Altium 19 won't show 3D models of my electronic parts? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: bjdhjy888
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2019, 12:22:07 am
content: It used to show them all, until one day the 3D look of my onboard parts disappeared all of a sudden. What gives? I have no ideas. I didn't even touch the configuration panels. I doubt I accidentally modified it either.I tried to Google the reason and re-configured something in Altium but failed to get back the 3D models. Anyone has any ideas what caused the problem? Thanks.

author: pigrew
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2019, 12:38:54 am
content: Could you post a screenshot of the "view configuration" panel? The one that lets you turn off 3D bodies, and set transparencies?

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2019, 01:14:17 am
content: 1) Press 3 to enter 3D view2) Check and make sure the bit at the top says "Altium 3D <color>" and NOT 'Altium Standard 2D' or 'Altium Transparent 2D'3) Right click on PCB, Select Options, then Display4) Make sure that under '3D Bodies' the two tick-boxes are set "Show Simple 3D bodies" and "Show STEP models"Hopefully your 3D view is now working.

author: reagle
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 10, 2019, 03:50:59 am
content: Just had the same thing. Shift+Z toggles "Show 3D bodies"

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2020, 10:14:50 pm
content: Actually, I have the similar issue. This is what happened - I have upgraded from Win7 to Win10 and everything seemed to work until I switched to 3D view. Now funny part starts - instead of 3D bodies, I can only see red outlines - like meshing was not performed (and wasn't - there's usually a message in the status line during initial load) - see attached screenshot.Switching 3D mode on/off made no difference. I did not try to perform cold Windows10 installation, though (a lot of other stuff will have to be re-installed).The same thing happened on two PC's. I tried to re-install Altium, but it made no difference.

author: ANTALIFE
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2020, 11:02:39 pm
content: Quote from: Deni on February 05, 2020, 10:14:50 pmRed outlines usually mean models are still loading, so try letting it sit for a minute or two and see if the models come backIf that does not work, did you embed or link the models to the footprint? If you linked them then check that the link is not broken

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2020, 11:21:08 pm
content: That is what i do (wait couple minutes, Win7, Altium 17). Do not know why and when Altium decides to re-render the 3D model which was fine just yesterday.yy

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2020, 06:23:07 am
content: Perhaps I was not clear - before I upgraded PC to Win10 it all worked fine - now I can't see 3D bodies anymore, regardless of how long I wait.Again - there's no message that the 3D models are meshed and they are not.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2020, 11:17:07 am
content: Altium as a path setting for 3D models, maybe this has not been set in win10 yet? (Preferences / PCB Editor / Models)It does looks to me like it cannot find the 3D models for some reason.Or maybe the red outline is trying to say 'collision' for some reason.Also, make sure you have installed proper video-card drivers, not whatever cut-down version Microsoft installs automatically during win10 installation.

author: MordorGuy
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 06, 2020, 12:22:09 pm
content: It seems that upgrade from Win7 to Win10 messed up something in handling of 3D bodies, clean install of Win10 resolved the issue with the same library.

author: Pseudobyte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2020, 12:47:29 pm
content: It might be worth a try to clear the cache when it does this.https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/svndblib-cache-seems-not-working/msg2492892/#msg2492892

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 06, 2020, 04:30:32 pm
content: Quote from: Pseudobyte on February 06, 2020, 12:47:29 pmThat's exactly what I am suspecting. I will try to do clean Win10 install on one of affected PC's to see if it helps.

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 07, 2020, 08:51:27 pm
content: OK - there's definitely some issue with Win7->Win10 upgrade. After clean Win10 install, everything is back on track.Btw. - I just noticed that after Win7->Win10 upgrade some other software does not behave as it should...

author: Zilo
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 25, 2020, 07:02:57 pm
content: I had exactly the same problem. The core of the problem was, that Altium wasn't able to write the data into the Mesh folder. It caused various access violations at older versions (like Altium 17), because there was no data to read, and the "red outlines" problem at newer versions. In my case the whole issue was caused by the antivirus software, as soon as I disabled it, the problem was solved.

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2020, 10:00:53 pm
content: Yep, Mesh folder was my first suspect, but did not expect antivirus program to be a culprit. I am using Malwarebytes and disabled Exploit protection. 3D bodies started to appear, but it still does not look right...What a mess

author: SerieZ
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2020, 08:40:43 am
content: Im guessing you did but have you also tried updating all the Footprints of your Project from your PCB Libraries?That usually solved any Issues with weird behaviour involving 3d models for me.

author: Deni
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 28, 2020, 06:34:04 pm
content: No "ordinary" Altium actions can recitify this issue. It is some weird Win-antivirus-altium interaction. So, the only way to see 3D bodies is to disable anti-virus software. And that's not good.God knows what actually happens under the hood

author: Skashkash
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2020, 03:05:11 pm
content: I just got bit by this. And wasted a lot of time tracking down the problem. Really wish I had seen this thread earlier.Fresh Win10 install, AD15.x.AD would freeze up when opening (some) pcbdoc files.Malwarebytes was indeed the culprit. First time (that I know of) that I had a problem with the normally well behaved malwarebytes.Excluding the AD15 directory from detection fixed the issue. You may only need to exclude the exe, but I just excluded the whole dir.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2020, 04:17:17 pm
content: Reinstall altium fresh. The installer detects you are on win10 and alters the location of the temporary folders it uses so it has the right permissions.

author: Skashkash
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 18, 2020, 04:50:33 pm
content: Quote from: free_electron on March 18, 2020, 04:17:17 pmYeah, did that a couple of times. My older AD15 is apparently not that smart.I may wind up just moving the mesh dir anyway.