DesignCAD 3D MAX

What works

Program Installs. Program Loads files. Renders all modes 2D 3D. Program functions all worked during full tutorial exercise. Saved the file closed cleanly.

I haven't tested every function since this is an extremely complex program. But so far there were NO problems other than those listed below. I will update this description as I get more use out of the program if I find any more problems.

Amazing really. I tried to get this program working in Wine over 3 years. Now it runs fine.

What does not

1.) On installation from the CD, the initial menu of install options generated by setup.exe at the top level doesn't find the secondary setup.exe for installing the actual DesignCad program. This is possibly because the CD drive wasn't recognized by default in my setup.

Workaround: navigate to the Binary folder on the CD and open the secondary setup.exe. This one installs the program.

2.) Program can't find MFC20.dll.

Workaround: Install using Winetricks.

3.) I got garbage in 3D non-wireframe mode and crashing as I had for years earlier. However this time I checked my computer using glxgears from the terminal, and also checking that hardware rendering was implemented. It wasn't, even though I had an NVIDIA AGP card.

Workaround: this required installing official NVIDIA drivers & kernel module) for my graphics card (a GForce FX 5500 series) and not using the default Linux nv module. xorg.conf was rewritten by the NVIDIA installer after a backup was made.

With these understandable needed changes, the program seemed to boot and function completely normally.

Conclusion: the main difficulties experienced earlier with this program came from inadequate linux graphic card kernel module functionality.

Workarounds

What was not tested

Because of program complexity. many features haven't been tested yet. But through a normal drawing session, dimensioning, rendering, layer and option setting, exporting in IGES format, were all tried and these functioned normally.

No crashes occured, and the program felt solid stable and responsive.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

1.) On installation from the CD, the initial menu of install options generated by setup.exe at the top level doesn't work.

Workaround: navigate to the Bin/ folder on the CD and open setup.exe. This one installs the program.

2.) Program can't find MFC20.dll.

Workaround: Install MFC20.dll using Winetricks.

3.) Garbage in 3D non-wireframe mode using nv kernel module on NVIDIA cards. (No hardware acceleration.)

Test your hardware acceleration using glxgears in terminal mode. Also try glxinfo | grep rendering to determine if hardware rendering is enabled on your system. If not, this may have to be corrected for your graphics card.

Workaround:

In my case, this required installing official proprietary NVIDIA drivers & kernel module for my graphics card (a GForce FX 5500 series) and not using the default Linux nv module.

My xorg.conf file was rewritten by the NVIDIA installer after a backup was made.

4.) Program requires installation of Gecko (automatic under Wine now)

5.) Program requires that Wine associate .pdf files to your .pdf viewer if you want to read the Help Manual. This process is covered elsewhere in the Wine FAQ.