|
VUTRAX Technical Support
VUTRAX SOFTWARE ADVICE NOTICE 201 (Issue 2 - 24
May 2000)
VUTRAX 12.0 onwards
DRAFT - GROUNDPLANE Misplaced or
with Discontinuities
EMCRITIC - GROUNDPLANE Spurious
problem Reports
Both of these features make extensive use of the
'Regions' features of Microsoft Windows for mapping the
area you outline for the
groundplane. If you experience problems with the DRAFT
placement of Groundplanes (in particular fill stopping
at arbitrary
vertical or horizontal edges), and/or EMCRITIC making
spurious error reports relating the groundplane
connections, then you
may have a problem with the handling of regions on your
system.
Because region handling is also an important part of
managing overlapping windows, the handling of this feature
is often optimised
for particular graphics cards. Unfortunately an
implementation that is good enough for screen handling,
including it's severe limits
on the coordinates handled, may be inadequate for
critical use on PCB regions when coordinate values exceed
16 bits (samples
of failures show discontinuities at the 16 to 32 bit
transition).
If you have such problems we suggest the following
sequence to try and resolve them. Warning - these are
standard Windows
procedures, but you perform them at your own risk. You
may wish to back up your whole system, or at least
make copies of
your registry (hidden files \windows\user.dat and
\windows\system.dat) before proceeding:-
-
Disable Graphics Hardware Acceleration
- The procedure will vary with operating system, and even
revision of the operating system, but will generally take
a form
similar to selecting [Hardware_Acceleration] from (Control_Panel > System > Performance > Graphics) Note the
existing setting, and then select
'None' and OK
- This Fixes the Problem: Find the highest setting that
still work properly.
- Doesn't Help: Set back the original setting.
- Update the graphics Driver
- You will generally need to visit your graphics card
vendors web site and download the latest driver. Make
sure that you
download the driver for exactly your card (displayed
during part of the next sequence) and operating system.
Install as
directed with the download.
-
Revert to Standard VGA Graphics Driver
- This can be accomplished by a sequence that is
typically [Right Click on
Desktop] > Properties > Settings >
Advanced Properties
> Adapter >
Change >
Show all devices. On the way
through this sequence note your current
settings. Now pick Standard Display
Types and VGA
- This Fixes the Problem: You probably need to replace
your graphics controller
- Doesn't Help: Set back the original setting.
- Update a System Dynamic Link Library
- Not recommended for beginners - make sure you have an
MSDOS boot floppy before you do any of this.
A system dynamic link library has been reported as being
implicated. You may find that \Windows\System\GDI32.dll
is
an early or bad version (sometimes installed during
installation of some other product). If you can obtain a
known good
copy from a similar operating system this is how you
can try it, Since the file is likely to be 'in-use' by
Windows you need
to use MSDOS mode (not an MSDOS window or full
screen in Windows). Assuming Windows is installed on
your
default drive in folder \Windows:-
- cd \windows\system
- ren gdi32.dll gdi32.org
- copy <your
new one> gdi32.dll
- Restart Windows. If this doesn't help, or Windows
now won't start, Boot into MSDOS again and
- cd
\windows\system
- ren gdi32.dll gdi32.bad
- copy gdi32.org gdi32.dll
Alternatives:
If none of these schemes helps, or you are not
prepared to try them, VUTRAX contains a more
rudimentary groundplane
generator as part of the AUTOTRAK facility. This makes
no use of Windows regions and will work regardless of
system
problems in this area.
Document History:
- 18 Dec 1998: Initial Issue
- 24 May 2000: Issue 2 - Adds mention of the
replacement DLL
Distribution:
- Internet Site.
- Customers Reporting Problems.
|