AutoNewbie Posted June 28, 2011 Posted June 28, 2011 (edited) Matching large monitors? 2? 4? 1 really large (44") and 2 smaller monitors? i need more screen real estate... Right now I have 2 matching 24", side by side. But when I get into some projects I like to have several autocad windows going as well as web and Acrobat. I'm wonder what a really large monitor, say 44", and 2 24" underneath would do... That way I could have several windows going on the large monitor and blowups on the smaller displays... Or maybe I'm approaching this wrong. Is there a better way to have multiple drawings open on different monitors without starting a new instance of autocad? Edited June 28, 2011 by AutoNewbie 2 p's in approach Quote
ReMark Posted June 28, 2011 Posted June 28, 2011 Forget monitors and buy a projector. I have a friend that displays all his work on a screen that he made out of artist canvas. It's 96x48. Big enough for you? Quote
AutoNewbie Posted June 28, 2011 Author Posted June 28, 2011 Yeah, that's big, but is it the best way to go? Right now I stretch the AC window across both monitors and that allows me to work on multiple drawings at the samr time... I'm just wondering if there is a better way... Quote
qball Posted June 28, 2011 Posted June 28, 2011 What's the resolution like on a 96x48? I guess if you sit back far enough than it won't matter. But then that would defeat the purpose of huge monitors. And you would have to stand up to poke the screen to show people things. My preferred set up is two monitors, facing my chair. I think my "working" monitor is 29" or so, and the "viewing" monitor is 21". That's what the boss gave me and I like it. Keep in mind what multiple and large monitors might do to your neck. Especially if you have a 44 above 2-24's. You will be looking up all the time unless you have a fancy reclining chair. Quote
ReMark Posted June 28, 2011 Posted June 28, 2011 The resolution? Not sure. But the image quality is superb. Quote
tzframpton Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I don't care "big" you make your screen, if the resolution doesn't match the size you're not gaining any actual screen real estate, only making things appear larger is all. Quote
Jack_O'neill Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I have two 21" widescreen monitors, side by side. While I wouldn't mind going up to 24" or even 26", I have had the opportunity recently to work in front of a 44" for a couple weeks. It was no farther away than the the ones I use now. Seemed really cool at first, but by the end of the day I was really tired. My eyes hurt, my neck was stiff and the next morning, I could barely turn my head. After the second day (and multiple doses of naproxen), I made the cad window smaller, and arranged my other applications around it. Had outlook next to the cad window, excel open above it and so forth. That seemed to help, but if i was going to spend any time on something at the top of the screen, I'd pull it down in front of the cad screen. The big screen seemed like a good idea at the time, and perhaps a better, more ergonomic arrangement could be found with more time. It would require a custom desk, which would be no problem to design and build but still, that's a lot of effort to go to for an experiment. If the monitor was lower, and tilted back so that I didn't have to scan up and down so far then perhaps it might not have the painful consequences, but based on that experience, I don't want a really big one anymore. If I catch a good sale on 26" widescreens though, look out...there will be new monitors in the house! Quote
Tyke Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I've just ordered a new 27" monitor (cost €266) to complement my 24" monitor and I wouldn't go any bigger (before I had 2x 24", but the wife snaffelled one for herself to replace her old 22" monitor). Like Jack I worked for a few day on a big setup (a 30" and 24" dual monitor system) and it was too big for me. If I needed more screen space I'd add another monitor, but for my purposes I don't need any more screen space. I was by my AutoCAD dealer this morning and they did a presentation using a projector and even in a darkened room the picture was very dark with poor contrast and colours. So if you are contemplating ReMark's suggestion be very careful what you buy. On the other hand I've seen some very good quality from other prjectors, even in bright rooms. Quote
Tiger Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I have 2 24" and that does sometimes mean more turning of the head than I would like. I have one monitor straight in front of me that has AutoCAD as big as it gets. The other monitor is to the right and turned at an angel and has all other stuff (mail, firefox, PDFs, tool palettes, Prop-window, Layer-window, X-ref-window) - I pull stuff to the main monitor as I use it, and move it back when I'm done so I only use the one monitor really, with the second one as a sort of storage space. I am wondering if perhaps you are not using the real estate that you have in the best fashion? Do you use the Ribbon? Is that taking up "too much" space? Do you have the Commandline very large? perhaps even set the Start-bar to auto-hide (I have it like that when I work only on the laptop screen to get the most area that I can)? Quote
SLW210 Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I am doing just fine on a single monitor. I had my boss cancel my order for another monitor. Quote
Patrick Hughes Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I see you are using a Nvidia GExxx graphics card. Look into whether or not that allows you to set up multiple desktops. If not you might explore the use of a Quadro card. My set up is 2 23" monitors. The main AutoCAD window is on my left monitor and I offload all toolbars and such to the right monitor. this gives me maximum window size on one monitor. For my windows task bar I have it "auto hide" which gains 20 or more pixels in height. I keep the command line at one line of test gaining another 20-60 pixels in height - and I float the text window then to the right monitor and set the height there to siplay many more lines. Next, I have multiple desktops set up. Now, any other program is sent to a separate desktop (Firefox, Excel, etc.) then all it takes to get to them is a single click into that desktop. Quote
Patrick Hughes Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I really should get into the habit of reading all posts before respond. I see Tiger has already touched on the command line height and the task bar auto hide. The point is though, maximize the AutoCAD drawing window. Even a small amount can make a difference. Quote
f700es Posted June 29, 2011 Posted June 29, 2011 I use a 28" and a 23" at work. I only have the taskbar on the left side (the 28") and it works pretty well Quote
Tiger Posted June 30, 2011 Posted June 30, 2011 I really should get into the habit of reading all posts before respond. I see Tiger has already touched on the command line height and the task bar auto hide. The point is though, maximize the AutoCAD drawing window. Even a small amount can make a difference. Repitition is the key to learning Quote
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