PreForm 1.6 auto support generation missalignment

I just got a Form 1+ and downloaded and installed Preform 1.6. The problem that I’m having is that the preform software is not generating supports that are oriented properly relative to the model and as such, the supports don’t touch the model and in some cases, the support beams go right through other parts of the model.

It seems that the default orientation of the model is ok for support generation. The moment you rotate the model on any axis, the supports no longer line up. In some cases, I have seen it 180 degrees off. In the picture below, I simply tilted the model on the X axis by about 12 degrees and clicked on generate supports. This happens with every model I try in preform 1.6. I’ve never used an earlier version of software so I don’t know if this is a new development. Manual support placement also fails because the program things the object is oriented differently than how it is displayed.

My OS: Windows XP
Preform software version: 1.6
The printer is not connected to my machine at this time but this really shouldn’t be the source of the problem.

That is messed up. When you tilted the model did it flop mirror-style as you tilted it? The flop happens to me on some models as I click the tilt control, I am wondering if one more click puts it over the supports.

No, it doesn’t look like it mirrored or anything.

Further testing seems to indicate that if I pick one of the 6 default orientations and only modify the axis that controls the height from the build platform, the support generation works. If I modify any value that rotates the part on the grid plane seen above, things go hay-wire. The picture below shows that if I pick the default orientation circled in red, I can modify the “Y” axis and have everything work as it should. Touching the X or Z axis will screw everything up. Hope this helps others who may have struggled with it at first.

For anybody else that might be having this problem, I found the issue was a result of not meeting the OpenGL 2.1 requirement. It never occurred to me that my work computer would have an 8 year old graphics card in it considering I do electrical and mechanical design on it!