Configuration of graphical card

Problem 1

Symptoms

• When you drag Diamonds from your laptopscreen to a monitor screen, Diamonds crashes.
• Drawing runs sluggish:
  • The cursor is not visible.
  • The selection box is not visible.
  • The cross lines are drawn over each other and seem to clear the drawing area.
  • It is not possible to draw cut lines.
• Diamonds is slow – even with small models:
  • When selecting elements
  • When working with the model in general
• Error message on accessing results: ‘Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.’ Often accompanied by Problem in TStructure.Drawstructure

Solution a

• In Diamonds go to Options → Preferences → Tab ‘Drawing’
• Uncheck the option ‘Graphical input using Open GL’.
• Restart Diamonds and check if the problem is solved.

Solution b

• Close Diamonds.
• Start > open the app “NVIDIA control panel” > go to “Manage 3D settings”.
• Go to the tab page “Program settings” and click “Add”.
  
• Browse to the location of Diamonds.exe and hit “Open“.Up until Diamonds 2023r01 the folder is

  C:\Program Files (x86)\BuildSoft\*Diamonds version you're using*

  From Diamonds 2024 the folder is

  C:\Program Files\BuildSoft\*Diamonds version you're using*

  

• Set the prefferd graphical card to the NVIDIA and hit “Apply“.
  
• Restart Diamonds. Check if the problem is solved.
  Remember to draw in a 2D plane. Starting a drawing in a 3D is never possible.
  Turn the option ‘Graphical input using Open GL’ (see Solution a) back on/off if it’s not solved.
• If it is still not solved after playing around with the option “Graphical input using Open GL”, go back to the NVIDIA control panel  and pick the other graphical card.

Solution c

• Set the preferred graphical card for Diamonds to NVIDIA (see workflow Solution b).
• Turn off the option ‘Thread optimisation‘ and click ‘Apply‘.
  
• Restart Diamonds and check if the problem is solved.

Problem 2

Symptoms

• You don’t see the cursor of the mouse or there’s a delay on the cursor.
• When I draw a line, the line doesn’t appear immediately but after a few seconds.
• When I select elements, it takes several seconds before I see the selection.

Solution

[Windows Vista or 7]

• Close Diamonds.
• Right click the Diamonds icon on your desktop.
• Click on ‘Properties’ and go to the tab ‘Compatibility’.
• Check the option ‘Disable desktop composition’.
• Click ‘OK’.
• Start Diamonds.

[Windows 8 or 10]

• See problem 1

[virtualized Windows running on MAC]

• in the settings of the virtual machine (usually Parallels or VM Ware), there’s an option in the screen settings called ‘3D acceleration’. Turn if off.
  

Problem 3

Symptoms

• I don’t see the names of the axes, although the font size is large enough.
• When looking at the loads, I don’t see the values, although the font size is large enough.
• When looking at the results, I don’t see the values, although the font size is large enough.

No graphical problem	Graphical problem

Solution

• In Diamonds → Options → Preferences → Tab ‘Drawing’
• Uncheck the option ‘Fast rendering‘.
• Restart Diamonds and check if the problem is solved.