On the Graphics tab, you can view the graphics card information being used in CET Designer and adjust settings to determine appearance in the 3D drawing view.

The Graphics tab in the Control Panel using the advanced graphics engine

Graphics board information

This section lists which graphics card(s) CET Designer has detected on your computer, which driver versions they are on, and the status of the drivers.

Driver status is indicated as one of the following:

• Recommended
• Newer than recommended
• Decided by operating system
• Make sure you are using the OEM recommended driver
• Not recommended
• Driver has known errors
• No driver installed

Settings

• Realtime graphics mode:
  • Hardware mode: Use this mode to get maximum performance when working in CET Designer. Set as default.
  • Hardware safe mode: Use this mode if you have a weak graphics board. Instead of storing a lot of 3D data on the graphics board, the data is sent to the graphics board when needed. This results in slower rendering but allows weak graphics boards to utilize the benefits of the advanced graphics engine.
  • Software mode: This mode lets you load drawings even if your computer does not fully meet the system recommendations, or if your graphics card has faulty drivers. For more information, click here.
• Enable higher 3D-detail in realtime: Option for increased details when working in the 3D view. This makes CET Designer increase the level of detail for objects that are close to the camera. This option is turned off by default.
• Enable smooth textures: Makes the textures smoother in real-time. Turned off by default.
• Enable realtime lights: Enables constant updating of light across your visible 3D scene. Note that this operation is demanding on system resources. This checkbox is selected by default.
• Enable optimized ray tracing: Makes rendering in the Photo Lab faster. It could occasionally cause unwanted image artifacts to become visible, in which case it can simply be deselected.
• Show only contour lines for 2D: Removes all color fill from the objects in the 2D view and only shows their contour outlines.