CAD line weight display

Question

This is probably a very specific question. In both my previous Inspiron and current XPS, the line weights and text in my CAD program (DataCad) display are much heavier than they should be and don't seem to show thinner or thicker line weights as they should. I've compared the display to other laptops, looking at the same file in the same program, and also spoken extensively with the tech support folks for the CAD program. I don't have any other CAD programs installed so I can't tell if it's some settings conflict with that particular program. Working with their support, we've played with a lot of settings, both within the program and in Windows. Nothing has helped. They have not seen this before so their best guess is that it has something to do with Dell video drivers. That seems unlikely - though not impossible - given that it occurs in both Dell laptops, and their drivers are up to date. But it's sort of an Occam's Razer situation in that we can't find other explanations. Anyone seen anything like this or have any suggestions?

ejn63 · Answer

What do the lines look like on the same system using an external monitor?

db-eco · Answer

same issue on the external monitor

Tesla1856 · Answer

Assuming the XPS laptop is the one you would rather use ... what model XPS laptop do you have? What are it's specs?

What is the resolution of the display panel and are you running it at it's full/native resolution? What about Scaling (what do you have that set to ?)

db-eco · Answer

Sorry for the delayed response- I didn't get a notification of a reply. It is a XPS 13 9310, Intel 11th gen, i7-1185G7, 16 GB RAM, Windows 10.0.19044 (though the problem has persisted from the start). It's at the recommended resolution of 1920 x 1200. Scaling is 125%, but I also tried setting it to 100%, which didn't make a difference.

filbert · Answer

Try using Windows Display Color Calibration, to see if that makes a difference.

Also, there used to be a setting under Display called Color Tone that could be set to light or dark. I can't seem to find that setting now, but if you have it you could try changing that.

db-eco · Answer

Thanks. I checked that out and the calibration settings seemed to be ok.

filbert · Answer

Given that you see this in the CAD application on both your XPS and Inspiron, I'd suspect that application. Do you see anything similar in any other applications.

db-eco · Answer

Yes, it is very odd that it is only this application (DataCad). And I don't have any other CAD applications to compare to, though I may install a demo of one out of curiosity.

I spent a lot of time with that app's tech support (they have great support). He said the lines should be one pixel wide, but they're not displaying that way. After playing with a lot of settings in both the app and in Windows as well as with different versions of the app, his best guess is that it's something specific to Dell's video driver. That sounds odd, too, but I'm baffled.

db-eco · Answer

I want to add this piece of information from the CAD program tech support:

"You could ask DELL about the graphics settings for your graphics processor. Perhaps there is a "hardware acceleration" setting which can be disabled, or perhaps the hardware acceleration can be configured to exclude specific applications (such as DataCAD).

The basic problem is that DataCAD is trying to draw lines which should be a single pixel in width, but for whatever reason it isn't able to."

XPS

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