Windows Vista and CAD
I'm not a fan of Windows Vista. Though I think it includes a lot of good technology, I also think that it has deep flaws that are beyond repair. Still, Vista is a fact of life. It's in worldwide distribution, and people are going to start using it for real work... whether it's ready or not.
As of today, I'd recommend against using Vista as a platform for CAD software. It's just not stable enough yet. To see my comments on CAD performance when running on Vista, visit AECnews.com
Posted on Thursday, February 1, 2007 at 01:32PM
by
Evan Yares
in The CAD Industry, Software Development
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3 Comments
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1 Reference
Evan Yares
in The CAD Industry, Software Development
|
3 Comments
|
1 Reference
References (1)
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Reader Comments (3)
"Graphics performance in SolidWorks may be noticeably slower under Vista.
Hardware accelerated OpenGL drivers are not yet available from major graphics card vendors such as NVIDIA and ATI. The SolidWorks beta implementation supports software-mode OpenGL drivers supplied through the Microsoft Vista install. "
http://files.solidworks.com/supportfiles/Release_Notes_VISTA/2007/English/relnotes.htm
This is a HUGE Vista flaw that will ensure that all current and past CAD programs will function abysmally under Vista. OpenGL drivers may resolve this problem and hopefully will not be required to go through the Direct3d layer.
Another good reference is here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/29/xp-vs-vista/page7.html
A roughly 80% degradation in professional CAD software under Vista. Brilliant.
That is good for the application, but might be a problem for portability.
However, depending on how the application was written, it might function fine on both OpenGL and Direct3D, meaning that running optimally on Vista doesn't necessarily imply not being able to support OpenGL on Linux or OSX or other operating systems.