I just recently worked with a firm that was having issues with the Application Menus in their Autodesk 2010 products (not just the Revit-based ones) - the text was not displaying:
After a bit of troubleshooting, we were able to figure out that it was caused by the Font Smoothing setting in Windows. So if you run into the issue, try the following:
- Open the Windows Control Panel and choose Display.
- In the Display Properties dialog, click the Appearance tab.
- In the Appearance tab, click the Effects button.
- Clear the checkbox for "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts".
- Click OK to exit the dialogs.
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I would go as far to say that the entire Ribbon UI, including the Application Menu, has a severe font related problem.
Taking a look at the images in this link http://forums.augi.com/showpost.php?p=968005&postcount=118, you can see that the font is blurry.
Never in my history of using software have I ever seen font related issues, that is until the Ribbon UI in Autodesk products.
Something has gone very wrong and needs addressing immediately.
Posted by: Chad | June 10, 2009 at 06:48 PM
Always, always, change performance settings for windows to be "adjust for best performance" or at least, test this settings as first step in troubleshooting. Works for me :-)
Posted by: Basam Yousif | June 10, 2009 at 11:54 PM
Font Smoothing is the only performance setting i can't stand to NOT have enabled. It really does make reading text in any large quantities much easier on the eyes if you have an LCD display.
Since this issue only happens in rare instances, it must be video card or driver related, no?
Posted by: Sean Burke | June 17, 2009 at 02:43 AM
The blurriness is not as rare as you might think, as I know of a number of other users (outside my company) who have the same issue.
Also, out of all the applications on my PC, ribbonised Autodesk applications are the ONLY ones that I have come across that experience this font blurriness.
I think it's fairly safe to say that the issue is with Autodesk and their implementation of the Ribbon.
I'm using a 22" LCD monitor.
Posted by: Chad | June 22, 2009 at 06:49 PM
I made this change as directed by support while Revit was open - my wallpaper went to black and I had to restart the system to recover it. If I make the change befroe Revit starts, the system behaves properly. Once Revit starts - I lose wallpeper when this setting is adjusted.
Posted by: Aaron Rumple | August 10, 2009 at 11:03 AM