Disappearing solids in 3D rendering

[dstephens]

In 2008, I'm drawing a part in 3D, but it seems to have trouble with the rendering. Often, but not all the time, when I open the drawing and try to 3D orbit or zoom, the solids will either be very jumpy and spastic or they will disappear altogether. When it disappears, you can still do a select all and see some of the grips, but the solids remain invisible. These problems are especially bad in conceptual or realistic views.

 

I've already tried updating the performance tuner and adjusting the visual styles in hlsettings (turning fast silhouettes and edge settings off) and adjusting the FPS. The computer I run it on has 2 GB of RAM. Do I just have a bad video card or what? Any suggestions?

[ReMark]

Rendering, I'm told, is largely dependent upon the CPU. However, the problem of not being able to see some solids in conceptual or realistic mode may well be related to your graphics card. What are you using?

 

BTW, 2GB of RAM is pretty weak too. What is the max your motherboard will accept? What OS are you running? And, is this a 32-bit or 64-bit system?

[dstephens]

Ok, I'm running a 128 MB graphics card on Windows XP on a 32-bit system. Is there an easy way to check on max RAM capacity? (I'm not sure that's important, though; I don't think we do enough 3D modeling to justify upgrading that). So in the case that I can't upgrade any hardware, are there other settings that I can change in AutoCAD that will take some pressure off of my graphics card? I don't really need my renderings to be high-quality, they just need to be good enough to see what I'm doing.

[ReMark]

You mention rendering and viewing in conceptual and realistic modes. What's more important to you? Can you view everything in 2D or 3D wireframe? Can you view everything in 3D hidden?

 

I'm not sure what you can do to improve the rendering. I'll have to leave that to others more knowledgeable than myself.

[dstephens]

Well, it's more severe of a problem in conceptual and realistic, but it sometimes struggles in wireframe and hidden, too. Thanks for your help. I might just have to suffer through it.

[ReMark]

I had the same problem (not the rendering part) when I was running a 128MB AGP graphics card. My coworker, on the other hand, did not. He was running a 256MB PCIe graphics card with OpenGL support.

 

Regarding your computer system. I take it that there is a PCIe graphics card installed, right? What card are you using? Have you considered the possibility of swapping it out with another card? Don't give up so easily.

[Pocket]

Sounds like a hardware issue

 

Mine was a lack of RAM and ancient graphics card

 

It got so bad it began affecting simple shade as well

 

[Cad64]

Ok, I'm running a 128 MB graphics card on Windows XP on a 32-bit system. Is there an easy way to check on max RAM capacity?

 

The maximum amount of RAM that a 32 bit system can utilize is somewhere around 3.25GB. Provided you have set the 3GB switch in your boot.ini file. So adding any more than 4GB will just be a waste of money.

 

But you definitely need to upgrade your graphics card. The ATI Radeon x600 se is a low end graphics card. That aint gonna cut it. You need to get yourself a good workstation card. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/hc?siteID=123112&id=6711853&linkID=9240618

[ReMark]

My suggestion to add RAM was not indented to imply it would solve the display problem. If that is the impression you got (the OP) I apologize. I too agree it is more related to the graphics card. Do as Cad64 suggested.