlaptops with intel cards. In their case switching froma Windows Aero to Windows Classic for display options fixed some graphics issues. Unfortunately it didn't resolve what we're running into.

We've also tried using the Windows System Restore function to roll the system back tohow it was in early December (I last ranPro/E trainingon these PCs without issue in mid and late December). Again, no dice. Makes me wonder how thorough the System Restore function really is.

For now we're going toinstall a spareNvidiacard in one PC to see if it provides a fix. My guess is that it will.At this point it may actually be cheaper to just get 6 Quadro FX580 cards and install them vs. additional time trying to find the root cause. It just bugs me not knowing what change caused the problem.

Erik

[egifford]

Big thanks goes out to Son Nguyen. He reported seeing similar problems at his site and it was related to an internal web page set as the home page for the internal browser in Pro/E. To check this I reset the config setting web_browser_homepage to "none" just to not direct it to anything. Toggling back and forth between that and our internal Pro/E help page basically turned the graphics problem on and off. The problem also started appearing on new Windows7 systems equipped with Nvidia Quadro FX580 video cards, so it appears to be something with Windows 7, our version of Pro/E, the browser used and our internal help web page - not the card. The help pages work fine in Internet Explorer outside of Pro/E, but opening it on the problematic systems in the Pro/E browser panel essentially breaks the session of Pro/E. I'll have to find out what in our help page is causing the problem (I edited it early this month) but for anyone else that runs into this issue, this is the area to look in for the fix.