| 1. Question: What are the minimum graphics requirements for the IDS ? |
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Answer: The minimum screen resolution for running the IDS is 1024x768 pixels. The graphical user interface of the program is not designed for smaller resolutions. On Windows platforms the color depth must be at least 16-bit (High Color, 65536 colors). The 24-bit color depth is however recommended. In addition the graphics adapter has to support the OpenGL interface. A graphics adapter which provides OpenGL acceleration at hardware level is recommended, especially if large models are handled. On Unix platforms the recommended color depth is 24-bit (TrueColor). It is also possible to use older 8-bit (PseudoColor) graphics. The graphics adapter has to however then be capable of showing three colormaps at the same time, so that the colormap for all the program windows would be correct. Otherwise colormap flashing will result. |
| 2. Question: How can I change the IDS window size to fit my screen resolution ? |
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Answer: On Windows platforms you can use "SYSTEM->Screen Size" command in IDS to set the screen size for the program. After selecting the size you have to restart the IDS for the changes to take effect. On Unix platforms the IDS has "SYSTEM->Save Layout" command, which allows you to save the window sizes and positions for the future sessions. Before running the command you have to first move and resize the windows to wanted positions and sizes, using the normal X Window System functions. The command saves the layout information into a file, where it can be read when the program is started next time. |
| 3. Question: Refreshing of the IDS windows doesn't work on Windows platforms. Why ? |
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Answer: The reason to this kind of problems is usually in the graphics adapter driver or its settings. So the following checks and setting changes can be tried to resolve the problem: 1. If there is a newer version of the driver for the graphics adapter available at the web-site of the manufacturer, upgrade the driver on the machine. 2. Disable or decrease the acceleration of the graphics adapter. In different versions of Windows this acceleration setting is found in the following places: Windows XP: "Start->Control Panel: Display: Settings: Advanced: Troubleshooting: Hardware acceleration" Windows 2000: "Start->Settings->Control Panel: Display: Settings: Advanced: Troubleshooting: Hardware acceleration" In Windows NT the acceleration settings are only available with graphics card specific tools, so they are not necessarily found for all graphics cards. If the settings are available they are usually found under "Start->Settings->ControlPanel: Display:". 3. Test different color depth and screen resolution settings. Usually the TrueColor should be most reliable, but with some graphics cards there migh be problems with that. The minimum color depth for IDS is however 16-bit (65536 colors). |
| 4. Question: Why are the models drawn incorrectly on Windows platforms with the ATI Radeon 9700 graphics adapter ? |
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Answer: There is a known problem in running DeskArtes IDS programs on machines with ATI Radeon 9700 Pro graphics adapters and older driver version. The symptom of the problem is that when drawing the geometries in IDS, additional lines are shown in the graphics window. The problem is fixed in the version 6.14.01.6255 of the ATI driver for the Radeon graphics adapters, which can be downloaded from the ATI web-site www.ati.com. |
| 5. Question: The "Shaded" option is not shown in the settings window of the IDS on the Windows platforms. Why ? |
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Answer: If there is no "Shaded" drawing mode option available in the settings window of the IDS on Windows, only "Wireframe" and "Boxes", then you have not installed the Exceed 3D Extensions on that machine. You can fix this by installing the 3D Extensions. See the Exceed section of this FAQ. You don't have to reinstall the IDS after that. |
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