Extension of about freecad?

Have some feature requests, feedback, cool stuff to share, or want to know where FreeCAD is going? This is the place.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Read the FreeCAD code of conduct!
User avatar
thomas-neemann
Veteran
Posts: 11801
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Osnabrück DE 🇩🇪
Contact:

Extension of about freecad?

Post by thomas-neemann »

there seem to be more questions related to the graphics card. does it make sense to eject the graphics card with about freecad? or does it make sense in the forums to give recommendations to indicate it in the questions? for ubuntu you can do it e.g. with lspci -nnk | grep -i display VGA -A2.

linux has e.g. independent of freecad problems with nvidia. this could also be referred to at the appropriate point
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
openBrain
Veteran
Posts: 9034
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2018 5:38 pm
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by openBrain »

When I extended infos with DE+WM, I had a look at it but found no cross platform way to get sensible info about GFX setup. Moreover it would need to know both chipset and driver. And requiring any user requiring help to manually find this seems boring to me. ;)
User avatar
thomas-neemann
Veteran
Posts: 11801
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Osnabrück DE 🇩🇪
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by thomas-neemann »

openBrain wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 7:39 am ... And requiring any user requiring help to manually find this seems boring to me. ;)
ok, It's a shame that there isn't a cross-platform solution. one could adapt the recommendation that the graphics card is given in the event of display problems, most users know that, that should be easy
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
User avatar
onekk
Veteran
Posts: 6149
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:48 am
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by onekk »

Sadly there is no common platform solution, and not even an unique solution, maybe something related to Xorg have been a viable way, but now there is also wayland, so there is no a "standard way" to do things, even in Linux.

It will be interesting, but, you have to code at least three ways, one for each OS used, maybe two for Linux if you won't rely solely on Kernel output, that could be seen as a decent way, but in a multiple card installation, or more simple in computers with internal graphics and discrete Graphics board it is difficult to say what is used at runtime, as there are two graphics hardware.

Not talking about some dedicated graphics stations with multiple cards and maybe multiple "computing co processor card" like in some high end installation".

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.

Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
User avatar
thomas-neemann
Veteran
Posts: 11801
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Osnabrück DE 🇩🇪
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by thomas-neemann »

onekk wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:37 am .
It will be interesting, but, you have to code at least three ways, ...
thanks for the good information
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
User avatar
onekk
Veteran
Posts: 6149
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:48 am
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by onekk »

thomas-neemann wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:42 am
onekk wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:37 am .
It will be interesting, but, you have to code at least three ways, ...
thanks for the good information
Maybe related?

https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/topics-graphics.html

maybe Qt itself could give some informations about platform hardware, i has to know how to use and manage things, as the image seems to suggest.

EDIT: After some research it seems that Qt is not able to get such info, but maybe some other OpenGl library in FreeCAD could do as OpenGl has to know on which hardware is running.


Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.

Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
User avatar
thomas-neemann
Veteran
Posts: 11801
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Osnabrück DE 🇩🇪
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by thomas-neemann »

onekk wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:51 am ping
is there information about whether there is tested hardware for qt? I think this is transferrable to freecad
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
User avatar
onekk
Veteran
Posts: 6149
Joined: Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:48 am
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by onekk »

thomas-neemann wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 12:36 pm
onekk wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 10:51 am ping
is there information about whether there is tested hardware for qt? I think this is transferrable to freecad
Sadly most of this post are not solving problems, maybe introducing new one, it may be totally useless, have mercy ;)

In the linked page there is:
The supported graphics APIs are:
OpenGL (version 3 and higher)
OpenGL ES (version 2 and higher)
Vulkan (1.0 and higher)
Direct3D 11 (11.1 and higher)
Metal

I think that you have to think these sort of thing, like an onion, FreeCAD is the outer slice, Qt is the one slice down, and the graphics API are another slice down.

As (OpenGl is and OpenGL ES and Vulkan) usually are for Linux, (OpenGl, OpenGL ES and Direct3D) should be for Windows.

Some not to deep investigations should shown which API is used on each Platform, in an Expanded AppImage, not very recent of the 0.20 branch I have:

../FreeCAD/squashfs-root/usr/lib/libGLEW.so.2.1.0
../FreeCAD/squashfs-root/usr/lib/libGLU.so.1.3.1

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/OpenGL

It sems that actualy FreeCAD is using the SoQt interface between Coin3D and Qt so it is the "old" way, new is Quarter.

So the problems could be a different levels.

In the Help part of the forum there are some post that evidentiate that Main interface is working while 3D View (managed by Coin3D) is not, so mileage may vary.

I doubt now after some investigations that Qt will supply relevant information about the potential problems with rendering.

Maybe if some developers will make some light it will be a good thing, or RealThunder, as it is trying to make a different Renderer for his branch, so he may have more in deep knowledge of the "complicated paths" between FreeCAD and the GPU.

Regards

Carlo D.
GitHub page: https://github.com/onekk/freecad-doc.
- In deep articles on FreeCAD.
- Learning how to model with scripting.
- Various other stuffs.

Blog: https://okkmkblog.wordpress.com/
User avatar
thomas-neemann
Veteran
Posts: 11801
Joined: Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:03 pm
Location: Osnabrück DE 🇩🇪
Contact:

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by thomas-neemann »

onekk wrote: Sun Jan 23, 2022 2:39 pm ping
hello carlo


thanks for the cooperation. Does it make sense to create a thread that is pinned, where users report on well-functioning hardware-software combinations, so that there is orientation?

thomas
Gruß Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Thomas Neemann

https://www.youtube.com/@thomasneemann5 ... ry=freecad
User avatar
bambuko
Veteran
Posts: 2165
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 12:53 pm
Location: UK, England, North Devon

Re: Extension of about freecad?

Post by bambuko »

I personally think that it would add not needed complexity.
When it is needed and GPU is suspected, it is a simple thing to ask a question?
Benefit of automating this process is doubtful, implementation cost (time and effort) is high and alternatives are simple and easy to use ;)
Developers time is better used improving FreeCAD ....
I am using Link branch and Assembly3
you can also download ... and try it here
excellent Assembly3 tutorials here
Post Reply