AD21 Flex-Rigid bug!

[JohnsonMiller]

In AD17 I have a flex-rigid design, everything is ok; 3D setting works fine and I can see and create 3D movie.
But the same design on the same PC, using AD21, it takes a very long time to show the 3D moves, 1s frame takes almost 1minute!!! But 3D movie is ok.

I have checked many settings on either AD and OS sides, but with no success; it seems to be a bug! Any comment?

[robertferanec]

Maybe a bug. But I would not be surprised if there was something with compatibility. I have been waiting for better FLEX support for a long time and it looks like, in AD21 they added a lot of stuff. So maybe, something what is new may be causing the problem.

[JohnsonMiller]

Dear Robert, I agree with you that AD17 was a pin working with flex-rigid, it was a nightmare when customer asking for a little change in dimension/stack-up or adding a small feature, I had to set the flex regions again and also set bending lines all over again. I am also expected it easier in AD21.

But, the issue that I am seeing is kind of basics, I have set the parameter it is working in AD17, expecting the same 3D bending in AD21.

On the other hand, the PC is powerful, Core-i7 10750H, 32G DDR4, and GTX10650 TI; I am expecting AD to use this power. I am going to test it again with AD20 as well, will update you and the forum.

My suggestion is that AD21 is sending 3D graphics instruction to CPU rather than GPU; let's wait for AD20 test result.

[JohnsonMiller]

Sadly! AD20 shows completely different behavior, it is jumping keyframes, no 3D move at all!

[WhoKnewKnows]

AD17 is from the before times (32 bit). AD18 and later is 64 bit. In some ways they're completely different beasts. The change to 64 bit software may have something to do with the issue.

[JohnsonMiller]

Dear WhoKnewKnows , appreciate your comment and understand it. But my point is that despite what is going at hardware and OS level, on application layer user expect no change, do you agree?
Or if algorithm or data format is changed in 64bit mode, we should be informed. Altium was always backward compatible.

In my test with same PC and same design, AD17, AD20, and AD21 each has different output. At least with AD20 and AD21, I was expecting same behavior, either correct or incorrect 3D moves; but not happening.

My suggestion is that Altium is changing 3D graphic algorithms and it is not complete yet.

[WhoKnewKnows]

JohnsonMiller I don't think 32 bit vs 64 bit is an excuse for non interoperability, I just suspect it may be the cause, or part of the cause. They essentially re-wrote the program to change it from 32 bit to 64 bit. Unlike other vendors, they didn't offer a 32 bit version in parallel with 64 bit for a few revs before eliminating the 32 bit. I think there are a variety of issues with Altium18 and later that they still haven't tackled yet. That is, much of the 64 bit software is functioning correctly, but the performance isn't there. In some cases, the 32 bit software is faster at doing things.

BTW, Altium just released 21.0.9 and one of the bugs they corrected had to do with 3D. Take a look

https://www.altium.com/documentation...ltium-designer. It's probably not the same thing, but it appears they're still trying to get 21 to work as well as 20. And they still need to get 18-21 to work as well as 17 and earlier. Good luck!

[JohnsonMiller]

WhoKnewKnows , thank you for your suggestion, I am testing with AD21.0.9, but no success!

I did a test with AD's own flex-rigid sample design, same problem shows up.

I also create a fresh and simple design, it works but not movement is not smooth as AD17.

So my conclusion, looks command is changed from AD17 to AD20/21.

Good news, is that a 3D view is added for stack up editor,

AD17 shows stack up in the continuous form, i.e., different stack up next to each other. In AD21 it is changed to single view, you have to switch between them to set parameters. Personally, I feel AD17 way was more helpful and productive. Any help to change AD21 back to AD17 visual form?