What to Look for in a Professional Monitor for CAD Applications

The editors of Cadalyst have created a resource guide for professional monitors for CAD applications. Click here to download your complimentary guide.

• Insight: Understand monitor technology in the context of CAD applications.
• Advice: What are the options that are most important for your application?
• Reviews: Compare 6 new monitors
• And more!

Multiple Display Support for CAD Workstations

The most compelling reason to install multiple GPUs is to drive multiple high-resolution displays. The secret’s out that “multi-mon” is the single best way to improve your productivity. Anyone who’s gone to two displays (or three — or more!) will tell you they could never go back to one. And more graphics cards can display more pixels across more monitors.

Which Graphics Card Works for You?

That said, you don’t necessarily need to populate two cards to run two monitors, so pay attention to the cards you’re selecting. NVIDIA’s Quadro with nView and Mosaic technology can support two displays across most of the product line. A single high-end AMD FirePro V7900, with its Eyefinity technology, can handle four on its own, thank you very much. As such, if your performance demands have you buying midrange or high-end cards, you might get all the screen real estate you want with one card. But if you’re much hungrier for pixels and screens than you are for polygons per second, you might consider two less-expensive, dual-monitor cards.

On top of multi-monitor support, you can use that extra slot to turn your workstation into a supercomputer. An exaggeration? Not to some. General-purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU) technology is still evolving, but many of the applications that show the most promise are the ones of most interest to engineers and other CAD users: applications such as computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) and finite-element analysis (FEA). Simulation software developers such as ANSYS and Abaqus are porting code to harness GPUs to deliver big speed-ups — in many cases tenfold or even 100- fold increases — over CPU-only computation.

High-end graphics cards usually require more power than the 75 watts supplied by the typical x16 PCI Express interface. Workstation OEMs accommodate their extra needs via auxiliary power cables drawn from the supply. Some high-end and virtually all ultra high-end graphics cards are dual-slot thickness. They insert into one PCI Express x16 connector, but their thickness means an
adjacent x16 slot may be blocked and rendered useless.

Make the Right Choice

When purchasing a workstation online, the OEM’s product configurator should let you know if the chosen card or cards will mate to the chosen system, with respect to power supplies and connectors, the number of available PCI Express x16 slots, and whether a dual-slot card has sufficient clearance. For example, when outfitting graphics on a smaller chassis that can’t accommodate two dual-slot cards, chances are the OEM will only offer the option of two entry-level or two mid-range cards, both of which are single slot width.

For that matter, if you’re perusing the latest flavor of entry level workstation, full-length cards may not have clearance lengthwise. Again, the online configurator should ensure compatibility, so you shouldn’t have to worry about these issues.

Author: Alex Herrera

How Much Should You Spend on a New CAD Workstation? Part 2: Mid-Range and High-End Systems

Price Ranges for CAD Workstations

This series focuses on helping our readers understand what CAD workstations cost and how much they are going to have to spend to find a machine that meets their CAD production needs. The first part focused on entry-level systems. This post will discuss mid-range ($2,500 to $7,000) and high-end (more than $7,000) systems.

Mid-Range and High-End

Stepping up to the mid-range and high-end, you’ll typically find dual-socket Intel Xeon processors along with full tower enclosures to handle more slots and drive bays. Spring for a dual-socket system and you’ll get twice as many CPU cores, twice as much memory bandwidth, and twice the memory capacity.

Some OEMs are going to great lengths to show off the enhanced speed of processors and increased capacity of both graphics cards (for multi-monitor or high-performance computing support) and larger storage capabilities. For example, BOXX’s top-end 4800 and 8500 series workstations feature overclocked CPU performance that provides a 25% higher frequency rate — that is, an Intel 2600k (Sandy Bridge) processor running at 4.5 GHz instead of 3.4 GHz. These workstations also provide support for as many as eight drive bays and an incredible seven PCI Express slots, allowing users to populate 18 TB of total storage and house seven single-width or four dualslot graphics cards.

But there’s more to be had at the upper end of the market, as vendors are taking a page from Apple’s book and investing an impressive amount of time and money to engineer hardware aesthetics and ergonomics, resulting in advances such as tool-less and (almost) cable-less designs; carefully designed air flow; and custom, workstation-specific, high-efficiency power supplies.

Start with Your Base Requirements

So do you really need a mid-range to high-end workstation? Will an entry-level CAD workstation do? The place to start is the base requirements for your CAD software of choice, then plan a system purchase accordingly. Note that this information makes a good starting point for configuring your workstation. We consider that the baseline, and you probably want some room to grow for software upgrades.

Also if you are doing any 3D modeling, look for faster and more capable processors, more RAM, more available hard disk space in addition to free space required for installation, and a graphics display adapter capable of at least 1,280 x 1,024 resolution in true color. The graphics card needs to have 128MB or more memory, support for Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, and Microsoft Direct3D capabilities. (Again, consider these a starting point.)

Author: Alex Herrera

Choose the Best Display for Your CAD Work, Part 2: Getting the Most for Your Money

Previously we covered the important characteristics to look for when choosing your next CAD display. Here, we finish our discussion with some suggestions about shopping and costs, as well as what you will need to get the best possible image out of your new display.

Seeing is Believing

As the old proverb states, “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.” If possible, view your potential display up close and personal — before you buy. Ideally, you should view the candidate displays under the same lighting conditions as those of your office. Also, don’t be afraid to bring an 8× magnifying loupe with you. You can learn a lot about a display by examining it at the pixel level. Quality displays will have well-defined, tightly packed groups or rows of red, green, and blue dots. These are the primary colors for the additive color process of light, as opposed to cyan, magenta, and yellow, which are primary for the subtractive color process of pigments. (Hah—I worked in a quick physics lesson.) Lesser displays will look blurry or fuzzy at the pixel level.

What You Should Expect to Pay

What you pay for your display depends on several factors, including the size, quality, and feature set, as well as where you purchase it. At the low end, budget at least $500 for a medium-quality 24″ display. On the other hand, you can easily spend $2,500 for a high-quality 30″ display. Without mentioning vendors or models, if we were in the market today for a CAD display, we would be looking at a good-quality 27″ LED backlight LCD display at a cost of about $1,000. Remember, you are going to be spending a lot of time with your choice of display, spend the extra money now, so you don’t have regrets later.

Adjusting Your Display

After you have made your decision and have your new display in hand, don’t stop there. Get the most out of your new LCD panel with DisplayMate for Windows ($69; downloaded), an excellent software-based utility for fine-tuning your display. Cadalyst has used DisplayMate, from Sonera Technologies (www.displaymate.com), for all of its monitor reviews since it first earned our Highly Recommended rating in 1995.

Screen shot of the DisplayMate application.

This wraps up this series. We hope you find it helpful when you are shopping for a display. In a future blog, we will take a detailed look at DisplayMate for Windows.

Author: Art Liddle

Choose the Best Display for Your CAD Work, Part 1: Where to Start

What is the single most important hardware decision for any CAD user? Their choice of display. This is especially true given the short half-life of today’s workstations. You may have to live with your display through two, or even three, different workstation purchases.

Where to Start

First, the biggest factor affecting your choice of display is cost. Please: Do not scrimp on your display budget. If you must cut back on costs, hold off on that extra system memory or hard drive storage (you can upgrade both later).

Second, buy the largest display that fits your budget and quality specifications, as well as workspace. The bare-bones minimum size for even semi-serious CAD work is 24″. If you buy anything smaller, you will regret it every time you execute an extra zoom or pan to get the required view: During the course of a single workday, there might be hundreds of such productivity-killing distractions. We strongly recommend a minimum 27″ display for anyone that works fulltime with CAD.

Third, the transition away from CRT- based displays is complete. Today’s display choices are LCD-based. The newest type of displays, sometimes listed as LED, are really just a type of LCD panel that uses energy-efficient LEDs for the backlight. These present a more pleasing and evenly distributed light to the screen.

Other Things to Consider

Here is a list of other factors, listed roughly by importance, to consider when
shopping for your next display.

• Resolution: For 24″ class displays the maximum resolution should be at least 1920 pixels across horizontally. At the high end, expect 2560 pixels for 30″ displays—see note below about graphics card.
• Brightness: Measured in cd/m² (candelas per square meter), look for a minimum rating of 250, and preferably 300 and above.
• Contrast: Rating of at least 1000:1 is ideal. (Not to be confused with dynamic contrast, which may be listed as 1,000,000:1 or higher.)
• Response time: Should be no higher than 8ms; shoot for under 6ms. Some high-end displays now claim 2ms response times.
• Viewing angle: At least 170° is reasonable. Newer displays now offer 178°.
• Screen surface: This factor may be more or less important to you, depending on how harsh the light is in your workspace. In general, you will give up some brightness for more glare control.
• Color depth: Today’s minimum of 24bit (16.7 million colors) is fine for most CAD users.
• Color Accuracy: Not essential for most of you, unless you are creating drawings or renderings for publication where it is important to match colors for printing.
• Connection options: Expect at least D-sub and DVI connectors; many new displays now support DisplayPort, the latest video/audio standard.
• Graphics Card: To ensure that you get the most out of your new purchase, double-check that your graphics card handles the display’s maximum resolution and supports its best available connection option.

Next time, we will finish our discussion on choosing a CAD display, and make a suggestion on how to get the most out of your new purchase.

Author: Art Liddle

Find the Optimal Hardware Configuration for ArchiCAD

One of the most common questions our tech staff gets from customers is “What is the best hardware config for ArchiCAD?” It’s easy to go overboard and buy the most expensive of everything, but many times less expensive components are almost just as good. The “optimal” configuration is almost as fast as the “best” configuration, with a more attractive price tag.

Let’s review the priorities:

CPU

The processor is still the most important component of your config. Since ArchiCAD supports multiprocessing, we recommend 4-core processors. 6 and 8 cores are significantly more expensive while providing little benefit, so 4-core is the most optimal choice. Pick something from the middle range — prices rise exponentially with performance.

RAM

ArchiCAD supports 64-bit. To see the benefits of this, you need at least 8GB of physical RAM. While most of the times ArchiCAD will use significantly less than this, since RAM is now cheap there is really no reason to economize here. There are times when you will run multiple copies of ArchiCAD or run other applications simultaneously.

Hard Drives

ArchiCAD stores cached data while it operates, so there is a lot of file I/O going on while working in ArchiCAD — not just when saving files. Therefore hard drives are a key — and often overlooked — speed factor. With the price of solid state drives coming down considerably in the past year, they might be a sensible investment. You don’t need a huge SSD. You are better off with a smaller (say 128GB) SSD combined with a large conventional hard drive. You will install the system and ArchiCAD on the SSD, but you will store files on the conventional drive.

Video Cards

ArchiCAD uses hardware acceleration in both 2D and 3D. That said, while the importance of hard drives is often underrated, video cards are often overrated. In general we can say that it is more important to have a recent video card than a particularly high-end video card. It’s not a bad practice to replace the video card at the half of your computer’s lifespan.

When you buy a new card, it’s important to have enough video RAM. We currently recommend 1GB. Drivers are key for optimal performance. If you want to have a peace of mind about drivers, you might consider going with a “professional series” video card — at a much heftier price. You can find a list of recommended cards in our knowledge base.

Monitors

Screen real estate is a huge productivity factor. Here we have only one recommendation: The bigger the better. You can also hook up two monitors, if your video card supports that.

Author: Gergely (Greg) Kmethy, Team Leader, Technical Support, Graphisoft

The Advantages of Eyefinity for CAD, Part 3: Rules of Thumb

Previously in this series, we’ve talked about using Eyefinity with older displays and how to find the right adapter for non-DisplayPort monitors.

Obviously this confusion will fade away as older non-DisplayPort monitors are gradually replaced by new DisplayPort-savvy displays. For reasons of cost though, don’t expect to see that too soon. Until then here are some rules of thumb.

• A maximum of 2 VGA/DVI/HDMI monitors can be enabled simultaneously by using a passive DisplayPort adapter/dongle on FirePro cards. (about $22)
• To enable support for more than 2 VGA/DVI/HDMI monitors, active DisplayPort adapters/dongles are required (about $28 but included for free, one for each DisplayPort output, w/ the latest generation of FirePro cards).
• To support a dual-link DVI monitor, a powered, active DisplayPort to DL-DVI adapter/dongle is required (about $80)
• DisplayPort monitors of any resolution require no adapters/dongles
• VGA monitors can be supported via:
• Native VGA connector from the graphics card
• DVI-I connector + passive DVI to VGA adapter
• Active DP to VGA adapter

Eyefinity is a game-changing technology for boosting productivity at very low cost and low power. By including active adapters in the new FirePro line, AMD is making the user experience for Eyefinity significantly better and thus more pervasive.

I actually read a Twitter post the other day that seems relevant here:  “RT @cavemanjim: Biggest takeaway from AMD Fusion Summit is that AMD actually cares about user experience. It’s not a means to an end, it is the end.”

Author: Tony DeYoung

The Advantages of Eyefinity for CAD, Part 2: Adapters to the Rescue

Okay, we’ve established that you want Eyefinity for multi-display CAD operations, and the display manufacturers and graphic card manufacturers aren’t necessarily making it easy for you.

It might not seem the most elegant solution, but if you want to use your new DisplayPort card to drive an existing multi-monitor setup or you want to add low cost DVI monitors to complete your Eyefinity system, then you can buy relatively inexpensive DisplayPort adapters.

Active vs. Passive

Ah, if it were only that simple — just buy a DisplayPort adapter and all will work. Actually it is that simple, but until recently, the DisplayPort ecosystem was playing catch-up. You had to pay attention to what kind of adapter: Passive or Active.

The issue arises because DVI/HDMI requires a dedicated clock source per output.  On the other hand DisplayPort only requires one clock source to drive as many outputs as supported by the GPU.  FirePro cards offer a workaround by including two clocks which means you can simultaneously drive two DVI/HDMI displays from dual-mode DisplayPort outputs using nothing more than a Passive adapter. But to use more than two DVI/HDMI displays, you need to use an Active adapter (a cable or dongle that integrates a DisplayPort translator chip, and a DAC for the VGA case ).

Powered Active

Sounds confusing?  Wait it gets a little worse.  All of the above only refers to single-link DVI displays (displays that handle up to 1920 x 1200 resolution at 60 Hz).  If you are trying to drive dual-link DVI displays with resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 like the HP 30-inch or Apple Cinema Display, then you need a USB bus-Powered Active adapter/dongle.

Let’s Just Keep It Simple

Needless to say, this scenario of two adapters for single-link DVI and a third for dual-link DVI, caused a lot of confusion in the early days of DisplayPort and Eyefinity.  Not only could you not use your new graphics card until you ran out and bought adapters. But even with adapters in hand, you could find that you had purchased the wrong type of adapter to drive the third or fourth display.  It wasn’t an unsolvable crisis, but it was sure irritating.

Active Adapters Included in the Box

The new FirePro V7900 and FirePro V5900 cards eliminate the Passive vs. Active confusion, as well as the need to buy anything additional. The graphics cards simply come with Active adapters. You don’t need to think if you are connecting your 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th monitor.  Just plug in one of the included adapters and it supplies the conversion as needed. Simple (almost Apple-esque in the “it just works” simplicity). I hope we see more of this “included in the box” approach.

Of course, if you have a legacy dual-link display, then you still need a special bus-powered adapter. But fewer people have this setup then those with the more common multiple, single-link DVI monitors.

Next I’ll discuss the Rules of Thumb for Eyefinity setups.

Author: Tony DeYoung

The Advantages of Eyefinity for CAD, Part 1: DVI Monitors and DisplayPort Graphics Cards

Eyefinity drives 3 or more displays simultaneously.

Eyefinity lets you drive 3 or more independent displays simultaneously from a single low-power FirePro graphics card. This technology is great for CAD users because it enables you to multi-task different workflow applications on each display or span a single CAD application across multiple displays as one desktop workspace. Check out this video showing using a three-display configuration driven by a single laptop and then tell me you don’t want it.

DisplayPort for Graphics Cards and Display Manufacturers

Whether you are talking AMD FirePro or Nvidia Quadro, DisplayPort has become the standard output port for both consumer and professional graphics cards.  Yes, there are legacy DVI ports on some cards and there are even cards specifically designed to address the legacy market (e.g., FirePro V5800 DVI). But largely the debate about standards is over, and DisplayPort is here to stay. (I have written about the advantages of DisplayPort previously.)

But while the graphics card manufacturers embraced DisplayPort early on, the display manufacturers (Apple aside) have only recently made the switch. Beginning in 2010, Asus, Dell, HP LaCie, Lenovo, and NEC released more than 80 displays supporting DisplayPort. But there are still a lot more displays released with only the less expensive DVI or VGA input connectors.

So What Do I Do with My Older Monitors? Can I Still Use Eyefinity?

So what do you do if you have a display/monitor released before 2010 that only has single-link or dual-link DVI inputs? Or perhaps more interestingly, what if you want to set up a 3- or 4-display visual workspace for your CAD workflow using Eyefinity, but some or all of the displays you plan to use only have DVI/HDMI/VGA inputs?

Next, I’ll talk about DisplayPort adapters that can help you do just that.

Author: Tony DeYoung

How Advances in Mobility Technology Will Affect the CAD Workplace, Part 2

In my last post, I theorized how advances in mobility technology will affect the CAD workplace. Now, what are these wandering CAD minstrels going to work on? Oh, that is the beauty of it all.

In this vision of the future that I have, mobile CAD applications and platforms will pop up everywhere. Today your CAD workstation weighs about, what … 15 pounds? What if it weighed one pound? What if it weighed less than pound? With current tablet technology, that is precisely what a mobile CAD station weighs! Imagine a future where technology brings us interfaces that are just a screen and no thicker or perhaps screens that fold or roll up for storage.

Think back to your childhood when we all watched the Warner Brothers cartoon that depicted the “House of the Future.” Remember all of those outlandish and whimsical imaginations of the robotic maid and the rehydrated seven-course meal? Use that mindset and imagine a world where your CAD interface isn’t on your tablet or phone. Imagine that is so archaic that it is laughable.

No, the future of mobile CAD is a world with holographic interfaces. It is a world where augmented related toolsets combined with GPS tracking and accelerometers allow us to see the unseen. Architects and planners will be able to visit a bare site and through the window of their “tablet” see the future construction in real space! They will walk around and see if the sink is too far from the kitchen island. If it is, they will use a tactile interface to revise the design and update the server files.

Right Here, Right Now

Would you like to know what the absolutely best thing about my insane vision of the future is? It is here, now. We are walking around in a world of people who are never unplugged. Information is flying at us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and the little screens in our pockets and bags are lighting up and buzzing. Now that developers have seen the future begun to create software for this mobile tech, we are off and flying!

Maybe the screens aren’t folded and put into back pockets and the interfaces aren’t tactile, holographic systems. Nevertheless, the power to leave your desk behind and get at least some of your work done on the go is here. Now! So upload or email your drawing to your cloud or mobile device. Take your dog to the park and enjoy the breeze while he plays and you review those General Notes. If something needs to be changed, do it there on the bench. Do it today because who can say where technology will let us work on our CAD files in the future.

 Author: Curt Moreno