Solidworks graphical bugs in Fusion 3, which didn't appear in Fusion 2

[eobet]

Hello!

I just installed the trial of Fusion 3, and I'm very disappointed to find the following new graphical glitches, which didn't appear in Fusion 2:

If you open a sketch in Solidworks 2009 SP 3.0, nearly all of the sketch lines are invisible, including ones you try to create.

Now, I'm pretty sure this is due to the new DirectX 9 3D support in Fusion 3, but Solidworks is an OpenGL application.

Oddly enough, though, disabling the 3D acceleration inside of Solidworks is greyed out. And disabling the 3D acceleration in Fusion 3 kinda defeats the purpose of having it, it seems.

Anyone know where I can file an official bug report about this?

And step two, I guess is, how do I downgrade to Fusion 2 again?

Thank you!

[rcardona2k]

bummer.

Anyone know where I can file an official bug report about this?

If you have support, you can open a support request at www.vmware.com/support/ otherwise VMware does read these forums.

And step two, I guess is, how do I downgrade to Fusion 2 again?

Steps are in several posts:

1. While still running VMware Fusion 3.0.0 uninstall VMware Tools in the virtual machine.

2. Uninstall VMware Fusion 3.0.0.

3. Install VMware Fusion 2.0.6.

4. Install the 2.0.x VMware Tools in your virtual machine.

[eobet]

I haven't bought Fusion 3 yet because of A) this, and B) I bought Fusion 2 normally (silly me) and because of that, I can't seem to get the student upgrade price.

When I have though, I'll file a support request.

However, in the meantime, I've discovered that running without 3D acceleration enabled in Fusion 3 is PAINFULLY SLOW.

EDIT: Not only is it slow, it's also completely unusable, as popup menus are hidden behind docked menus which makes it impossible to click on certain options, and the docked menu doesn't update at times either. This is a disaster compared to Fusion 2... neither mode works!

[outwest]

FYI

Running Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode: XP, My SolidWorks 2000 seems to run fine (including PhotoWorks).

But, running Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode: XP won't run at all - several errors.

[eobet]

2000? I hope you're not running a nine year old version of Solidworks...

[outwest]

Yep - I am running 9 year old version. I bought it when I was doing a lot of consulting but, I'm retired now and can't see spending lot's of $ for an old-mans occasional hobby. My CAD / music recording machine is running W2000 (XP kept crashing Cakewalk. W2k is real stable).

Actually, I occasionally do some CNC mill work and projects for an old client that doesn't want to upgrade either. We're happy campers with old suff. And, best of all, I just got Fusion3 running with Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode. :smileygrin: Now, I can do the CAD stuff on this machine.

And, lastly, to humor you, my CNC machine is still running on DOS

[eobet]

Yes, well... I do believe that in 9 years, the graphics rendering of Solidworks might have changed a bit...

Is anyone else running a newer version of Solidworks?

I went back to Fusion 2 now, and everything is normal again, no graphical bugs, even with enabled 3D acceleration and all.

[cookieme]

Yes, well... I do believe that in 9 years, the graphics rendering of Solidworks might have changed a bit...

Is anyone else running a newer version of Solidworks?

I went back to Fusion 2 now, and everything is normal again, no graphical bugs, even with enabled 3D acceleration and all.

I've tried SolidWorks 2010 SP0 x64 on a Windows XP Pro x64 VM and I am also noticing graphical glitches. I turned off "Accelerate 3D Graphics" and it seemed to solve the problem, but I haven't done extensive testing.

[outwest]

... well, now that I needed to do some work with SolidWorks, I see that with the graphics accelerator turned on, the lines and other things are a good bit buggy. I turned off the accelerator and have no problems now with Fusion 3, Snow Leopard and running in 64-bit mode (booting with 6 and 4 key depresed when booting). Maybe I'll make the more permanent change so the default is 64-bit, rather than 32-bit. If you don't know what I'm referring to, here's a link...

http://www.9to5mac.com/snow-leopard-64-bit-32-bit-firmware-efi

[eobet]

Well, this is a dilemma. I need to work in Solidworks, so I must have Fusion 2.0 installed, but I would like to buy Fusion 3.0, but of course I won't until the bug is fixed and I can't install it to see if it is either...

Not sure what to do.

Any official work from VMware on this, perhaps?

[eobet]

Has anyone tried Solidworks in the new 3.0.1 yet with 3D acceleration enabled? Are the bugs still there?

I currently do not have time to try 3.0 again, if I am going to have to uninstall everything in order to get 2.0 back.

[eobet]

This is the longest time yet I've gone without a fix.

Has there been any word when the next update to fix issues with 3D acceleration will be released?

I've still not bought 3.0 and I think my 30 days are up (even though I uninstalled it) so I'm not really sure how to proceed.

[rcardona2k]

It looks like Solidworks is coming natively to OS X: Solidworks Moving to Mac OS X

[jeez]

Hi eobet,

I've tried SW09 SP0.0 in Fusion 2 and now 3.0.1, using Windows 7 x64.

With "Accelerate 3D Graphics" enabled in 3.0.1, SW is very choppy, I would say not very usable. This is on a very basic assembly consisting of less than 20 parts.

With "Accelerate 3D Graphics" DISabled in 3.0.1, SW runs much better, tested using the same assembly.

Note that the above two tests were using the default display driver for Windows 7 (VMware SVGA). I then installed the XP display driver (VMware SVGA II) which apparently enables openGL 2 on Windows 7, but on the downside disables Aero. However, my openGL 2 was still not enabled, even after two attempts at re-installing the driver and rebooting (and my Device Manager shows the correct display driver). I used OpenGL Extensions Viewer 3.0 to test which version of openGL my system is utilising). SW then performed about the same as the VMware SVGA driver with Accelerate 3D Graphics disabled. Could it be that the performance is identical? Could part of the drivers in these comparable modes use the same code?

From memory, SW09 SP0 had about the same performance in Fusion 2 as Fusion 3.0.1 (without the Accelerated 3D Graphics enabled).

One of the benefits I have of using Fusion 3 over 2 is that I can now assign 4 cores to my virtual machine instead of 2 max (I have 2008 Mac Pro Dual Quad). This matters to me when I am rendering. Also, in Fusion 2, for some reason I could never get Photoview 360 to display the model in the default preview screen - it would only show a black screen. The model would then display in the new rendering window once I hit render. Now, in Fusion 3 the model is displayed in the preview window.

Hope this info helps.

[eobet]

A blog post with a screenshot that looks nothing like Solidworks? Forgive me if I have my doubts...

Anyway, it seems that fate wants me to move to Alias Automotive which does have a native OS X version, so it may be that don't have to be a Vmware customer for much longer (unless I want to use Alias Showcase, but I seriously, seriously doubt that Fusion supports it).

[admin]

While my inner MechE would love to see SolidWorks on OS X, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. Comments in that link indicate that it's a proof-of-concept cloud app with no timeline for productization. Given the screenshot, that makes a lot of sense - it's lacking pretty much any editing tools, and I'd think it was at best a viewer.

[eobet]

Since I'm a student (again) these days, I bought the upgrade so I am now a Fusion 3 customer.

However, I'm deeply disappointed, as not a single 3D application has worked without glitches, and in Fusion 2, they either worked well, or didn't work at all.

Fusion 3 seems very half assed to me, not at all delivering what it promises.

How can I file an official bug report on this issue now, which STILL persists?

To reproduce:

1. Launch any version of Solidworks 2009 or 2010.

2. Open any Solidworks part file that has a couple of sketches with lines in them.

3. Edit any of the sketches and look at the lines.

Faulty behavior:

• Lines are randomly missing, making it impossible to edit Solidworks files.

Expected behavior:

• All lines and curves in the sketch should be visible, as they were in Fusion 2.

[jeez]

I too purchased Fusion 3 recently (with the hope of good performance using Solidworks). Unfortunately I was disappointed.

I have since purchased Parallels 5 and have to say that Solidworks performance is far superior to Fusion. If you look through the Parallels site you will see that you can purchase Parallels 5 at the upgrade price if you are a Fusion owner.