Hidden line/face removal not working

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SirSpamalot
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:01 am

Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by SirSpamalot »

I've been using FreeCAD for about 18 months now, both 0.16 and 0.17. Just recently, it started displaying 3D non-transparent sketches as a strange combination of wireframe + transparent + shaded. For example, a simple cube shows up as this:
FreeCADIs.png
FreeCADIs.png (51.45 KiB) Viewed 3632 times
Note that all faces and lines are visible, even though transparency is turned off. This is "Flat lines" mode. I'm expecting it to look like this:
FreeCADShouldBe.png
FreeCADShouldBe.png (79.09 KiB) Viewed 3632 times
I've tried everything, including all the options under View > Draw Style, changing settings under Appearance, trying different levels of transparency, trying different materials - nothing gets me back to something that looks like the second image above, where hidden faces and lines are hidden. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling FreeCAD 0.16. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling FreeCAD 0.17 and it, too, has the same problem. I've tried rebooting the PC. I haven't changed graphics cards or made any other changes to my system.

When I use the "Shaded" draw style, I get a cube that is strangely shaded. It looks like either faces are missing or faces are transparent, depending on the lighting angle:
FreeCADShaded.png
FreeCADShaded.png (56.93 KiB) Viewed 3632 times
This was working fine for almost 18 months with just the standard program defaults, and now it has mysteriously changed. In "Flat lines" mode, the model rapidly becomes very difficult to interpret as it gets more complex with lines and faces all blending together.

Any suggestions?
chrisb
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Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by chrisb »

Hi and welcome to the forum. Could you please attach your FreeCAD info? Follow the IMPORTANT link above to learn how to. We can only guess that it's a Windows.
Does clicking "Fit all" help? If not: We have seen this behaviour recently in connection with graphics driver issues on some graphics cards so please add information about that too.
I would guess that you ran some updates on your system during the last 18 months, that might have changed the driver or vice versa you need to update the driver.
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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NormandC
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Location: Québec, Canada

Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by NormandC »

Hello,

There have been at least 2 identical topics in the past few weeks, please search the forum.

I bet you have an AMD Radeon graphics card or chipset, and that your Radeon software is 18.8.x.

AFAIK the workaround is to downgrade it to 18.6.
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NormandC
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Location: Québec, Canada

Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by NormandC »

SirSpamalot
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:01 am

Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by SirSpamalot »

Wow, THANK YOU guys! That was the problem.

I have a Radeon RX 460 card. It appears that I updated the driver on July 23, 2018, for reasons unrelated to FreeCAD (nor did I use FreeCAD immediately after the update, therefore I didn't make the connection that one might be related to the other). The updated driver was version 24.20.12019.1010 (from Radeon Driver Package 18.7.1). I rolled it back to the version that was previously installed, 21.19.407.0, and that resolved the problem. I then rolled it forward to 24.20.11016.4 (from Radeon Driver Package 18.5.1) and I still don't have the problem. Yay!

I had spent quite a while searching the forum, to no avail. If you don't luck out on the right search term, you're doomed.

I did a quick Google search on "FreeCAD Known Issues" and didn't see anything on the first couple of pages of search results. If there is such a page, someone might want to add this as a known issue. It certainly looks to be confirmed by multiple users.

Since chrisb asked for it, I'm including the FreeCAD version information below. I had read the IMPORTANT link, which reads: "Please provide your FreeCAD version info", and since I already knew what version of FreeCAD I was using, I simply posted that. A less ambiguous initial statement might provide improved guidance; nevertheless, I appreciate the forum's tolerance of a user who didn't catch every last letter of the clearly posted rules. Not sure why my Locale is English/Zimbabwe...

OS: Windows 7
Word size of OS: 64-bit
Word size of FreeCAD: 64-bit
Version: 0.17.13528 (Git)
Build type: Release
Branch: releases/FreeCAD-0-17
Hash: 5c3f7bf8ec51e2c7187789f7edba71a7aa82a88b
Python version: 2.7.14
Qt version: 4.8.7
Coin version: 4.0.0a
OCC version: 7.2.0
Locale: English/Zimbabwe (en_ZW)
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sgrogan
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Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by sgrogan »

Thanks SirSpamalot for the reply. The THANK YOU is all the helpers in the forum get, and I'm sure they appreciate it.
SirSpamalot wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:46 pm IMPORTANT link, which reads: "Please provide your FreeCAD version info"
Open the Help --> About FreeCAD menu then click on the "Copy to clipboard" button, and paste its content in the text input area.
It may seem petty but FreeCAD is available on multiple OS's and an almost infinite flavors and versions under this. We provide developer or rolling releases on many platforms. It often matters.
SirSpamalot wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:46 pm I did a quick Google search on "FreeCAD Known Issues" and didn't see anything on the first couple of pages of search results. If there is such a page, someone might want to add this as a known issue. It certainly looks to be confirmed by multiple users.
@chrisb has mentioned this in a previous post. It's new in the last couple weeks, I wonder if a common consumer computer comes with the chipset?
SirSpamalot wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:46 pm I had spent quite a while searching the forum, to no avail. If you don't luck out on the right search term, you're doomed.
This is understood. We appreciate the "due diligence" but when in doubt ask for help.

Thanks again for the follow-up post, and happy FreeCADing.
"fight the good fight"
chrisb
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Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by chrisb »

SirSpamalot wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 10:46 pm I did a quick Google search on "FreeCAD Known Issues" and didn't see anything on the first couple of pages of search results. If there is such a page, someone might want to add this as a known issue.
Perhaps we should create a wiki page with "known issues". It's different from frequently asked questions.
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sgrogan
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Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by sgrogan »

chrisb wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:19 pm Perhaps we should create a wiki page with "known issues". It's different from frequently asked questions.
Maybe a pinned (it would probably also need to be locked?) topic? These things tend to be transient.
At the moment the Radian driver issue, the libexpat issue on recent Linux, and the LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=true issue on new debian based systems, seem to be hotspots.
"fight the good fight"
chrisb
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Re: Hidden line/face removal not working

Post by chrisb »

sgrogan wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 11:27 pm Maybe a pinned (it would probably also need to be locked?) topic? These things tend to be transient.
At the moment the Radian driver issue, the libexpat issue on recent Linux, and the LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=true issue on new debian based systems, seem to be hotspots.
sticky: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30573
comments: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=30574
A Sketcher Lecture with in-depth information is available in English, auf Deutsch, en français, en español.
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