Random, distorted, or extra lines appear on every DGN file


Product(s):Promis.e, Bentley Substation
Version(s):through 08.11.12.137
Environment:N\A
Area:Installation_Configuration
Subarea:N\A

Problem Description

When any project page is opened, for any project including sample projects, the drawing appears corrupted with extra, random lines appearing. The problem often does not occur opening the same pages on other workstations.

Explanation

This is purely a display issue. Nothing is wrong or getting corrupted with the DGN file or data. This is an issue with the graphics card driver.

Steps to Resolve

  1. If the video card driver has recently been updated, try rolling back to the previous version with which the problem did not occur. Otherwise, download and install the latest driver from the website of the graphics card manufacturer.
  2. Restart the computer.

If that does not help, the following procedure has resolved the issue for some users but should be considered a temporary fix. The procedure limits the software to using DirectX 9 but the software was designed to run with DirectX 11, so limiting the software may have other adverse affects. The ultimate solution is to get a graphics card or driver that works properly and remove the QV_D3DVERSION configuration variable.

  1. In Promis.e or Bentley Substation, select Workspace > Configuration from the main pull down menus.
  2. Click the New button on the Configuration dialog.
  3. Enter QV_D3DVERSION in the Variable field.
  4. Enter 9 in the New Value field.
  5. Click OK.
  6. Click OK on the Configuration dialog and choose Yes to the "Save changes?" prompt.
  7. Restart the software.

Alternatively, QV_D3DVERSION can be added as a Windows environment variable, see the procedure below. This is handy for (again, temporarily) addressing the issue in multiple applications, but this would limit all applications that reference that environment variable to use DirectX 9, not just Bentley products, which may be undesirable.

  1. Go to Control Panel > System > Advanced System Settings.
  2. Click the Environment Variables button.
  3. Click the New button under the System Variables list.
  4. Enter QV_D3DVERSION for the variable name.
  5. Enter 9 for the variable value.
  6. Click OK until out of System Properties.

 Original Author:Matt_P

Keywords: spiderweb, spider web, spaghetti, corrupt, broken, stretched, random, distorted