Hello.
My graphic performance is very poor. I use an IBM T40 laptop, that
performs fairly ok when using other Open GL based software (I-DEAS,
Rhino etc). As soon as I add one stl-file (a ski, bone structure
etc) it becomes very tedious to zoom, rotate and move the model.
When I add several stl-files, it is hardly an option to fiddle with
the graphic window, unless I really need to get a “show-off print-
out”. Admittedly, I have not yet tried to change any graphic
settings anywhere. Any hints on what to do?
/jokke
Hello Jokke,
This falls into two categories: The first one is about what you can
do to enhance your own graphics performance, and the second is about
why Rhino and others may (seem to) perform better.
- What you can do:
(a) Please check the installation directory of the AnyBody Modeling
System for old files with OpenGL-related names like:
gl.ddl
glu.dll
opengl.dll
If you find them, erase them. They are left over from previous
versions of the AnyBody Modeling System where we distributed them
with the system to enable it to run on older versions of Windows98.
If these files are present, the system will use them in favor of
more efficient versions that come with the Windows2000 or XP systems
and have support for the hardware processing facilities of modern
graphics cards
(b) When you generate your ski or other equipment, you can try to
reduce the number of triangles in the STL file you generate (your
CAD software most likely allows you to do so) and subsequently
convert the stl file to .anysurf format by using AnyDrawSurf rather
than AnyDrawSTL. This should give you a good image quality with
rather few triangles.
- Why other systems may perform better
Let me initially admit that they have been in the business for
longer time and probably have optimized their graphics engines more
than we have.
But the AnyBody Modeling System is not too bad in most cases. I can
rotate a shaded full-body model with lots of bones and many hundred
muscles quite conveniently on my Dell laptop running 1.3 GHz. But we
have also recently seen poor graphics performance on a newer Siemens
laptop because it had a shared memory graphics adapter.
Secondly, systems that have their own geometric representation of
surfaces such as Rhino can optimize the number of polygons they use
for the rendering and make it look good anyhow by the image
smoothing that is an inherent part of OpenGL. AnyBody uses this
smoothing too if you convert the stl files to .anysurf files.
However, AnyBody cannot automatically optimize the number of
triangles. So it may be that the stl surfaces you are loading
graphically have more triangles than geometries of seemingly similar
complexity in popular CAD systems.
I hope this helps.
Best regards
John Rasmussen
AnyBody Support
— In anyscript@yahoogroups.com, “joakim_holmberg”
<joakim_holmberg@y…> wrote:
> Hello.
> My graphic performance is very poor. I use an IBM T40 laptop, that
> performs fairly ok when using other Open GL based software (I-
DEAS,
> Rhino etc). As soon as I add one stl-file (a ski, bone structure
> etc) it becomes very tedious to zoom, rotate and move the model.
> When I add several stl-files, it is hardly an option to fiddle
with
> the graphic window, unless I really need to get a “show-off print-
> out”. Admittedly, I have not yet tried to change any graphic
> settings anywhere. Any hints on what to do?
> /jokke
Hello.
What did help (somewhat) was to delete the files glu32.dll &
opengl32.dll, both dated 2003-06-17 (on my computer) which means
that they were at least from pre 0.3 beta time (?).
Thanks!
/jokke
— In anyscript@yahoogroups.com, “AnyBody Support” <support@a…>
wrote:
> Hello Jokke,
>
> This falls into two categories: The first one is about what you
can
> do to enhance your own graphics performance, and the second is
about
> why Rhino and others may (seem to) perform better.
>
> 1. What you can do:
> ------------------
> (a) Please check the installation directory of the AnyBody
Modeling
> System for old files with OpenGL-related names like:
> gl.ddl
> glu.dll
> opengl.dll
>
> If you find them, erase them. They are left over from previous
> versions of the AnyBody Modeling System where we distributed them
> with the system to enable it to run on older versions of
Windows98.
> If these files are present, the system will use them in favor of
> more efficient versions that come with the Windows2000 or XP
systems
> and have support for the hardware processing facilities of modern
> graphics cards
>
> (b) When you generate your ski or other equipment, you can try to
> reduce the number of triangles in the STL file you generate (your
> CAD software most likely allows you to do so) and subsequently
> convert the stl file to .anysurf format by using AnyDrawSurf
rather
> than AnyDrawSTL. This should give you a good image quality with
> rather few triangles.
>
> 2. Why other systems may perform better
> ---------------------------------------
> Let me initially admit that they have been in the business for
> longer time and probably have optimized their graphics engines
more
> than we have.
>
> But the AnyBody Modeling System is not too bad in most cases. I
can
> rotate a shaded full-body model with lots of bones and many
hundred
> muscles quite conveniently on my Dell laptop running 1.3 GHz. But
we
> have also recently seen poor graphics performance on a newer
Siemens
> laptop because it had a shared memory graphics adapter.
>
> Secondly, systems that have their own geometric representation of
> surfaces such as Rhino can optimize the number of polygons they
use
> for the rendering and make it look good anyhow by the image
> smoothing that is an inherent part of OpenGL. AnyBody uses this
> smoothing too if you convert the stl files to .anysurf files.
> However, AnyBody cannot automatically optimize the number of
> triangles. So it may be that the stl surfaces you are loading
> graphically have more triangles than geometries of seemingly
similar
> complexity in popular CAD systems.
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Best regards
>
> John Rasmussen
> AnyBody Support
>
> — In anyscript@yahoogroups.com, “joakim_holmberg”
> <joakim_holmberg@y…> wrote:
> > Hello.
> > My graphic performance is very poor. I use an IBM T40 laptop,
that
> > performs fairly ok when using other Open GL based software (I-
> DEAS,
> > Rhino etc). As soon as I add one stl-file (a ski, bone structure
> > etc) it becomes very tedious to zoom, rotate and move the model.
> > When I add several stl-files, it is hardly an option to fiddle
> with
> > the graphic window, unless I really need to get a “show-off
print-
> > out”. Admittedly, I have not yet tried to change any graphic
> > settings anywhere. Any hints on what to do?
> > /jokke