Why do rendered input graphics sometime totally fail ?

When I have been building models, sometimes I will try to plot the graphics and check my configuration. Occasionally, the plot is totally blank, as if it is zoomed all the way out, or in. In any case, the rendered graphics are lost. Resetting the plot does nothing, nor does zoom extents.

Many things can affect the graphics. General items to check, in order, are:

• Check the vendor of your graphics board. Visit their web site and make sure you are using their latest graphcis board driver. Out of date drivers can be a big problem.
• On some machines, under some operating systems (usually Win98), changing the <em>color depth</em> can resolve issues like this. You can change the <em>color depth</em> from "Control Panel\Display\Settings".
• From within the CAESAR II graphics, try the [Reset] button.
• If you're using the 3D HOOPS graphics, exit the input, then delete the XML file associated with the job you're working on.

I am using Giraud Shading, and experience no graphics problems with any other programs. When I hit the reset button, it resets it, but to a "very zoomed out" state, see below.

I changed over to centerline graphics, and it only showed a white screen with a single dot in the middle. If I zoom in on that dot, after dragging a window around it, and after four succesive zooms, it is finally my model, that comes into view.

What's going on here.

CAESAR II uses the HOOPS library, from Techsoft America. As I stated previously, check to ensure you are using the latest driver for your graphics board, and perhaps change the number of colors used. If neither of these suggestions solves your problem, send me the specifics of your graphics board, so I can inform Techsoft. Perhaps they have an issue with your particular graphics board.

As to your "reset" / "zoom" issue, have you set the global coordinates for the first node in the model? If so, what values did you use?