Pro E Wildfire 2.0 Student Version Crashes

Very simple assy. 3 parts. Pro e just ends abruptly. Tried recreating
the parts. I thought maybe parts could be corrupt since I created them
on the academic version at school. It still crashes consistantly on
the third asm part, pin connection. I have tried adding the text file,
whatever it was, and it stilled crashed. Hardware: brand new HP
pentium D 820 dual core 2.8 mhz, 1.0 gig ram. tel(R) Graphics Media
Accelerator Driver Report


Report Date: 11/22/2005
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 00:45:57
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4299
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 2 (5.1.2600)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 1014 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 224 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 7 MB
Processor: x86
Processor Speed: 2800 MHZ
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 2772
Device Revision: 02

OP system shows XP pro, but when system boots up, it read windows xp
media version. when i pull up help, and "about", the banner reads xp
pro, and when I open up the info on the graphis (see above) it shows XP
pro, so..?? I don't know.

but anyway..

When I do a contol alt delete, no other applications are running. When
I click the processes tab, there are lots of applications, but I assume
these are not running. I have also tried reducing my graphics
acceleration from full to none to halfway.

This is extremly disappointing. Adding the text file should have been
a test as to whether or not it was my graphics card or not. I really
thought I had a screamer system and was hoping I did not have to buy a
graphics card. I appreciate any help with this issue.

 

There are lots of approved graphics cards. Any suggestions for "the
best card for the money". At school, they are using a integrated 128
meg ATX something, I think its a Radion (I know I said intergrated, it
is). It works kinda OK for the most part. Thanks.

 

I've tried running Pro/e on home computers that did, virtually, the same
thing--blinked off when I tried to access a certain menu. Every time I tried to do
a Gaussian curvature analysis, the program crashed. I think it was the integrated
video adapter which grabbed a section of system memory for video. What a dumb
idea. It was so easily corrupted, given its variable size. The really
disappointing thing was that it didn't do this on the school computer, so I was
pretty sure it was hardware related.

Don't know what you're talking about; "adding the text file"? What text file? What
are you "adding" it to and why? Is this something in a course book? What's it
supposed to accomplish? I've worked a bit with mechanisms which is what you're
making and I never ran into anything about "adding the text file".

This is not only a mystery but quite disturbing: this "Graphics Media Accelerator
Driver", is it an HP component? Is it what passes for a video driver? Is it
DirectX derived/directed? The problem with all this stuff is that it's not what
Pro/e needs. Pro/e needs strong OpenGL support, hardware and driver-wise. That's
what powers Pro/e. It was invented by SGI to power Maya/Studio Tools. This is
graphics hardware and drivers that are made for 3-D CAD and NURBS surfacing and
simulation. It's specialized, highly specialized. Your hardware/software setup is
plagued by being ultimate generic and anti-specialization. To see what you might
have gotten from HP that was automatically guaranteed to work with Pro/e, check
this out: http://www.hp.com/workstations/segments/mcad/ While the price is low as
a basic starter setup that'll give you trouble-free performance, you can customize
them for lots more money and get lots more performance.

What do the OEM disks say?

The best card for the money comes in a qualified, approved, supported and/or
certified hardware configuration. PTC doesn't certify or approve cards alone but
only in certain setups. You can buy a card that costs 5x more than the computer
and just have bought yourself a pile of trouble. That's why PTC puts out a list of
certified/supported configurations for each release of Pro/e. Get the righrt
computer and it'll have the right card. Trade in the "screamer" for one of these
from HP:
http://www.ptc.com/WCMS/files/30892en_file1.pdf