drivers Archives » What Revit Wants

Beware of Windows Update – nVidia Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2

November 16, 2012May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Windows Update is pushing an Nvidia driver update package as an Important update now (they are usually offered as ‘optional’). In my case, it was listed as:
nVidia – Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2, Other hardware – NVIDIA Quadro FX 580

I think this update is something that is aiming to align Windows 7 with Windows 8 DirectX 11 / 11.1.

Most tech / IT people recommend against using Windows Update to update graphics drivers. I’m not saying that it will definitely cause you a problem … but its probably safer to use Autodesk certified drivers (select ‘Graphics’) at this stage.

If you want to go ahead and install it, let us know how you fare with Revit 🙂

EDIT related tweets:

Windows update killed #Revit again. Cant load existing files-get “Encountered an improper argument”. System restore no help. Argh #Autodesk
— Doug Bowers (@DBCdoug) November 16, 2012

Have wasted all day trying to get #RevitMEP to after Windows update killed it. Still not working. 🙁
— Doug Bowers (@DBCdoug) November 16, 2012

@dbcdoug Windows Update is evil – similar issue here with Revit 2013 in German while English is still working …
— Martin Taurer (@taurerm) November 17, 2012

Further reading:
View topic – Portions of DX 11.1 is being made available on Win 7 | Widescreen Gaming Forum

Optional update in windows update is giving me a blue screen. – Windows 7 Forums

M$ pushing nVida drivers as an ‘Important’ update…

Windows Update, nVidia – Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1… – Guru3D.com Forums

Is this Microsofts way of saying it’s a new Nvidia driver?

Using the TAB key – inconsistency between Status Bar and Preselection

July 30, 2012May 7, 2017 Luke Johnson

Using my laptop with Revit 2013 and an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card, I came across an interesting bug. Using the Tab key, nothing seemed to be working. But this is what was actually happening – I would:

Hover over something
Press Tab key, pre-selection does not cycle (but Status bar is correct, showing next item under cursor)
Press Tab key again, pre-selection shows item from step 2, but again, Status bar shows the correct (next) item. Left-clicking will select the item shown in the Status bar, not the one that is pre-selected.

Obviously, the first port of call for these types of problems is Graphics Hardware. And yes, I was using Hardware Acceleration, and yes, the Hardware had not been tested with Revit, as the Options dialog shows:

Simply turning off Hardware Acceleration fixed this issue, as it will for many graphic-related bugs and errors.

If you really, really want the nice Hardware-accelerated stuff in Revit 2013 and you are using suboptimal hardware, you will need to either:

look for better graphics drivers for your hardware (may not work anyway)
replace your graphics / video card with one that Revit Wants (very hard if you are using a laptop!)

NVIDIA drivers 295.73 WHQL – download

February 21, 2012May 8, 2017 Luke Johnson

This is the first WHQL-certified driver from the R295 family of drivers. It is the recommended upgrade for all GeForce users…

These drivers come packed with GeForce-exclusive performance and quality enhancements and are now Microsoft WHQL-certified.

Version:	295.73 WHQL
Release Date:	2012.02.21
Operating System:	Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 64-bit
Language:	English (U.S.)
File Size:	157 MB

via
NVIDIA DRIVERS 295.73 WHQL

Certified Revit Graphics driver list

August 26, 2011May 8, 2017 Luke Johnson

The Autodesk Certified Hardware page allows filtering by the products you intend to use (ie. Revit). This page should be your ‘first stop’ when installing or updating your Graphics Card / Display drivers. Once you find a Certified, Recommended driver, you can download it direct from this page.

Autodesk – Certified Hardware – Find Graphics Hardware