Autodesk Inventor® Hardware Web Site

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Last Updated
8/17/2010
Frequently Asked Questions



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17. I have installed a tested driver correctly and I do not have any hardware acceleration or it is still using GDI Generic mode.
  1. Check items above.
  2. Check the color resolution and screen resolution settings.
    1. Autodesk Inventor® will not run correctly at 256 or 16-color resolution.
    2. Specific graphics cards may not show acceleration at some color settings.
      1. Most cards require 32 bit (or true color) to enable OpenGL hardware acceleration.
      2. Some older cards may only show acceleration with 16-bit color
  3. If the combination of screen resolution and color depth is such that more physical memory is required than the card has, acceleration may not be available. For example, a card with 8 MB of memory at 1900 x 1600 screen resolution set to true color will not have hardware acceleration for even one window.
    1. This is almost always true for non-CAD rated graphics cards.
    2. CAD rated graphics cards may pause, as they swap data stored in internal memory into the main workstation memory, then continue operation with full acceleration.
  4. Check that hardware acceleration is enabled in the graphics display dialog.
    1. This may be on a special"AppSet" (Application specific Settings) tab or in the troubleshooting tab or button (on the settings tab).
    2. Enable the hardware acceleration using the checkbox or slider.
  5. Check the graphics display dialog for any application specific settings. Autodesk Inventor® is intended to run with application specific settings set to default (not set to"Autodesk Inventor" or"Inventor") unless this web site states otherwise.
  6. Test an OpenGL screen saver, such as "3D Flower Box" If these do not run, there is still a driver installation problem.
  7. If the card appears to be stuck in GDI generic mode, after everything else has been tried,
    1. The graphics card may not have the correct software or enough hardware to support OpenGL acceleration. Autodesk Inventor® checks the card each time a new OpenGL graphics window is opened. (This is the window that contains Autodesk Inventor® parts, assemblies, drawings etc.) If it does not find enough resources to run OpenGL it will drop into software emulation mode and use the Microsoft GDI Generic OpenGL driver.
      1. This mode allows Autodesk Inventor® to run, but it is slow and it does have problems. Some functionality will not be available.
    2. The registry key discussed in "I wish to have more control over how Autodesk Inventor® uses the graphics card or to understand the new hardware"
      1. may contain a "Force GDI" value. If it does, delete it.
      2. may contain an entry "OptmizationLevel = 0. if it does, delete the entry.
      3. Test Autodesk Inventor®.
    3. Delete the following register Folders (replace "" with the version of Autodesk Inventor® i.e. "8.0")

Note This action will delete custom Inventor settings and restore the default configuration.

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAutodeskInventorRegistryVersion

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareAutodeskInventorCurrentVersion

Start and then close Autodesk Inventor® - This causes Autodesk Inventor® to re-register, an operation which reinitializes these registry sections and then save the current configuration (which is done on exit)

  1. Did your system have a virus on it? If so the graphics driver may be damaged. Re-install it. If a new driver is available, I would normally take this opportunity to upgrade my driver.
    1. Drivers for workstation cards are available from this site.
    2. Drivers are available from the graphics card vendor or for laptops from the laptop vendor.
  2. Check the Autodesk Inventor® news group and/or contact product support.


Note: It is highly recommended that you download and install the driver certified on this web site before reporting problems.