Graphics Card with Overlay Planes?

[Scott Hopkins]

Does anyone have a graphics card that can use overlay planes? If so, are overlay planes particularly useful? Is there a speed increase? With multiple windows open, do windows drag across the screen smoother? Do I need overlay planes? Will they help me to work faster?

[Wes Macaulay]

The new ATI card I'm using can implement overlay planes, but it doesn't help Revit generally speaking. Seems to me from fuzzy memory that overlay planes are a specific feature of OpenGL that might help you if you were using raster image backgrounds in Revit a lot.

With the feature on in Revit the display looks worse as well, so I have it turned off. It would be nice to hear from the Factory on this one.

[Scott Hopkins]

Thanks for the reply Wes. It sounds as if overlay planes in Revit are a little "under implemented" at this point in time.

[FK]

Revit does not use OpenGL overlays, it implements its own. So, just get a fast OpenGL card.

[Scott Hopkins]

Thanks for the reply Fedor.

[iru69]

Thanks for the reply Fedor.
Scott, I'm not sure we really got to the bottom of this.

I did some "tests" (nVidia FX500 & GF6200) a couple of weeks ago when you first posted, and honestly, I'm not sure I could perceive a difference. I kept telling myself I could. I was hoping that the overlay planes would at least fix the dragging a dialog box issue... but it doesn't.

I read up on the OpenGL overlay planes, but Fedor put that to rest.

Maybe that checkbox for overlay planes is just there to make you think it's going faster... ;)

[FK]

Did you try alternating between several views?

[david.kingham]

It would be nice if overlay planes were unchecked when you install, after each install I have to turn them off because every computer I've put it on runs much slower with overlay on

[Wes Macaulay]

Scott, I'm not sure we really got to the bottom of this.

I did some "tests" (nVidia FX500 & GF6200) a couple of weeks ago when you first posted, and honestly, I'm not sure I could perceive a difference. I kept telling myself I could. I was hoping that the overlay planes would at least fix the dragging a dialog box issue... but it doesn't.

I read up on the OpenGL overlay planes, but Fedor put that to rest.

Maybe that checkbox for overlay planes is just there to make you think it's going faster... ;)I don't think you're going to see a difference between any two cards. If the card supports Revit's implementation of OpenGL it's going to be fine. Also try seeing how long a large model regens in 3D with shadows on -- that's the acid test for video cards and OpenGL.

Revit doesn't seem to lean too heavily on video cards.

[iru69]

I don't think you're going to see a difference between any two cards. If the card supports Revit's implementation of OpenGL it's going to be fine.
Sorry Wes, I didn't make that very clear - I wasn't comparing the two cards - I was just indicating that I had tried both cards independently with overlay on and off and hadn't noticed a difference when overlay was on or off. However, I haven't investigated yet what FK suggested (flipping through views with overlay off).

[iru69]

Did you try alternating between several views?
Yes... but it seemed exactly the same.

Maybe my projects just aren't complicated enough to benefit from overlays, or maybe my hardware is fast enough to be able to keep up on it's own, or a bit of both...

Anyway, anything the developers are doing to keep Revit going as fast as possible is much appreciated.