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Clair A avatar image
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Clair A asked Logan Gold commented

FlexSim is not responding when opening a model on a 2nd screen

One of our customers reported an issue to us, that I am not able to reproduce. So I post it here, in case someone in the community experiments the same issue or finds a way to replicate that issue.

A new feature has been introduced in 23.0:

Added an option to remember the application's window placement when opening.

https://docs.flexsim.com/en/23.1/Reference/ReleaseNotesAndHistory/ReleaseNotesAndHistory.html#23-0-0

For example if you have 2 screens and double click on a model in your file explorer, Flexsim will open on your main screen, or on your 2nd screen, based on where the application saved the previous window placement.

Here are the steps reported by our user, with a test model Modèle 5 (robot, ascenseur, transtockeur, pont roulant).fsm.

When he double clicks on the model file and FlexSim opens on his main screen, it loads correctly.

When he double clicks on the model file and FlexSim opens on his 2nd screen, it does not load the 3D view correctly and he gets a message that FlexSim 2023 is not responding:

1680080300163.png

So he needs to end the FlexSim process to close the program.

If he opens FlexSim first (without double clicking on a model file) on his 2nd screen, and then opens the model file, it loads correctly.

Here is his graphics configuration:

1680081011902.png

Nvidia 528.49 driver was released in February. Since then Nvidia has released new drivers, so I will ask to this user to update his drivers to see if this fixes this issue.

As I was not able to replicate this issue on my computer (with an older Nvidia driver) and multiple screens, in the meantime I told this user to uncheck this feature in his global preferences:

image.png

FlexSim 23.0.5
external display
1680080300163.png (56.6 KiB)
1680081011902.png (15.3 KiB)
image.png (9.9 KiB)
modele-5-robot-ascenseur-transtockeur-pont-roulant.fsm (88.7 KiB)
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Logan Gold avatar image Logan Gold ♦♦ commented ·

Hey @Clair A, do you know how the two displays are connected? I'm curious if it could be hardware related (at least partially).

It looks like it is a desktop graphics card, but let me know if I am mistaken. If it is a desktop, how are the screens connected to the graphics card? Are they using any kind of dock for the second screen, or maybe something like a USB-C to HDMI/DVI/DisplayPort cable? Can they try a different cable for the second screen? Or even try to connect to a different port on the card? Or see if they can switch the connections between the two displays and see if the issue happens on the main screen.

I'm also curious if the issue can be replicated on their system with an older version of FlexSim. If there are any issues running an older version on the second monitor, then it could be a hardware and/or driver issue. Although I can't remember how to get FlexSim to open on a different monitor - it might be a Windows setting. But if the issue doesn't happen with an older version, that would seem to indicate an issue with the software. In which case, we probably won't be able to do much until we can replicate the issue.

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Clair A avatar image Clair A Logan Gold ♦♦ commented ·

I asked to our customer to register a forum account, so he will be able to answer you directly.

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Sebastien avatar image Sebastien Logan Gold ♦♦ commented ·
Hi Logan, I use a laptop (Asus ROG), second screen connected with hdmi and third with display port. But if the model is saved on one or other screen, still the same pb.

And it's only happen with the last release, because with older Flexsim runs on the "main" screen (at the opening)...

I upgrade my windows on W11. Perhaps it is a driver pb even if I updated all of them...

Hope it could helps.
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Logan Gold avatar image Logan Gold ♦♦ Sebastien commented ·

@Sebastien, I have a few follow up questions if you don't mind:

  • Are you able to use all 3 screens at the same time?
  • When the error doesn't occur, is it because the software/model are opened on the laptop screen?
  • If you just have one screen connected, does the issue still occur on the one external display?
  • Is one of the external screens the main display (found in Windows Display settings), or is it the laptop screen? If it's the laptop screen, can you try making one of the external screens the main display and test again?
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Jeanette F avatar image Jeanette F ♦♦ commented ·
Hello @Clair A,

I was not able to replicate the issue either. Did updating the graphics driver solve the issue for the user?

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Clair A avatar image Clair A Jeanette F ♦♦ commented ·

Thanks for your follow up Jeannette. The user has updated his graphics driver, but it did not solve his issue.

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Jeanette F avatar image Jeanette F ♦♦ Clair A commented ·
Hello @Clair A,

We don't have a way to debug this issue since it is only occurring with your clients machine. Are the workarounds of opening on a specific screen or disabling global preference to remember the placement of the window make it possible for your client to still work with FlexSim?

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1 Answer

Joerg Vogel avatar image
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Joerg Vogel answered Sebastien commented

We had a similar problem with a disconnected screen. MS Windows remembers, where a program was closed. I think, it stores a screen ID. But this ID must not be the same if a screen gets disconnected and connected again. Physically everything seems unchanged, but from ms windows system view the screen is missing. You cannot interact on a closed or not present screen.
This can happen if you close a program, switch off your computer, disconnect the cable in off state, start your system. Then you do some work, switch off your machine again. You connect the screen again in off state and in some cases ms Windows recognizes this screen as a new device, when you turn your computer on again. You start FlexSim. You think physical has nothing changed. But in fact the second screen is still missing for the system settings.

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Joerg Vogel avatar image Joerg Vogel commented ·

Such scenarios can happen, if you connect to the same graphic interface different devices like data projector and displays. You switch for these devices the output behavior from enhanced to duplicate view.

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Sebastien avatar image Sebastien commented ·
Hi Joerg, this make sense. Thanks for your feedback
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