Brick Outline function not working

[ecmo47]

I'm fairly adept at using LDD but I have never been able to make the Outline on Bricks function (on the preferences tab) work. I restart LDD like it tells me to and then open the file of the model I am working on but instead of getting the rendering of my progress, it shows me a narrow triangle and is incredable slow.

I tried to reload LDD but it came up with the message that I cannot update to an older version. I assume that this is a the 4.3.6 vs 4.3.8 issues mentioned in an earlier post but Im not sure what my version actually is. When I open LDD the title page just says 4.3.

My operating system is Windows Vista (Yes, I should update!).

Thanks for any help you may be able to offer.

[Calabar]

And what about your graphic card?

[ecmo47]

uhhh.....I'm not the best at computer stuff. How would I figure out what I have?

[Calabar]

Try with this software.

Extract the zip where you prefer and double click on the executable (x32 or x64 according with your operating system).

You can produce and attach an HTML LOG file for more details on your system.

[Happy SDE]

How to find LDD version:

1. Start LDD

2. Create new empty project.

3. Press F3

4. You will see dialog like this with full version information:

Regards to "Incredibly slow".

It seems either:

1. You have problems with your video card driver (OpenGL version).

Solution - is to re-install the driver.

But for my intel laptop video card it starts behave the same way after a while.

2. You have full capability mode on.

LDD in this case will use not video card for rendering, but your CPU.

In this case it will be very-slow.

Solution:

a. Start LDD

b. Create empty model

c. Ctrl+6 or Menu->Edit->Preferences

d. Set the lowest slider "Compatibility model level" to the LEFT position (to minus).

e. Press "OK" button

f. Restart LDD

At the end you will have something like this:

Edited April 3, 2015 by Happy SDE

[ecmo47]

Thanks very much for the responses. My LDD version is the latest (4.3.8) so that is not the issue.

I downloaded LDD on to my wife's laptop (i5 chip and Windows 7) and the outline function worked perfectly so I suspect that the problem is my older operating system. I've been thinking about

getting a new computer and this may be the trigger to make it happen.

[Calabar]

Vista supports shader model 4, necessary for the "outline bricks" option.

Probably the problems is an old video card (in this case the function is not available in the option panel) or some issue with drivers or the computing power/memory of the video card.

Vista is not a bad system after SP2, a bit "heavy" but works fine (at least until 2017, when the support will be dropped out).

Did you tried with the software I linked to you?