I had hoped with the first patch released for the 2011 Caesar II that things would be reasonably stable.

However, it appears that Caesar is not playing well with ATI graphics cards. After initial installation, the program would crash whenever I tried to go into the input of a file. The error report would refer to atioglxx.dll. Google tells me this is related to running OpenGL graphics.

So, I changed the graphics settings in Caesar to Windows Basic Video in order to get the input screen to load. So far, so good. Trying to run with Direct3D graphics, while not causing crashes, results in useless garbage in the graphic window.

However, when I try to run a print preview or print the graphic view of the piping system, it once again crashes against atioglxx.dll. It seems the print system is still tied to OpenGL.

Now, this is a brand new, clean install machine (Dell Optiplex 990) with an AMD/ATI Radeon HD 6350 graphics card running Windows XP.

While it's disappointing that the program still struggles with modern graphics cards (I think this was one of the reasons we skipped 5.2 altogether), I can at least work around it for the input screen.

What I need now is the workaround for printing. Something that does not invoke OpenGL.

From the time I had time to play games, I remember that some ATI cards were not the best thing. So I think that there is no Caesar fault.

Regards,

The problem is not CAESAR II, but rather the problem that the HOOPS graphics library we use (a 3rd party component from TechSoft)is having issues with the graphics driver for your board when implementing OPENGL.

There are two options:
1) Go to the website for the graphics board and see if you can download a later driver - that may resolve the issue.

2) Switch the CAESAR II configuration from OPENGL to Windows Basic Video.


The "DirectX" option needs to be removed, CAESAR II doesn't support that option.

Richard,

I have the latest driver and I've switched to the Windows Basic Video already. I'm able to use the program for modeling.

The problem that I'm having is when I try to print a view of the model. It seems to be trying to invoke the OpenGL graphics when going into print mode. Even if I skip the print preview and just try to print directly, it still crashes. Is there a fix/work around for this?

Edward,

A screen clipping utility might be a 'work around' the printing problem.

I have used 'pixclip' to make a thumbnail graphic of the stress model to insert into the Word document reports as a quick visual of the job. The utility is available at www.pixclip.net .
It lets me select a range of the model or entire model from the screen and paste it into document, email, etc.
I can then save the visual in a Word document or print / save it to a pdf file.

Another screen clip utility is printkey2000.

Or use "Ctrl + Prnt Screen" then paste into "Paint" program.

Regards,