3D Effects in Illustrator CS

[Charles_Palmgren@adobeforums.com]

I upgraded to CS two days ago mainly for the 3D tools Illustrator CS offers. The problem I am expiring is the program will freeze during the rendering. Even in preview mode.

I am running XP pro on a 1.6 GHz machine with a Gig of RAM and 80 Gig HD.
I have two different 3D programs that run with no errors.
I reinstalled Illustrator with NO change.
I'm sure it's not the machine.

Is there an issue with this feature?

When I called Support they want a credit card number just to ask a question. It is easier to get a refund! I am amazed.

Thanks for any help you can provide

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Charles,

>>When I called Support they want a credit card number just to ask a

question. <<

That doesn't mean you will be automatically charged for the support. Whether
there is a charge or not depends upon the question! Basically, if you could
have answered it by reading the Help file you will be charged.

As a diagnostic, try turning down hardware acceleration to zero - if that
helps you need an upgrade for your video driver.

Also what size do you have your paging file set to? Try setting it to
Max==Min==2gig

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Basically, if you could have answered it by reading the Help file you
will be charged.




Imagine how wealthy you would be by now, Len, if only you were similarly compensated.

=-= Harron =-=

[Charles_Palmgren@adobeforums.com]

My page file size is already at 3 gig. I also did as you suggested and set the hardware acceleration to zero. (Using an NVIDIA GeForce4 64 MB) No change with the problem.

Is no one else having trouble with this?

Also, I don’t want to alter computer setting every time I want to work with Illustrator so changing the acceleration is not a good solution.

FYI
Did you know Micrografx iGrafx Designer (now part of Corel) could do this 3D extrusion stuff 10 years ago with Windows 95 with a Pentium I. So this can be that hard on a computer. Swift 3D performs this kind of function in seconds with no issues as well.

Also as far as Tech Support goes,
Do they not realize that someone would not want to use there personal credit card for company software?

What they propose is dumb as far a support goes. If this was a 50 dollar home software package I guess they could make a good argument for their plan but as far as big corporations go for me to pay to do my job is lunacy. I don't get paid enough to pay for tech support.

Moreover, Macromedia and Corel don’t do it this way.

But then again, that's just my opinion.

[Philo_Calhoun@adobeforums.com]

I'm not sure if this will help, but I also have a Geoforce Driver, and several programs (Invigorator, AE, etc.) got flaky with the most recent driver if desktop effects were turned on. Try turning off all desktop effects, but leave graphic acceleration to max (so that programs using OpenGL will continue to run fast).

[Robert_Oliver@adobeforums.com]

I've had Illustrator CS randomly freeze up doing 3D work on two systems, one an nVidia card and the other a Matrox card.

Considering that this is the first version of Illustrator to have 3D features, it doesn't surprise me that there are issues. Hopefully an update will be able to smooth this out.

[John_Kallios@adobeforums.com]

Maybe you should describe the shape you are rendering and if you are mapping any raster artwork to it.

Strokes require more processing power than simple fills.

[Charles_Palmgren@adobeforums.com]

Philo,
Good thought and Thank you very much for the feedback.
Unfortunately it didn't fix the problem. I think it helped some on simple shapes but as soon as I added a bevel the game was over.

Robert,
If I could get Adobe to tell me they are aware of the problem and that they are working on it I am happy. No software is perfect. But I couldn’t get them to tell me anything with out paying for it.

John,
I took a rounded square with solid color. Used the extrude tool and it works fine. If I use the any bevel selection a progress bar appears saying Generating geometry next it said Rendering artwork at this point the progress stops. Everything stops.

Thank you for your help I only hope I can return the favor someday

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Charles,

>>so changing the acceleration is not a good solution.<<

I did say "as a DIAGNOSTIC" - It's not a 'solution', even if it had worked.
It would merely have pinned down your problem to the video driver for your
card.