Continue to Site

Welcome to MCAD Central

Join our MCAD Central community forums, the largest resource for MCAD (Mechanical Computer-Aided Design) professionals, including files, forums, jobs, articles, calendar, and more.

Register Log in

Are two screens better than one

D

daveyk_belgium

New member
I presently useone 20" flat screen with WF2.


If I was to buy another screen, should it be another 20" screen - so I use both -or one single 24", and only use this?


Any advice???


Dave
 
I personally run two monitors....I have one 19" CRT, and one 17" CRT.....The new computer systems they have planned for my department have Dual 19" TFT Flat panels planned though......


I'd take dual monitors ANY DAY over a single....even if the single was rather large. I like being able to have 4-5 applications open at once, and be able to view one app on one screen, and another on the other screen, and have both full size.


Some people can't handle the extra real estate though, My coworker uses a single 21" CRT, and doesn't like dual monitors at all, so I think it really is personal preference....It all boils down to what makes your work easier and faster, and that will be what your comfortable, and familiar with, as well as excited about using.


Mike
Edited by: 2kwik4u
 
I use a single 24" and love it. Dell now offers a 30" LCD which would be really great. A lot of people have had some pretty buggy/flakey problems getting dual screens working properly. I think support is getting much better on the newest cards. Dual screens will really bog down a low end video card so make sure your system is up to it if you go that route.

One good way to deal with lots of running applications is to use multiple virtual desktops. I use one for office apps (email, word processing, etc.), one for CAD and a third for FEA analysis. The FEA program I use can not be minimized once the solver is launched and a solution may take 4 hours so having it on it's own virtual desktop is the only way to get it out of view while I work on other things.
 
2 screens is definatly my choice, but its really not for everyone. You also need to teach yourself to fully appreciate the 2 screens. but this does take up lots of desk space.

2x 21" = LOTS of deskspace.

i love this virtual desk top idea that Dr_Gallup uses. Is it a inbuilt windows thing? or a seperate bit of software? or maybe u use linux? which has it inbuilt. ??
 
There are several ways to get virtual desktops. Most of the newer video cards have it built in to their drivers. If you have an nVidia Quadro it is under display properties/settings/advanced/Quadro FX/Desktop managment/Desktops/enable multiple desktops.
 
All of the designers and programmers here at my company use dual 20" screens.


We have ran into a problem with wildfire 1. If you try to change the color of the part, Pro closes. The only way we have found around this is to save the part and bring it up on a machine that only has one display and change the color there. Then when you open it back up on the duel display system the color change takes effect.


Has anybody else had this problem? We have 12 different designers that have dual screen and all have the same problem.


PTC tells us its the video card. Be we have different cards in different machine
 
Great feed-back boys - thanks a lot!

But.....does anybody use Pro/E on two screens? My guess is that if you have two screens, a 20" and 24" is the best combo. Then the model tree/layer display can be left up in a viewable form full-time.

With the large number of windows required for rendering for example, can these be dragged ono the other screen?

Cheers

Dave
 
You can drag the pieces from one screen to another.....I do that quite a bit.....I also have multiple windows with multiple parts and spread those out from time to time....Usually when I am trying to add features of one to another, or transfering dimensions or things of that nature, where I get tired of flipping back and forth.....I suppose this would work equally as well on a single GIANT screen, just a different way of looking at it.......
 
Speling,


I think there isn't much discussion about how to setup multiple displays in a desktop environment : side by side is the ergonomic choice. That's why document holders, standing besides the screen, were invented : to reduce the fatigue caused by continuously looking up and down reading and then typing afterwards. You won't look at 2 screens that are superposed by eyemovement only, but you will when the screens are side by side.


Regarding size : I have a 22" CRT giving 1600x1200 in a 20" viewing space. I wouldn't change it for a 24" inch TFT that's only capable of 1280x960. Number of pixels is the first thing that matters, keeping them in a readable size is the second thing. Secondly working space is important. I reduce icons and windows "surroundings" to get more netto space because that's where I'm working.


Alex


This one more or less covers my wishes when it comes to high-end TFT. There's only one (minor) problem ... Just imagine having 2 of those !


http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndoc id=MIGR-39635
Edited by: AHA-D
 
I am using 2 19" Dell Flat Screen LCD monitors. I couldn't imagine not having them. To be able to have an assembly in one screnn and the drawing in the other is great. Not to mention having an assembly in one screen and Intalink workspace browser in another for renaming. It takes a little while to get used to it, but it would be hard to go back to one screen.
 
I have never worked on 2 monitors but I think that would be very useful, for example in one main monitor you work with Pro/E doing part, and in second monitor you got open drawing in eDrawings from where you get information of part. There are also another benefits as others have counted.


I would say that still CRT monitors rulz, I will always chose 21+ CRT over 19+ LCD or 46 TFT. Yes I know that LCD and TFT monitors reduce space and are cooler etc. but efficiency is that counts. Like AHA-D said resolution is what meters as well as refresh rate.


Another point would 46 inch monitor increase your productivity so you can justified its cost 8k$? or for the same efficiency you can achieved with 2 22 inch CRT monitors?
Yes I know that we all (including myself) would gladly have work space like futuristic environment but is it justified with our efficiency?, and yes in time price would reduce so then we can have all that nice hardware
smiley2.gif
 
@ AHA-D

I only want to say something different from side by side - nothing else
- But one above another isn
 
I've been using two Dell 2000FP Monitors for some time now. Both with multiple inputs with two PCs. I've ran dual display on one and single on the other on the rightdisplay side so that with a touch of the input button on the display I can change right monitor to view other PC. I've since changed back to single display for both because of problems with ProE dual monitor support with the Quadro4 900 XGL card. Pro Engineer will run in dual dislplay mode, but there isn't any extensive support for it. I was told to go back to single display after trying serveral drivers and display settings. (shaded view would lock up while rotating and eventually turn into "blue screen of death"). Problems started after version upgrade (build #).


I love the use of two monitors regardless of running dual or two singles. My coworkers (single display users) are constantly conspiring on how they can strip me of the other PC for their usage.


I'm sure ProE runs glitchless in dual display with other graphics cards, those running in dual display please state which graphics card you are using. I loved running ProE in dual display mode because the main screen was maximized on one screen and all other dialog boxes were moved to the other. Once setup, everthing stayed this way, essentially, no more windows under windows!


I also run a 3 display setup at home (2 19 CRTs (18 viewable) and 18 flat panel). I'll get pics to post. 3 PCs, one dual mode, two single with flat panel as multiple input. Soon after my 2nd workstation gets the older Wildcat 4210 card, I will be able to use more display options with 3dlab's Wildcat Multiview function on their #210 cards.


For single monitor options at least go withDell's 2405FPW 24-inch Wide Aspect Flat Panel LCD Monitor. This is an Active Matrix TFT with max resolution of 1920x1200. It would be aperfect single display for ProE. Plenty of width to moveProE's dialog boxes around and to tile 2 windows vertically without much width compression.


[url]http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?TabPag e=techspecs&sku=24053YR&spagenum=&category_id=61 98&brandid=&k=&c=us&l=en&cs=04&mnf=& amp;prst=&prEnd=&mnfsku=&orderby=&searchtype =&pageb4search=&page=productlisting.aspx&instock =&refurbished[/url]=
 
I also use majority of windows hot keys, not just alt-tab, you could almost throw away my mouse!. Most people that have used two monitors will tell you its better whether they are more productive or not. I guess a lot would also depend on how multi-tasking someone is as well. I can see where some people would not benifit from multiple monitors. The visual aid of viewing several drawing files that are already visable on another monitor vs. alt-tab to that drawing is more efficient. I guess you would have to try it both ways to see. I've been there. Also, I have one app that I extract data from and input into another app, alt-tab quickly gets me to other app to copy info(viewable on other monitor), then alt-tab back to paste info on input screen, run app, the whole time visually verifying correct information without having to flip screens.


Application usage is also something to consider. With a multiply PC setup, while a resource hungry app is running on one PC, you can be working on the other, monitoring the others progresswhile you work.In some cases, even the simple task of searching files on some corporate networks become a resource hog to some PCs.
 
My messy home setup : 2 computers (one on the desk and one below, hardly visible), 2 keyboards and mice (one wired, one wireless), one 24" Iiyama CRT connected to both.


With 2 PC's you can always have two tasks running without interference (one writing a CD - which you certainly don't want to interrupt - and one for CAD, for instance). You always have a backup system in case of emergency. It's cheaper than a dual system.View attachment 1705


Alex
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Sponsor

Articles From 3DCAD World

Back
Top