Hardware Settings

Sets a driver for the graphics card and sets options for hardware acceleration.

Enable Hardware Acceleration

Uses hardware acceleration. When this check box is cleared, hardware acceleration is not used, and all the items in this dialog box are unavailable. For information on why hardware acceleration might not be available, see Hardware Acceleration Troubleshooting in the Driver and Peripheral Guide.

• Green check mark indicates a graphics card that is certified and can run all features.
• Yellow warning indicates a graphics card that is certified and cannot run all features. If the graphics card is unknown, the performance tuner displays the yellow warning, and you can use hardware acceleration at your own risk.
• Red alert indicates a graphics card that is not certified. The check box is cleared, and Enable Hardware Acceleration is unavailable.

Driver Name

Sets a driver for the graphics card. (Autodesk or other custom drivers that might be installed). If no drivers are certified for the graphics card, “no certified drivers” is displayed. Changes to the driver might affect the Hardware Effects List.

Current Effect Status and Value

Lists features available for the current driver and indicates their status. A green check mark indicates a feature that is supported; you can turn it on or off. A yellow warning indicates that the feature is not recommended; you can turn it on or off. A red alert indicates that the feature is not supported and cannot be turned on.

• Enhanced 3D Performance (formerly known as Geometry Acceleration). Enables a more efficient use of the graphic card when working with 3D objects.
  NoteIf you experience problems with precision, turn this option off.
• Smooth display. Controls the status of the full screen anti-aliasing effect. This option removes the jagged effect on the display of diagonal line and curved edges.
• Advanced material effects. Controls the status of the advanced materials effect on screen.
• Gooch hardware shader. Enables the use of Gooch shading. With this option on the details of a 3D object are shown by softening the contrast between lighted areas and shadowed areas by using warm and cool colors as a substitute to light and dark colors.
• Per-pixel lighting. Enables the computation of colors for individual pixels. With this option on the 3D objects and lighting effects appear smoother in the viewport.
• Full shadow display. Enables shadows to be displayed in the viewport.
  NoteEnhanced 3D performance effect must be turned on.
• Texture compression. Enables the use of texture compression to reduce the amount of video memory required to open and display a drawing that contains materials with images or has attached images.
  NoteWith this option turned on, the time it takes to load the images might increase the first time that they are accessed, and there is a reduction in the quality of the images when they are displayed in the viewport or plotted.
• Enhanced 2D precision. Enables the Enhanced 2D precision effect. With this option turned on, the precision artifacts that can be seen at extreme zoom levels are removed.
  NoteThis option is only available if you are working on a Windows Vista platform. Turn on this option only if you experience problems with precision because it will decrease the graphics card performance.

Emulate Unsupported Hardware Effects in Software When Plotting

Controls whether software emulation is used for unsupported hardware effects when plotting shaded viewports with shadows and other effects that are not supported by your graphics card.

WarningIt is recommended that you not use any type of remote access application, such as NetMeeting, Remote Desktop, or any windows emulating software in conjunction with hardware acceleration. Most remote access applications do not support hardware acceleration, and as a result, can cause general display failure and instability. Prior to using a remote access application with AutoCAD, check with the software vendor to see if it supports hardware acceleration and if not, disable hardware acceleration prior to starting the remote access software or use the /NOHARDWARE command line switch to start AutoCAD in Software mode.

General Settings

Sets performance-related options that are not hardware dependent.

Discard Back Faces

When selected, the back faces of objects are not drawn.

Smooth Faces by Default

When selected, the facets in a polyface mesh object are made smooth when displayed in the viewport and in a rendering. This is useful when using objects that were imported through 3DSIN or when using PFACE objects. Note that when you select this option, all objects in the drawing are made smooth. If you don’t want all objects to be smooth, recreate the model using a different object type.

Transparency Quality

Adjusts the transparency quality used when viewing or rendering a model. The transparency quality used is dependent on if software or hardware acceleration are used, or if a model is being rendered. The default quality is Medium.

Software acceleration

• Low quality produces a screen-door effect to achieve transparency without sacrificing speed.
• Medium quality uses a combination of the screen-door effect and alpha blending.
• High quality uses simple alpha blending, which can cause graphical artifacts to appear based on the current draw order.

Hardware acceleration

• Low quality uses simple alpha blending, which can cause graphical artifacts to appear based on the current draw order.
• Medium quality uses a two-pass algorithm to draw all opaque objects, followed by all transparent objects. The transparent objects are drawn using simple alpha blending, which can cause graphical artifacts to appear based on the current draw order. The graphical artifacts are less noticeable due to the opaque objects being drawn prior to the transparent objects.
• High quality improves on medium quality by sorting transparent objects to decrease the appearance of graphical artifacts. However, the sorting does not completely eliminate all graphical artifacts.

Rendering

• Low quality disables the use of transparency for all materials, and the materials are rendered as opaque instead.
• Medium quality enables transparency for materials, but the actual material opacity used is the square root of the specified material opacity.
• High quality enables transparency and the opacity assigned to a material is mapped directly to Mental Ray rendering engine.

Drawing Settings

Sets performance values on a drawing level.

Dynamic Tessellation

Sets the options that determine the smoothness of the objects in a drawing. Objects are drawn using many short lines (or triangles when drawing spheres). These lines are called tessellation lines. Objects in your drawing appear smoother when you use more tessellation lines.

Surfaces

Determines the amount of detail for surfaces in your drawing. The low end of the slider provides fewer tessellation lines and uses less memory.

Curves

Determines the amount of detail for curves in your drawing. The low end of the slider provides fewer tessellation lines and uses less memory.

Number of Tessellations to Cache

Configures your system according to memory and performance requirements. The 3D cache always stores at least one tessellation. When this option is set to 1, the tessellation for all viewports is the same; some objects in the drawing may be regenerated as you zoom in and out. Setting this option to 2 or more is useful when you have more than one viewport with different views. Increasing the number requires more memory.

Reset to Recommended Values

Resets the values to the defaults based on the performance tuner’s evaluation of the graphics card.