Driver

I just loaded SW 2006. When I opened it up, there came a message

"The Use Software OpenGL option has been enabled because of a recent
configuration change. Click Connect for more information." This
brought me to a list of video drivers.

Is SW telling me that I need a new video driver? When I try and open
a part file, I can see the preview, but the part will not open up.

Any help is appreciated. Help!

 

What GPU (Graphic card) do you have? it seems that SW does not recognize
your hardware / its drivers..

updating drivers should help, if your graphic card is good enough to run
SW (geforce, preferably Quadro, or some ATI models)

Also, there is check box on Options -> Performance -> use software
OpenGL (this works only, when no windows are open in SW) try to disable it.

 

My video card is an Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900
with 128 shared DDR memory (thats what my spec's show)
I was running SW 2005 with no problem.
Graphics card and driver are two sparate items right?

 

Well, that video card is not good for SW (it has very limited or none 3D
capabilities), youll probably get SW to "work" somehow with it, but with
really poor performance... Check SolidWorks website for what Video Cards
do work correctly with SW, some cheap Quadro card would do good.

Drivers are bits of software that tell your windows how specific
hardware component should work... so yes, they are separate things.

 

So when it sends me to "open GL" its asking for a new video card, not a
new driver?

 

Is a "graphic card" something that can be downloaded or hardware that
needs to be installed?

 

It's a hardware wich needs to be installed and then it needs drivers to
function properly.

 

About 2 years ago, I ran into a similar problem. My VAR recommended a
NVIDIA Quadro FX500/FX600 Video Card which has worked fairly nicely
every since. There is a wide range of card and a wide range of prices.
When I purchased this card it was about $230. I purchased it over the
net. I would guess that the price hasn't changed much.

Hope this helps,

Ed

 

When you go to the support section of the SW web site you will find a
link to approved video cards and drivers. SW will give this message
when your video system does not meet these requirements as a last ditch
effort to make itself work.

Can you tell us what video card and driver you have loaded?

 

Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family