PIAS Handleiding  2024
Programma voor de Integrale Aanpak van het Scheepsontwerp
Bij problemen

This section contains some known problems with their solutions.

ProblemLikely causeSolution

The drop-down for boundary conditions, point weights and knuckles opens at double click, but closes immediately.

This is a problem that occurs for a certain Windows configuration option.

The drop-down will probably stay open for as long as you keep the mouse button pressed as part of the second click. You can then make a selection by releasing the button over the desired item.

In Windows versions prior to Windows 10, the drop-down will also stay open after the double click by checking the “Slide open combo boxes” option in Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System -> Advanced system settings -> Performance Settings -> Visual Effects.

Upon entering the graphical user interface (GUI) Fairway hangs and freezes just before or during the initial rendering of the model, and remains unresponsive. The operating system may report that Fairway does not respond anymore, with the option to terminate the program.

This is a known problem on Nvidia Quadro graphics adapters; at least the Quadro 1000M and M1000M, Quadro M2000M, Quadro K420, Quadro K2000, Quadro K3000M, Quadro K3100M and Quadro P600 exhibit the problem with driver versions 320.00–391.58 and possibly other types and versions. Nvidia GeForce adapters are not affected and work very well.

There are three possible solutions for this problem; if one does not work, another probably will.

  • Open the Nvidia control panel by right-clicking on the background of the Windows Desktop. Navigate to “3D Settings -> Manage 3D settings” and switch off the feature “Threaded optimization”. It is possible to change this setting for fairway.exe specifically by adding a new profile. Fairway is multithreaded already, and needs no help from the Nvidia driver.
  • Download and install a driver update from the nVidia website. At least one case is known where a P600 (released 2017) was shipped with a driver where the above had no effect.
  • When using Windows 10: In the file explorer, right-click on fairway.exe, choose “Properties”, select the “Compatibility” tab and check “Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows 8”.

Upon entering the graphical user interface (GUI) Fairway crashes, possibly with an appcrash message in aticfx32.dll.

This is a known problem in the ATi driver, specifically version 12.104.0.0 released on 19-04-2013 in combination with the AMD Radeon HD 6570 graphics adapter, and possibly other types and versions.

The problem has been fixed in version 14.100.0.0 of the driver, distributed as part of the AMD Software Suite 14.4, released on April 25, 2014. Version 8.850.0.0 of the driver is also known to work.

Curves of the same type show with different intensity.

The anti-aliasing setting is on, and you don't like it.

Anti-aliasing is a technique to reduce distortion when representing high precision graphics on lower resolution devices such as a raster display. Without anti-aliasing, curves have a jagged appearance because pixels are either turned fully on or fully off. Anti-aliasing results in graded pixel values, making curves look smoother and more precise, albeit a bit woollier.

When the position of a vertical (or horizontal) line coinsides exactly with the pixel raster, it is displayed with a width of 1 pixel at full intensity, whether anti-aliased or not.

When the line position falls in between two pixel positions, it may be displayed by either of the two pixels without anti-aliasing, at a visual inaccuracy of half a pixel. With anti-aliasing, both pixels are turned on at a reduced intensity, giving the perception of higher accuracy.

On some monitors the difference in intensity due to anti-aliasing is more noticeable than on others.

You can turn off anti-aliasing by choosing [File]→[Preferences...]→[OpenGL] and turning off “Hardware-based smoothing” and “Multi-sampling”.

Alternatively, you can reduce the difference in itensity by increasing the line width in [File]→[Preferences...]→[Curves].

The middle mouse button does not work.

Your mouse driver might be configured to assign a task to the middle button.

Exit or uninstall the mouse driver, or configure the driver.

If you are using Logitech SetPoint™:

  1. Open SetPoint
  2. Select the “My Mouse” pane
  3. Select the third button
  4. In “Select Task”, mark “Other”
  5. Choose “Middle Button”

If nothing helps, you can use the Navigation mode instead.

My 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator does not work.

There is no graphics area that has input focus.

Give a mouse click in a graphics area.

The driver has not been started while the device was plugged in.

Make sure that the device is plugged in. Then start the driver from the Windows start menu, folder “3Dconnexion”, subfolder “3DxWare”, item “Start Driver”.

The driver may not be responding.

Start the Windows Task Manager <Ctrl+Alt+Del> and end the 3dxsrv.exe process. Then follow the points above.

The appearance of some objects on screen seems wrong. This figure, e.g., shows how the ATi RADEON X300 SE display adapter partly fails to render transparency.

There may be a bug in the driver for your display adapter.

Visit the website of your adapter manufacturer and locate the latest driver that matches your graphics card. Follow the instructions for installation.

before_driver_update.png
Render-defect with old display adapter driver.
after_driver_update.png
Proper transparency with updated driver.