I’m still running Windows XP in my office and shop. The last version of Preform to run on my computers is release 1.3. It seems the latest versions of Preform are calling graphics functions not supported by older cards (I have an Nvidia Quadro on my office machine. It’s not some feeble graphics card).
It would be really nice to have the newer versions support older cards. It’s a pain to have to get a new PC just to run preform in the shop.
We’ve definitely worked to maintain compatibility, but it’s tough to reconcile the needs of high-performance 3D software with that of some of the older machines. We know that a lot of folks do exactly what you’re describing – layout and so forth on one computer, and then take it over to an old shop computer for loading onto the Form 1. We often tend to use laptops, ourselves…maybe there’s a place for a specialized loader application? I’ll pass on the suggestion.
Sounds good. If you embed the loader in firmware and automatically download the Preform files to the Form 1 then I wouldn’t need a lab PC!