Doug Gower

Hi Jeff, I don't know if this will help at all but for what it's worth I had a problem finding .ics files with my part number. For some reason in Windows 10 the search wouldn't bring up the .ics file when I searched for the part number. I could search for the .icd file right click and open path to the .ics file but that didn't work unless there was a .icd file. Someone suggested that I bring up file explorer and use the quick search in the top right but that didn't work either. Someone else suggested using Voidtools' Everything search and that worked and it is fast. Maybe that would help somehow in your case? Doug

Hello Takayuki, I've had a similar problem where the edges of a part that is linked out won't show but when I delete the part and insert a new linked copy the edges are normal again. I'm not sure why this happens either because Regenerating the part or Recreating the display won't do anything. So you might try a new copy of the part and see if that helps. Doug

Hello Isakito, I used to run Ironcad on a Power Mac G5. I tried running it on Windows with Parallels virtual machine. Parallels support was great but with the reoccurring issues it just wasn't worth the time. I was better off running it on Apple's Boot Camp utility because it ran a lot more stable. That was a long time ago so maybe things are different now. - Doug

Hi Cary, It is a little misleading to use the "Prevent Selection Below the Assembly" because if you link out another copy it is not blocked and you can still edit the part unless you set that every time. That's why I was asking for something like this before. The other thing that would be nice is to be able to shut off the auto update on the drawing. That can cause a lot of extra work if it's updated when you don't want but I think I've asked for that before. Thanks, Doug

Hi Dariusz, Are you using M1 Macbook? Good luck! Let us know how that works out.

Malcolm, That's a great example. I'll have to go back thru all of them now. :-) Thanks, Doug

Thanks for all the suggestions Joseph!

Hi Malcolm, Here's a link I found about the Quadro brand going away. I agree, both of those are serious cards and you're right about the drivers. I was looking for a new card that will last a long time but I'm starting to wonder if I might be better off if I wait a while to update the video. Some of these aren't even in stock right now. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16168/more-on-nvidia-quadro-brand-retirement-embracing-the-graphics-and-compute-overlap

I'm back in the Hardware (again) stage, so I started looking at GPUs. IronCAD recommended I use a Quadro card but if you look at the Quadro desktop products here it's a little confusing with all of the different model numbers and I heard the Quadro name is going away which might explain why quite a few of the cards here aren't Quadro anymore. I thought it was a good name for recognizing the professional cards so I'm not sure why they would drop it but whatever. https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/desktop-graphics/ I want to do more rendering with Keyshot so I decided to ask Keyshot if they recommended a video card or if they could tell me the minimum requirements. They said as far as GPU for an Enterprise card I would recommend an RTX Quadro 5000 and up, for a retail card an RTX 3080 and up would be good, these cards have tested very well for GPU rendering. Then I remembered that the IronCAD version of Keyshot has a smaller or limited screen size/pixel area so I asked if this would make any difference. (i.e., Do I really need that much GPU performance?). For what it's worth, here's what they said... So the biggest thing we see with GPU rendering is that GPU rendering will use the VRAM of the GPU card not the internal RAM like it would for CPU rendering. If you are working on larger scenes or if the scene is very complex (eg. Advanced material, physical lighting etc.) then a card with more VRAM will be necessary to utilize the GPU card. Any card with less than 12G of VRAM we have seen customer run in to issue where they will run out of memory while working. So for you I would recommend looking for a card that has at least 12G of VRAM. Hopefully this helps other IronCAD + Keyshot users out there.

I like that too. Thanks for the suggestion!

That sounds like a good idea. I'll give it a try. Thanks Spencer.

Has anyone successfully changed the background to black for ICD? I need a recommendation on what other colors need to be changed. The list is a little overwhelming at first glance.

I think you're right on that. I've had a problem with the .ics extension long ago that was related to iCalendar even though I don't use it. Maybe something in the registry I can edit but it might not be worth the effort.

Finally getting back to this. I never did figure out why .ics files don't show up for me in the search box. The search access in File Explorer does work but it's slow compared to Everything search. Thanks for the suggestion Eds!

Maybe here? https://www.3dcontentcentral.com/download-model.aspx?catalogid=171&id=943873

Joe, Hopefully those settng work for you but I did run across this if it pertains to your AMD software? It mentions a second screen problem on AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Crossfire. Sounds like there is a bug with freesync and if you disable it on both monitors in the radeon software then it works. https://community.amd.com/thread/234431

Hi Joe, Well, this doesn't sound good but maybe explains the problem running another monitor? Here it states "This device has no display connectivity, as it is not designed to have monitors connected to it." https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-pro-5300.c3665 - Doug

Good call Joseph! As soon as I saw the link for the driver I had a feeling you were on the right track. I wasn't coming up with anything.

Hi Joe, For what it's worth, years ago I tried really hard to run IronCAD on Parallels (emulator) on the Mac because I had other work on the Mac and someone thought I should run it that way. Parallels had great support but I constantly ran into issues where I was changing settings and it seemed like I was always going around in circles with the same problem. I think it had to do with memory but I couldn't tell you for sure. I ended up using bootcamp and I just remember Windows seemed to be really locked down and stable on the Mac but that was so long ago it's probably doesn't matter in your situation. I use a PC now with fewer problems or so it seems. Out of curiosity what version of Windows are you using? Doug

Jonas, that was the best explanation I've heard about this. I never understood why there was another field there for "User Name". I would rather be able to enter the description once and not have to copy it over to the "User Name" in order to show in the Scene Browser. To me it might be better if "User Name" was called "Notes" and I think if there was a setting to make "Description" and "User Name" one in the same that would be nice so you only have to type it in once. As you said "Part Number" can be considered as the most important value, I just always thought it was odd that "User Name" is on top in the Property Browser.

Hi Brent, If I just want a copy of a model with all of the parts that are linked, before I change anything I select the model and go to File > Save As. Before you hit save select the option "As Copy (Without affecting open files)". It's next to the save button. I save the assembly to a new folder and then a dialog box comes up with a lot of choices. Most of them are dimmed out. I select the first one "Copy all linked files to the new assembly file directory". As far as the drawings I just copy all those and place them in the same folder. I think that's it. I don't do this very often so I try to make sure I don't select the wrong thing there. I've created a disaster before when I did something wrong. Is that what you're talking about? The downside to this is then I have an extra copy of everything and I don't want copies of all those parts on my computer. So I would just keep a copy of all that on a backup drive or somewhere else if I really need it. Doug

Malcolm, Yeah, I've always thought it was confusing the way that worked. I always want the Part Number & Description in the scene browser to be the same as the file name and ultimately if you could change those whenever you want without unlinking the part. Maybe IronCAD can make some changes there but I know we already discussed it years ago. Doug

Hi Malcolm, All I want is the part number and description of the part. I would rather not have another field for User Name. Do you need User Name? Doug

Hi Malcolm, If you didn't find it already there are settings to change how the tree item displays and how the file name saves if you go to Options/Parts and scroll to the bottom. I would rather have the part number & description always show than the user name. It would be nice to have a setting added in there to turn that off. Doug

Good example and explanation Malcolm!