[magjohan]

Hi, i have spent a time now trying to figuring out a solution for my paraview/paraFoam problem. The problem is that the domain is only visible when im rotating it. Other people in the forum describes it like "the mesh,domain are only visible when im holding my left mouse" and vice versa. The thing is that this is the same kind of problem.

I have in some kind of way concluded that the problem may be caused by my computers graphic card (ATI Mobile 5730) AND a simple solution would be to disable all kinds of desktop effects in Ubuntu. This is what I think not a solution for this problem, i need the effects, both for efficiency of work and pleasure.

The problem are also independent on which paraview version you are running, have tried different versions.

It would be very appreciated if someone else with this problem could help me out, or is it someone else that has some kind of information?

My spec. of interest:
ATI Graphic card
Ubuntu 1010 - 64bit
OpenFoam 1.6.x - 64bit
paraview 3.8 - 64bit (tested 3.4, 3.6 too)

[wyldckat]

Greetings Johan and welcome to the forum!

Ah the proverbial «Have one's cake and eat it too»...

OK, there are a few possible solutions that may or may not work:

• Downgrade or upgrade the installed graphics card drivers. It's been known to happen that some versions of the drivers by Intel, NVidia and ATI... well, they occasionally suck big time . It happens when they close the source code on Linux related software... they and only they can fix the problems and they can take a while to fix them.
• Install the ParaView version that is available in Ubuntu's repositories. Then:
  1. Start a new terminal and run:

     pvserver -display :0.0 --use-offscreen-rendering

  2. On the terminal where you were running your case, run:

     touch case.foam
     paraview

  3. Now, I'll be partially quoting the following steps from here and these are only necessary the first time around:
     • Select the File > Connect menu item or corresponding toolbar button.
     • - Click on "Add Server"
     • - This is just an old example. Give a name to the new server and leave the defaults on (localhost and 11111). Click OK.
     • - Put it on manual, since you already started the server manually Click on "Save".
     • Now connect to the new server configuration.
  4. Now you're connected to the pvserver that is using off screen rendering. It'll be slower, but you no longer should have any problems with the mesh being absent minded
     You might also want to try starting the pvserver without the off screen argument, to test what happens. Ditto for the display option.

OK, I think that for now one of these possibilities should work. Let us know if either one worked for you

Almost forgot, here are more advanced settings for the pvserver: ParaView:Server Configuration

Best regards,
Bruno

[arjun]

Originally Posted by wyldckat

Ah the proverbial «Have one's cake and eat it too»...

i think it should be

Eat one's cake and have it too.

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/eatcake.html

PS: Sorry for being picky.

[magjohan]

Thanks for the good instructions, i've followed them with out any problems but unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem. The domain are still not shown, only when i rotate it and as soon as i release the left mouse button it becomes invisible again.

I dont know if I'm on the wrong track now, correct me if thats the case, but I have a feeling that the problem ar'nt related to paraview itself. It might have something to do with the Qt libraries since they are in some way responsible for the graphical interface. Qt in that hand might have some connection with the "Visual Effects" in Ubuntu.

According to my previous hours of googling it seems to be a more common problem (or only?) to ATI users. Havnt heard anything from Nvidia or INTEL users. Also, correct me here if im wrong!e


A down grade of drivers might be a solution but i doubt it in this case, I have the newest installed for the moment and have tried an older version without success. Anyway, will keep it in my mind!


Hope there is a simple solution, maybe i did something wrong with your previous suggestions?


Once again thanks for taking the time!

[wyldckat]

Greetings to all!

@Johan:

Originally Posted by magjohan

Thanks for the good instructions, i've followed them with out any problems but unfortunately it doesn't solve the problem. The domain are still not shown, only when i rotate it and as soon as i release the left mouse button it becomes invisible again.

MMmm, if you did in fact connect to the pvserver that is using the off screen rendering, then you might right in stating that it could be a Qt issue... or at least how Qt connects to the Compiz+X window management. Although I'm also using Ubuntu 10.10 and have an onboard ATI HD 3200 without any problems, except with Java apps.

Nonetheless, sooner or later there will be issues with Compiz or Beryl (not sure what's running today on Ubuntu). For example, 3D games and Java applications don't work very well with Compiz. For these situations, they invented this: Fusion-Icon


Last but not least, there is also the pseudo-crazy possibility: create a VNC display and run ParaView inside it. For example, this will install TightVNC server+client, create a display and connect to it:

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver
tightvncserver -geometry 1000x800 :2
vinagre :2

I'm assuming vinagre comes already installed with Ubuntu. You can try other vnc servers as well Also you can try other VNC viewers.
To end the VNC display, run:

tightvncserver -kill :2

____________________________________

@arjun:

Originally Posted by arjun

i think it should be

Eat one's cake and have it too.

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/eatcake.html

PS: Sorry for being picky.

I like a challenge
The sentence "Eat one's cake and have it too." doesn't fulfil a premise: where did the cake come from?
While the sentence "Have one's cake and eat it too" predefines right away the existence of the cake, indicating the cake already existed before eating it
In other words, the sentence has evolved over time, due to feedback from other people. Otherwise, this sentence would sometimes end up in a "which came first: the chicken or the egg?" débâcle


Best regards,
Bruno

[magjohan]

Hi, okey, that didn't helped me out when you said that you running your paraview with an ATI graphic card but Java-apps works fine for me.

Yea, vinagre comes with Ubuntu from scratch, a great free vnc-viewer software. I tried the VNC thing with again negative result, when i thought about it the results was expected since the VNC client actually connects to a "host" that using the bad setup.

If we assume that I have followed your steps correctly, do you think it matters if the paraview on my computer are installed without compilation? It is more or less downloaded and copied to my Ofoam folder. Saw also that a new verision, paraview 3.10 RC are released, maybe that might solve the problem?

For the moment, i feel forced to used the "Fusion-Icon" which solves the problem but in the same way that it is to turn off the "Visual Effects", okey, its quicker.

Maybe this is the wrong forum for this kind of problem, maybe should I try in some QT forum?


Thanks for the help so far anyway! This is more an irritating thing than an actual problem since there is a solution!

[wyldckat]

Hi Johan,

Originally Posted by magjohan

Hi, okey, that didn't helped me out when you said that you running your paraview with an ATI graphic card but Java-apps works fine for me.

Well, the onboard graphics GPU my computer has is based on an old chip, so it's only natural that the drivers should work properly. Yours is a very recent chip, so it's natural that some occasional bug might surface.

Originally Posted by magjohan

Yea, vinagre comes with Ubuntu from scratch, a great free vnc-viewer software. I tried the VNC thing with again negative result, when i thought about it the results was expected since the VNC client actually connects to a "host" that using the bad setup.

OK, I didn't expect that, because allegedly one cannot use hardware acceleration inside a VNC display. But I suppose that you're right, ParaView/VTK calls on the installed OpenGL library, which in turn connects to the ATI drivers, since the OpenGL libraries you are using are likely the ones that come with the ATI drivers...

Originally Posted by magjohan

If we assume that I have followed your steps correctly, do you think it matters if the paraview on my computer are installed without compilation? It is more or less downloaded and copied to my Ofoam folder. Saw also that a new verision, paraview 3.10 RC are released, maybe that might solve the problem?

I suggest trying the ParaView version installable via Synaptic or apt-get, because as of Ubuntu 10.10, ParaView 3.8.0 is available and it's the minimum version that can open ".foam" files. Simply run this on your case folder:

touch case.foam

And then you can open it in ParaView.
Using the bleeding edge ParaView may or may not work, since the issue you are getting is likely somewhere between VTK and the OpenGL libraries. In other words, if VTK was fixed, it should work; if it's an ATI OpenGL problem, it won't matter what ParaView/VTK version you're using

Originally Posted by magjohan

Maybe this is the wrong forum for this kind of problem, maybe should I try in some QT forum?

As I was explaining a few lines above, it's very likely to be a VTK related issue. The software stack is something like this:

1. ParaView
   1. Qt - for GUI
   2. VTK - for geometry handling and 3D
      1. OpenGL
   3. QtVTK widget for establishing a connection between Qt and VTK.

The only way I see that it would be a Qt issue is if you can't represent any single thing in the 3D area (widget) of ParaView. If the XYZ referential doesn't show up in the lower left corner of the 3D widget, nor do any of the source geometries available in the top menu show up in the 3D area, then it might be a Qt issue. If the XYZ shows up, then it's VTK-OpenGL.

A way to try to isolate the issue would be using the binary version of VTK+TCL, which allows running Tcl scripts directly into VTK. This way Qt is in no way involved.

But like Voltaire said:

Originally Posted by http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Voltaire

The better is the enemy of the good.

Good luck!
Bruno

[magjohan]

Okey, I installed paraview via "apt-get install" and started it from the Applications menu and everything worked!

I cant explain why but the strange thing is that when i start paraview from the terminal it doesnt work. I have an accepted solution now (start paraview from the Applications menu). Thanks!


Now im just curious, what can be reason for this?

[wyldckat]

Hi Johan,

Well, it's theoretically simple: the Ubuntu version of ParaView should be compatible with whichever graphics card driver Ubuntu uses to interact with the actual graphics card (assuming the driver works as intended). In other words, Ubuntu's packages should have a quality assurance implied

What happens with the ParaView version that you installed manually to work with OpenFOAM (and called from the terminal) is likely a generic version, which may or may not work with your current system!

The only other version of ParaView that should work at least as well as the Ubuntu version, is one built from scratch. For example, by following these instructions: Building ParaView 3.8.0 with custom Qt 4.6.3

Either way, you can remove the version you have in OpenFOAM's line of sight and then modify paraFoam by running this command:

Originally Posted by http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/blogs/wyldckat/317-using-official-pre-built-paraview-3-8-0-version-openfoam.html

sed -i -e 's=\.OpenFOAM=\.foam=' $WM_PROJECT_DIR/bin/paraFoam

Then it should work just fine with Ubuntu's version of ParaView

Best regards,
Bruno