I have been fighting the preview problem with difference(), mentioned in
other threads, for months on my old HP laptop.  I am using the vanilla
OpenSCAD-2015.03-2-x86-64-Installer.exe downloaded from the web site.

Finally I bit the bullet and upgraded Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 10.
As I hoped, this updated my ATI video driver from an old relic to something
dated in 2015.  Now my problem is even worse.

The logo.scad file that comes with the system still seems to work just fine,
as do some of my simpler files.  But now all of my non-trivial .scad files
just make openSCAD hang up ("not responding").  They report that the total
"rendering" time for the preview is about 1 second, and then hang with a
blank display.

Some of them seem to hang forever, but some will do the preview if I leave
the room for a very long break.  At least some of the ones that eventually
preview, will also move the camera in response to a mouse drag, but only
after a long (multi-minute) delay.  I don't know if the preview problem with
difference() is gone or not.

Now my project, which of course is crucial to the welfare of all humanity,
is dead in the water.

Has anyone else seen such a result from upgrading to Windows 10?  Any
suggestions will be appreciated.

--thanks
john

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I'm using OpenSCAD version 2015.10.17 (git fba8130) on Win10Pro for couple of
months. No issue so far.

$  Runsun Pan, PhD $ libs: doctest , faces ( git ), offline doc ( git ), runscad.py( 1 , 2 , git ), synwrite( 1 , 2 );  $ tips: hash( 1 , 2 ), sweep( 1 , 2 ), var( 1 , 2 ), lerp , animGif , prodVid , precision( 1 , 2 ), xl-control , type

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You could try Edit/Preferences/Advanced/Force-Goldfeather

Perhaps try the 32bit version?? (hunch)

Upgrade your laptop....

Newly minted Admin - PM me if you need anything, or if I've done something stupid...

Unless specifically shown otherwise above, my contribution is in the Public Domain; to the extent possible under law, I have waived all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this work. Obviously inclusion of works of previous authors is not included in the above.

The TPP is no simple “trade agreement.”  Fight it! http://www.ourfairdeal.org/  time is running out!

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Or maybe try using Linux. Before I got my current laptop, I've been using one
that was purchased back in 2005. With Linux (Mint 17), it runs OpenSCAD
pretty well.

$  Runsun Pan, PhD $ libs: doctest , faces ( git ), offline doc ( git ), runscad.py( 1 , 2 , git ), synwrite( 1 , 2 );  $ tips: hash( 1 , 2 ), sweep( 1 , 2 ), var( 1 , 2 ), lerp , animGif , prodVid , precision( 1 , 2 ), xl-control , type

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Hey

These are the drawbacks of changing to an immature OS. People that is
satisfied with a certain OS as I am with Windows 7, should stay with it
until the new OS matures.
Just in case try to suspend the anti-virus and observe if any change in
behavior happens. I had problems with the new OpenSCAd snapshots. Your case
is a lot different from mine however some miracle may happen.
Blind suggestions: try to give more memory to the GPU in the laptop bios,
try to enlarge the OpenSCAD caches, force goldfeather option in preferences
menu. BTW can some one explain what goldfeather is? I mean how it works.
Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sviDmWczz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9ZgPW6EaPM
Good luck.

jpmendes

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Thanks to all of you responders.  Here are some responses to your responses.

Am I using this mailing list correctly?  Please feel free to slap me into
shape.

The question from Jon about doing anything in particular to trigger it made
me feel guilty, since I am an old QA engineer.  So I started trashing
everything that didn't cause the failure until I got to a small piece.  Very
laborious, but it finally paid off.

The code following the signature below is one of the culprits.  There is a
module named cube_RC, followed by 2 calls to it.  If I run the call that
passes a wrong-named parameter to the module, which is the first of the 2
calls, I get the hang/loop.  The parameter is defined in the module without
a default, and referenced as a vector.  Presumably <undef> is used, and
causes the problem.  If I name the parameter correctly in the call, as in
the second of the 2 calls, I get the intended result.

Being a (sorry!) total newbie to github, I could not find 2015.10.17 (git
fba8130) there.  Probably my ignorance.

I have tried forcing Goldfeather, and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I have tried the 32-bit version of openSCAD, and that behaves the same as
the 64-bit version.

I have not tried disabling Norton antivirus yet to see if that has any
effect.

Again, many thanks, and I will keep searching for the other features of my
own buggy code that trigger this behavior.

--john

//////////////////
// SAMPLE CODE: //
//////////////////
/*
play.scad
*/

$fn = 50;
echo("");
echo($fn = $fn);
echo("");

/*  cube with roundeded corners (and edges).  A replacement for

• the one I did using minkowski() because that seemed pretty

• slow.

• The funny business with <fuzz> is for fighting the

• "z-fighting" problem discussed in the on-line manual.
  */
  module cube_RC(size_P, rR_P = 0.01) { // cube with rounded
  // corners and edges.
  // center = false.
  // <size_P> is a size vector.

  fuzz = 1e-4;
  //////////////////////////////
  module zEdge() {
  difference() {
  translate([-fuzz, -fuzz, -fuzz])
  cube([rR_P + fuzz, rR_P + fuzz, size_P[2] + 2 * fuzz]);
  translate([rR_P, rR_P, rR_P])
  cylinder(r=rR_P, h=size_P[2] - 2 * rR_P);
  translate([rR_P, rR_P, rR_P]) sphere(r=rR_P);
  translate([rR_P, rR_P, size_P[2] - rR_P]) sphere(r=rR_P);
  }
  }
  //////////////////////////////
  //////////////////////////////
  module yEdge() {
  translate([rR_P - fuzz, 0, - fuzz])
  rotate([0, -90, 0])
  difference() {
  // lower left.
  translate([-fuzz, -fuzz, -fuzz])
  cube([rR_P + fuzz, size_P[1] + 2 * fuzz, rR_P + fuzz]);
  translate([rR_P, rR_P, 0]) rotate([-90, 0, 0])
  cylinder(r=rR_P, h=size_P[1] - 2 * rR_P);
  translate([rR_P, rR_P, 0]) sphere(r=rR_P);
  translate([rR_P, size_P[2] - rR_P], rR_P) sphere(r=rR_P);
  }
  }
  //////////////////////////////

  difference() {
      cube(size_P);
      zEdge();
      translate([size_P[0], 0, 0]) rotate([0, 0, 90]) zEdge();
      translate([size_P[0], size_P[1], 0]) rotate([0, 0, 180])
          zEdge();
      translate([0, size_P[1], 0]) rotate([0, 0, 270]) zEdge();
      yEdge();
      translate([-fuzz, 0, size_P[2]]) rotate([0, 90, 0]) yEdge();
      translate([size_P[0], 0, size_P[2]]) mirror([1, 0, 1]) yEdge();
      translate([size_P[0], 0, 0]) rotate([0, 270, 0]) yEdge();
  }
  

}
//////////////////////////////

cube_RC(cubeSize_P=[2.5, 2.5, 2.5]);  // causes hang.
// Incorrectly named parameter.
// Does not blank display
// containing a good
// object until after the
// first screen flash
// during the hang/loop.

• cube_RC(size_P=[2.5, 2.5, 2.5]);  // doesn't hang.  Correctly named
  parameter.

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Hi John,

Thanks for digging in - that cleared up the core cause of the problem:

As you don’t have a default value for size_P in the cube_RC() module, the value used to calculate the geometry is undefined. In this case, OpenSCAD currently falls back to an internal default value (typically 1.0). This, again, causes your object to become a bit malformed. This doesn’t do anything bad, except that the preview renderer gets a lot more work to do (again for internal reasons on how we can render previews without calculating the final object).

Now: This should have exactly the same behavior independent on which OS you happen to be on. The only thing I can think about that would cause such a hang (it’s not really a hang, just a very badly performing rendering job) is if the GPU drivers on your new OS installation either A) suck extremely badly or B) are not installed, causing software rendering.

If you look at Help->Library Info and look for "OpenGL Version”, there should be some version info there. Please take a look and google around to see if there are any updated drivers or known problems with those drivers.

-Marius