forum.datacad.com

I just replaced a dead monitor with a new LG Flatron E2350. There were no issues with the replacement and the computer seemed to already have the driver - it was practically plug-and-play (had to reset the resolution to max - 1920x1080). Now everything looks great except that inside the drawing pane, everything is too fat. Everything, symbols, text, even the cursor all look like the line weight has gone up. But it hasn't. All the menus, icons and text outside of the drawing pane look just fine, very sharp and crisp. Everything plots okay, too. I've browsed around all the menus I can think of, even if I was sure they didn't apply, and I haven't come across anything that changes this.

I tried a couple forum searches for things like "fat lines," "line weights," etc., but didn't readily find anything that seemed relevant.

Has anyone else ever encountered this and if so, what did you do to resolve it?

Thanks,
Ross

ross.stocks@pobox.com

Try monitor calibration ... should be several on the board ...

Don't believe it's a question of monitor calibration. As I said, the menus, icons and all the text outside of the drawing pane are clear and crisp, and by that I mean the DataCAD icons, menus and text. Everything in the DataCAD window looks perfect until you get to the area where you actually do your drawing. It's in that area the all lines, text, and even the cursor, look like they've been drawn with a #1 pencil. It's almost like the opposite of what happens when you deselect Display Line Weights. Instead of everything going to line weight 1, it all looks like everything is about line weight 3 or so.

I do know that flat screen monitors tend to swirl things - swirl means they squiggle especially lines since the pixelation is less dense it seems to be more noticable ... but it's not my strong suit - again there are several similar discussions on the boards and several of the posters are much more knowledgeable than I - hopefully one will chime in ...

There may be an INI setting to get the line thickness corrected? Another thing to try is update the video driver.

Thanks, Neil. Where would I find the INI settings? I assume you're talking about settings within a .ini file. What and where are the applicable files?

I verified the driver and then updated it anyway. No change.

I did discover however that if I reduce the resolution from the optimum (and manufacturer recommended/default) 1920x1080 to 1680x1050 it's acceptable overall. I give up some crispness in the rest of the screen for an acceptable appearance in the drawing area.

Tigere, what are some key words to lead me to relevant discussions? My first attempts to search the boards wasn't fruitful, nothing came up that seemed relevant.

Ross - I know there was quite a flurry as the flat screens started to appear - and there was a section on calibration in the manuals as well - to be honest what I know about computers and monitors I learned here - there are some very knowledgable people on the site. You might try "calibration", "screen calibration", "monitor calibration" ... and sadly the monitor itself could be ? ... I can not imagine trying to draw with out sharp lines ....

Thanks Tigere:

I really appreciate your input and I'll try some searches using those parameters, hopefully later today or this week. (Now that I have an 'acceptable' work-around, the heat is on to get some drawings out, so it might be a while before I get to 'play' around with it.)

Ross;

Did you ever find a real solution to this problem? I bought a new ASUS ZenBook and my second monitor is doing exactly what yours did. I cannot find a solution.

I did not.

Is the video driver up to date? Is the monitor INF file correct, or is it a generic monitor? You can do both of these in the Device Manager.

I hope this helps.

Did you try the Datacad Tools Menu, Program Prefs, Interface, Screen Calibration? Like you said, it's only the drawing area that's messed up and the Datacad screen calibration adjusts only the drawing board area of the program.

If the calibration doesn't work, with Datacad closed you might try opening the dcadwin.ini file in the root Datacad folder. Locate the [General] section and find or add the line Old Line Weights= and make sure it is set to true. Start Datacad and see how it looks.



Test both of these options with your monitor set to it's native resolution. There should be no reason you need to run at a lower resolution as a work around.