OMG!! HELP !!! MY REVIT DRAWINGS IS GONE !!!

[Richard McCarthy]

HI GANG!
OMG, I AM FREAKING OUT HERE !!!!!
I came back to work today and open up my Revit file I worked on monday, and it opens fine, it opens with 3D view (The view I last saved..)
then when I open the Level 1 view THERE IS NOTHING IN THE VIEW except Grids and Texts.... I am really freaking out here.... How can this happen? All the 3D views still working so the model is still there, but all of the 2D plan view is empty except for grids and text....!!

I have checked all the Visibility settings and View Range but none of the drawings is still visible...

Anyone have encounter anything like this??....

<I am still shaking.. Boss is cominig back from meeting....>

[beegee]

Hi Richard,

It has to be a visibility / view range setting.

Try applying another view template to that view.
Try adjusting the view range planes.
Try another detail level setting ( medium, fine.. )
Try adjusting the view scale.

I'm sure you'll get it back ....

[Richard McCarthy]

Hi BeeGee,
Thanks for the tips, but I work it out now... PHEWWWW...

It isn't the visibility issue, and it isn't the view range issue either..
Turns out, it's the FREAKING OPENGL issue....
I don't know when I turn OpenGL on (probably friday after some heavy drinking) and it seems to work on Monday, but today, it didn't work and I forgot about it...Weirdest thing, just before, while I am debugging it, if I just pan a little bit, sometimes, drawing show up again, for a brief 0.5 second, then disappear totally (except grids and text).

So, for anyone in the future to encounter this problem,
The solution is to TURN OFF the OpenGL display AT ALL TIME. This option seems to be VERY problematic at this version (6.0 or ALL THE VERSION before it as well :()

I mean, OpenGL works great when it work (if you have a compatible card..) in both 2D and 3D, as it speeds up re-draw time dramatically (especially in 3D), but if you don't have compatible card, even if you do, it seems it still have problems sometimes.

What I don't understand with OpenGL issue is that, why is OGL implementation so problematic in Revit..? OpenGL is created as general API to be cross-platform and stable, but in Revit it seems all the issues are always not compliant "compatible" card..(not even platform free?)

To Revit Team... I really like to see OpenGL implemented properly in the next release (hint hint ;)) because I believe OpenGL is such a robust display API (most high-end 3D/CAD package uses OGL for display eg. Catia, Solidworks, Rhino, Autodesk Inventor. Pro-Engineer, even ArchiCAD) and it should be easy to implement (I am not the one to judge on this as I don't code, but I do believe hearing from my programmer friends that it's a lot easier than Direct X)

[Scott D Davis]

When you turn on and off Open GL, it only affects windows that are opened after the change. So on Friday, you probably changed it, and had all of your display windows open. When you closed Revit, and reopened today, the newly opened windows didnt display correctly.

[FK]

OpenGL is a lovely API, but for hardware acceleration to work, the hardware must implement it. Some video cards have very buggy implementations. This market fragmentation may eventually lead to OpenGL's demise, which would be very sad.

When you turn Revit's hardware acceleration off, it's still OpenGL, but it is processed on the CPU, not the video card. It's slower, but more robust.

Revit uses more OpenGL features than your average video game. These features may not have been well tested by the card manufacturer.

If problems are fixed by turning off hardware acceleration, it's a video card problem, not Revit problem. We can try and code around bugs in specific cards, but we can't anticipate all of them.

[Wes Macaulay]

Very good to know, FK. I like hearing about the guts of Revit and that fact that you guys are doing your best to make things work while working with less than perfect circumstances.

Richard, what sort of video card do you have? What's your setup?

[Richard McCarthy]

The computer I am working on at the moment has a GeForce FX 5200.
FK : I am glad to know that Revit support more OGL features, and that it is full implementation of OGL.

The software OGL it runs on is definitely fast for a software renderer, I guess I just have to wish that NVIDIA and ATI (or even S3) would bring out some low end cheap FULL implementation OGL card.... (now I am dreaming)

[aaronrumple]

I've never seen Open GL run without problem. Inventor, Viz, Max etc. etc. As stated above, Open GL was a good idea, but is too fragmented to be a solid standard. Unfortunatly DirectX looks like a much better option for programs tied to Windows.

[Danny Polkinhorn]

FK,

There have been many posts here about video cards recently and it's further complicated by changes that the factory's making under the hood. So, configurations and recommendations that people are making may be bad in one build and good in the next.

We are currently trying to make assessments of video cards that will work with Revit, but it's difficult in this scenario.

For me, I want to know what cards are in use on your machine, because clearly you guys will fix whatever problems you're encountering. We just want an honest opinion from the inside about what cards you have and what you've found to be successful with OpenGL.

Thanks!

[FK]

What you really want to know is what the architects in Revit QA are using. It's a good idea to publish lists of tested cards with each release, you need to bug your support reps to get that done.

[beegee]

It's a good idea to publish lists of tested cards with each release, you need to bug your support reps to get that done.

Why bug them ?

If its a good idea can't it just be done ?

( or are you worried about the flack from the card manufacturers not listed as tested/approved ?
Answered my own question. :wink: )

[Danny Polkinhorn]

or are you worried about the flack from the card manufacturers not listed as tested/approved ?

This site is neither (officially) sanctioned or sponsored by Autodesk. So, fire away. Yes, you over there in QA, speak up! :wink:

[FK]

Getting card manufacturers unnerved would be a good thing.

Note that changes in the card's drivers may have greater effect on the end result than changes in Revit. So, you want to find a card/driver combination that's known to work with a particular release and stick with that.

I don't deal with hardware acceleration myself, so I can't tell you which cards are good. It is a job for QA. I hear that nVidia tends to have good OpenGL support, but apparently it varies...

[GuyR]

My theory is that Revit pushes video hardware much like Mech.CAD programs such as Solidworks, Inventor etc.

So using rivatuner and the unofficial nVidia builds on my GF2 I found Revit much more stable using rivatuners solidworks presets.

Using mobile ATI now and haven't been able to find an equivalent to rivatuner for the ATI cards.

If I was looking for a desktop card I'd check out some of the Mech.CAD sites for reviews on videocards and check out tested hardware on the Solidworks/Inventor websites.

Failing that, get a card and try it.

HTH,

Guy