Hi what are the best files to import into bobcad from alibre to keep it stable
it seems everytime i try to import a stl file it crashes after about 1 min" and the stl are white blank looking but i know its there." and stp arent very good either which one do you guys recommend
ALSO anyone know what happened to the bobcad support forumn
" im running vista with an nvidia card i have done the bobcad optimizie"


JOhn

BobCAD will work with STL files but I don't think you want to use them for mechanical parts.

STL files are best for art type work. The main reason is you can't edit the file, get wire frame from it or any other editing.

You can cut an STL and your can scale it up or down. But that is about it.

As far as file translators go with BobCAD:

DXF wire frame

IGES trimmed surface files

Step Solid files

BobCAD has other translators but this breaks down what works the best for importing into BobCAD

BobCAD does have direct file translators for autocad and solidworks and rhino, SAT, and X_T and B

But most of the time I use a STEP for solids and that seems to work the best.

Yes you can still have an issue with import because of bad surfaces poor drawings or un support surface types.

Sometime you need to clean up the file from import, or edit for machining.

Either way I feel BobCAD does a good job of this!

it is definitly the nvidia card i did all the settings per bobcad but still does it
crashes about every30 seconds when i take the card out bobcad doesnt crash. all of my other programs work fine with the nvidia 8600gt except bobcad maybe somebody will jump on here and give me some help if i take the card out man alibre rhino corel they all look horrible i have to keep this card

John

I think BobCAD has an issue with the 8 or 9 nvidia cards. I believe they are working on a fix.

You're running vista?

I have 8 series card and vista no problems. update your driver if you havent and if you havent there is a fix for vista on the support page.
Hope something helps. good luck
Randy

I think BobCAD has an issue with the 8 or 9 nvidia cards. I believe they are working on a fix.

You're running vista?

It not just Bobcad that has an issue with nvidia cards
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10000353-1.html

"The issue is a weak die/packaging material set, which may fail with GPU temperature fluctuations. If your GPU fails, you may see intermittent symptoms," the Dell blog said.

well
now I know why it drops out in gaming apps.
looks like its time for another card but no issues with bobcad as of yet.
Randy

and the stl are white blank looking but i know its there."

ALSO anyone know what happened to the bobcad support forumn
JOhn

I'll tackle the hard ones!

http://www.bobcadsupport.com/forum/ is the support forum for the software.

for your imported models, enter selection mode and select the model then right click and choose ok. Then right click the model again and choose Modify Attributes-Color and pick the color you want it to be.

If you rotate the view a bit those white invisible models kindof appear a bit more.

Hi what are the best files to import into bobcad from alibre to keep it stable
it seems everytime i try to import a stl file it crashes after about 1 min" and the stl are white blank looking but i know its there." and stp arent very good either which one do you guys recommend
ALSO anyone know what happened to the bobcad support forumn
" im running vista with an nvidia card i have done the bobcad optimizie"


JOhn

Export a STEP AP 203 file (*.stp)

it is definitly the nvidia card i did all the settings per bobcad but still does it
crashes about every30 seconds when i take the card out bobcad doesnt crash. all of my other programs work fine with the nvidia 8600gt except bobcad maybe somebody will jump on here and give me some help if i take the card out man alibre rhino corel they all look horrible i have to keep this card

John

You may have to adjust the Nvidia Settings. For example the Triple Buffering works best turned OFF, while the Thread Optimization is set to AUTO, Maximum Pre-Rendered Frames set to 8, etc.

This is why I stepped away from common graphics cards and went to the CAD/CAM cards. There are fewer problems and better results.

One question, does your 8600gt have shared ram memory? You should really be using a card with Dedicated RAM.

If your card is using shared memory try increasing the virtual memory or buying more ram sticks. This might help with small files around 25mb but larger files around 35-100 will have white out screens and eventual crashes.

Good luck.

This is always a fun debate...which came first the gamer or the drafter.

I like to think that the gamer came first, but then again how would he play a game without somebody creating the characters. But how would he create characters if there wasn't somebody to play the game?

In this case Toby has a point, Professional Grade graphics cards are going to give better performance, especially in CAD applications. ATI, for example, optimizes the OpenGL performance on the Professional cards and not the Consumer Grade cards, which creates quite a bit of difference in how systems perform.

However, there is something to be said for a nice inexpensive card that gets you from A to B without a lot of hassle.

The 8600GT does have dedicated on board memory.

But for the 8 and 9 series cards there is an update which resolved a lot of issues, including crashes on Vista Operating systems.

Regards


Regards

could you give me a model of a good ati card that is as good as the 8600gt if not better for around the same price i want to try out one of those radeon cards


John

Right now anything in the HD 3 or 4 series would be comparable or better* than the 8600GT.

*This is relative to the drivers and memory on the card. I do not use these cards myself, so I can't speak to their stability or performance.

Regards

The 8600GT does have dedicated on board memory.


The Desk Top Version of this card has dedicated memory while the GT8600M (Lap Top Version) has 256MB dedicated and will use up to 256MB more of Physical RAM if needed on DELL PC's.

I have no idea what the others do to their PC's. Usually I buy the Lap Tops that Cadalyst Magazine Tests on High End Software.

It makes for less confusion.

Still the best CAD/CAM PC's are built by the user and do not have all the useless stuff found on factory built PC's.

John,

The type of Graphics Card you need depends on a few things.

1) Desk Top or Lap Top PC
2) PCI or PCI-E
3) Mother Board Configuration (Lap Tops usually have an Inset Chip not a Graphics Card)
4) Money what do you have to spend??

Here is a good example.

Two Nvidia Cards both 1 GB in Graphics RAM
the video game card will be about 4 to6 times cheaper than a CAD Card.

Look around NewEgg or Tiger Direct and you will see the difference in $$$ Video Game Cards are cheap while Workstation cards are more expensive.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/Category.aspx?Category=38&name=Video-Cards-Video-Devices

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=3596