3D mouse choppy on a Win 7 system

[Shkelton]

3D Mouse is chopping in the Autodesk program if another mouse is present on the screen. Very strange behavior, the other identical setups don’t have this issue.

We have the following setup:
Two machines one XP and one Win 7 64Bit – running on a KVM
Regular Keyboard and mouse plugged into the KVM
3D mouse plugged directly into the Win 7 64Bit machine
Two monitors one going through the KVM and one directly plugged into the Win7 64Bit machine

Computer configuration is:
HP Mini Tower 6005 AMD quad core
16GB or ram
ATI V5800 FirePro video card
3D connexion SpaceMouse Pro
Windows 7 64Bit
Autocad Design Suite Ultimate 2013 is the software where the problem occurs.

Symptom from the customer
•It seems the problem only happens when both are mice (3D and regular) over on the Win7 screen to work on a drawing. When he does that, his 3D mouse gets slow and jerky. Once he moves his regular mouse back over to his XP screen, his 3D mouse works fine again on the Win7 screen.
•Harold has not noticed any problems with his regular mouse. Only his 3D mouse.
•Harold has tried using Mike Roberson’s mouse but the problem did not go away. Harold also tried using a wired mouse instead of wireless mouse but still the problem persists.
•Harold has sent the drawing he is working on to Mike, and Mike has no problem with the drawing.
•Harold is storing the drawing on his local hard drive (not an external drive).
•The customer also receives the error message 3DxVirtualLCD has stopped working, which is a default Microsoft message and then asks to check online for a solution.
•We also tried without the KVM having both mice plugged directly into the computer

I have tried searching the internet for a solution and am thinking about trying the Beta drivers 3DxWare 10 Beta 15. It almost seems like a Bandwidth issue that both mice
can't be on the application screen at the same time.

Anyone have any thoughts on what this could be?

Thanks

Jacek

[Bryan]

Dear Shkelton,

Autocad has a 'hotfix' for their latest applications having trouble making proper use of 3Dconnexion devices.
It may be found at this url.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps ... ID=9240618

They make available two different downloads.
One for 32 bit systems and one for 64 bit systems.
They also have a read-me file with complete instructions.
It describes the problems that may be resolved and applications that these problems may be resolved in.
It procedure is basically that of replacing an installed file of theirs with a file in the download, after upgrading the applications service pack.

Sincerely,
Bryan

I have copied and pasted from their website below, but make sure you actually read the lastest instructions they have posted for their software.

--------------------------------------------

Autodesk 3Dconnexion Hotfix

This hotfix corrects the following issues with 3Dconnexion devices:

Zoom speed varies in perspective view
Pivot point position is far from the model causing the model to go off the drawing area when rotated
High zoom out speed after zooming in a small area of the drawing
Consult the readme file for installation instructions and more details on the primary issues resolved by this update. Be sure to install the correct hotfix (32-bit or 64-bit) for your software and operating system.

Note: Before applying this hotfix to your Autodesk product, you must install service pack 1 (or SP1.1 for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT).

acvmtools_x86.zip (zip - 472Kb)
acvmtools_x64.zip (zip - 546Kb)
Readme (pdf - 19Kb)

----

Autodesk 3Dconnexion Hotfix Readme
Thank you for downloading the 3Dconnexion Hotfix
This readme contains the latest information regarding the installation and use of this hotfix.
It is strongly recommended that you read this entire document before you apply this hotfix
to your product.
For reference, please save this document to your hard drive or print a copy.
Affected Products
This hotfix applies to the following products:
 AutoCAD®
2013
 AutoCAD®
LT 2013
 AutoCAD®
Architecture 2013
 AutoCAD®
Civil 3D®
2013
 AutoCAD®
Electrical 2013
 AutoCAD®
Map 3D 2013
 AutoCAD®
Mechanical 2013
 AutoCAD®
MEP 2013
 AutoCAD®
P&ID 2013
 AutoCAD®
Plant 3D 2013
 AutoCAD®
Raster Design 2013
 AutoCAD®
Structural Detailing 2013
 AutoCAD®
Utility Design 2013
Affected 3Dconnexion Devices
This hotfix applies to the following 3Dconnexion devices:
 SpaceExplorer USB
 SpaceMouse Pro
 SpaceNavigator  SpaceNavigator for Notebooks
 SpacePilot
 SpacePilot Pro
Issues Resolved by This Update
 Zoom speed varies in perspective view
When in perspective view, the zoom out speed when using a 3Dconnexion device is
higher than the zoom in speed.
 Pivot point position is far from the model causing the model to go off the drawing area
when rotated
When rotating a view using a 3Dconnexion device, the model swings out of view
because the pivot point is positioned far away from the model.

 High zoom out speed after zooming in a small area of the drawing
After you zoom into a small area of the drawing, zooming out happens too fast with
little control.
Installation Instructions
You must have administrative privileges on your Microsoft® Windows® operating system to
complete the installation process.
Note: You must install service pack 1 (or 1.1 for AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT) prior to
applying this hotfix.
This installation requires you to replace the following file:
 Acvmtools.crx
To Replace the Acvmtools.crx File
1. Close all software applications.
2. Navigate to your product installation folder, for example:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2013.
3. In the product installation folder, right-click the Acvmtools.crx file and rename it
Acvmtools.bak.
4. Download the file for your application to a location on your local computer: o For 32-bit operating systems:
acvmtools_x86.zip
o For 64-bit operating systems:
acvmtools_x64.zip
5. To install the fix, double-click the ZIP file and save the Acvmtools.crx file to the
product installation folder.
To Uninstall This Hotfix
1. In the product installation folder, delete the Acvmtools.crx file that you downloaded.
2. Restore the file you renamed (Acvmtools.bak) to the original name (Acvmtools.crx).
Copyright ©2012 Autodesk, Inc.

[Shkelton]

Actually the issue is in Inventor 2013 which is part of PDSU 2013 (Production Design Suite Ultimate). I applied the fix anyway. Still the same error as befor. I am not sure but I think a required service is not starting correctly. The customer receives the following error.

3DxVirtualLCD has stopped working. - Which is a standard Windows message which then asks if you want to go online to find a solution.

I assume this is needed for the 3D Mouse, what would be causing this error? I installed 4 machines, only this one is having this error and only this one has the issue.
Probably related, but since I installed the 4 machines the same way I'm not sure what would be causing this failure.

Any ideas?

[Shkelton]

bump

Anyone from 3DConnexion has any ideas to try?

[ngomes]

Hi Shkelton,

The customer receives the following error.

3DxVirtualLCD has stopped working. - Which is a standard Windows message which then asks if you want to go online to find a solution.

I assume this is needed for the 3D Mouse, what would be causing this error? I installed 4 machines, only this one is having this error and only this one has the issue.

We're looking into this. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a scenario that we can use to reproduce the problem.

What graphics card is on the problematic system?

The 3DxVirtualLCD.exe program is an assistant tool for the SpaceMouse Pro (it implements a "heads-up display" feature).

[Shkelton]

We are using the AMD/ATI v5800. We have 4 machines with this setup and only one is having the issue. I'll see if there is anything in the event log

[ngomes]

Hi Shkelton,

We have been looking at the 3DxVirtualLCD.exe crash. The tool is a managed code program and requires an installation of .NET 2.0 or newer.

Windows 7 ships with .NET 2.0 but we have seen users disabling the framework. On system where the crash is reproducible, customers are advise to check if the "Microsoft .NET Framework" option is enabled in the "Windows Features" panel. This panel is opened by click on "Turn Windows features on or off" on the left pane of the "Programs and Features" panel (Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features).

If the option is enabled, it is worth trying to cycle it to redo the .NET installation: turn the feature off, reboot, turn the feature on and reboot once more.

[Shkelton]

The system was upgraded to .net 4.0

We just finished completely rebuilding the machine, and it is working now. Not sure what caused the failure.

[MortenL]

I have the same problem with a spacepilot and 32bit inventor 2013 at home, same as above!

When I look at how much cpu 3dxsrv.exe eats, whit a inventor part and inventor window active spinning it around with the spacepilot 3dxsrv 35% and inventor 30%??? activating any other window 3dxsrv drops down to about 7% and inventor still about 30% but inventor spins aound as it should?

Whit inventor active I can use the orbit tool with my mouse and it runs super, but whit the spacepilot it totally SUCKS!

Any solutions yet?

Morten

[ngomes]

Hi MortenL,

We cannot reproduce what you're reporting.

Do you only see an increased CPU load of 3dxsrv.exe when Inventor is selected as the top window (foreground application)? If you, say, click on the desktop do see rotation with the 3D mouse becoming smoother?

As I stated, we cannot see 3dxsrv.exe going above 1% or so when sending data to Inventor. Are you launching Inventor.exe as an administrator or as a different user from the one logged in?