Hello I just built a new computer with a ATI Radeon 9800Pro graphics card, and now when creating any geometry its very hard to see/can't see at all. Not sure what is causing this but I had this problem before on otehr computers, any help would be appreciated! Thanks

You should use a different video card.

ATI's are great for games, but sux for CAD/CAM, especially Mastercam.

Video Card

64 MB (or more) card with hardware 3D acceleration and solid OpenGL support

This item is the cause of most critical problems a user can encounter using Mastercam. Try to work out an understanding with your hardware supplier that allows you to switch video cards if problems occur. This is especially true for users who are going to try the very expensive solutions from 3dlabs, Intergraph, and Accel.

Most video cards based on nVIDIA chipsets perform well with Mastercam. nVIDIA's Quadro4 XGL or Quadro FX chipsets are recommended when choosing cards aimed at professional workstation use, but they are much more expensive than their commercial counterparts; the GeForce series. However, the GeForce line cannot match the Quadro's strength in areas such as antialiasing, OpenGL logic operations, region/plane clipping and memory management. The GeForce2Ti/GTS/Pro, GeForce3 Ti, GeForce4 Ti and GeForce FX 5600/5900 chipsets from consumer video cards perform excellent and are a cost-effective solution. The MX iteration of GeForce cards is a low-end commercial chipset and is not recommended for advanced 3D applications such as Mastercam. The GeForce FX 5200, while a member of the FX series, is equivalent to those of the MX series and should also avoided. It should be noted that nVIDIA does not manufacture video cards; only chipsets. Companies that are licensed to manufacture video cards containing nVIDIA's GeForce and Quadro chipsets for desktop computers include Asus, BFG, eVGA, Gainward, Leadtek, MSI and PNY.

ATI's commercial line of cards which include the Radeon, Rage, All In Wonder, and Xpert series are not recommended. As it stands, ATI is notorious for having weak OpenGL implementations in its commercial drivers which can result in poor performance and instability in OpenGL-based applications such as Mastercam. ATI's workstation line of cards, FireGL, do not appear to be plagued by OpenGL issues.

In general, Mastercam's performance will improve on video cards with faster Graphics Processing Units (GPU). An nVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200 (32 MB) is faster than an ATI Radeon 7000 (64 MB).

Chris' Horsepower Pick
256MB nVIDIA Quadro FX 3000

Chris' Wallet-Friendly Pick
128MB nVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 (8X AGP)

If you get an nvidia card and still have 'ghost' or other minor display problems, you can try turning down the accelleration for the card.

HTH

Trapper14 , go into the graphics Hardware Acclaration and try lowering to start to half way , then lower if needed.

See if this helps. It should.

I do alot of very computer intesive gaming and ATI delivers the best cards for it so im not changing, but that last post saved me, I turned it down to 50% and VWWAlaa! it works great! thanks a million, now I have to write a threading program for a 7/8-32 I think thats what it is :) thanks again you guys rock!

Just remeber when playing your games turn this back up. glad it helped.
I don't really play games I am a full time Cad-cam person so all my compters are built to run MC.

(now I have to write a threading program for a 7/8-32 I think thats what it is )
Lathe or mill?
I am in the middle of a few mill and lathe programs as I type this.
Customer was promissed 6 programs by monday morning till he gets up to pace on the new version for them.

Its for a hyundai lathe, it is some sort of housing cover and has outlet engraved on it. but MC lathe im not very familiar with, I am using a carbide insert but I can't find the number of the insert right off hand, any suggestions on righting threading progs in MC lathe? Thanks

Sean

Is this a Hynudai Lathe with a Simmuans control?

I forget what it is, I will e-mail they guy and see, I almost think the control on the machine died or the monitor cause they are using a differnt monitor set on top of the machine.

Thanks
Sean

You should use a different video card.

ATI's are great for games, but sux for CAD/CAM, especially Mastercam.

Rekd,

This is an old thread but it's got some great info.

I am wondering if you could suggest some other, more current, (2008) graphic card models?

Thanks. :D

I am wondering if you could suggest some other, more current, (2008) graphic card models?

Nope. Sure can't Mike. :D

I went to the Mastercam website and got these recomendations that might be helpful to any users experiencing graphics problems:

1) 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX570

2) 512MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX1700

Just read this thread and I may have a fix. I recently upgraded to X2 MR2 level 3 and I'm stoked but I also was having some video glitches. I also use ATI video cards in the desktop and laptop, on the laptop it's integraded into the machine. In the settings menu in Mastercam under the screen menu there is a check you can turn off, it's the video acceleration, I turned it off and all is well in cad/cam land.:wee:
Cheers,
Dave