Hi All,
I did a quick look for FAQ and didn’t see anything which covered this… I’m working on a fairly complex surface model, I don’t really need dims but every now and then I check a dimension between two points.
A few mins ago I noted the dims had stopped working - I can still snap to end points etc but the text is not numerals but solid black boxes?
Anyone come across this before?
Cheers
Andy
Hi !
I suppose you you’ve already done that, but… verify your dimensions properties…
Here is a capture of mine ( default , on rhino 4)
the right window is what appears when you click on " advanced " on the left one.
Maybe you have a problem of font, or maybe " use alternate text " is checked…
Hi Andy- apart from the dimension text problem (you might try changing the font) sometimes it is easier to use Distance. This will also give the true 3d distance between points and not a distance projected to the CPlane as Dimension shows.
-Pascal
Hi Pascal,
I’ve used Rhino for a good few years now… The operation is corrupt, it’s a glitch in the Mac program. There are a few different methods to check a dimension.
It was working and then it stopped, with an few hours of Modelling something. It’s a Mac glitch
Thanks for your time 
Yep, can confirm same issue, but changing font does seem to wake it up. I have had this fault intermittently over the last couple of revisions and at first wondered if my graphics card wasn’t up to the job.
I also have my XYZ axis letters blocked out so the system font fails.
this may or may not be related but i’ve experienced something similar in another 3d cad app…
except in this case, it’s the cursor which blocks out (it turns to a white square)… not the normal pointer cursor but the custom cursors which are used by certain tools within the specific program.
so it’s different than what you’re saying but the similarity is that it happened on larger models and after a longer amount of time working in the file…
the problem is that i’ve never been able to figure out a ‘why it occurs’ or haven’t been able to tell the developers “do these steps and your cursor will turn white”
it’s pretty annoying when you’re in the flow of things and the only ‘fix’ i’ve been able to come up with is quit the app and relaunch… i’m going to assume the same thing would clear the problem you’re seeing with dimensions blacking out.
(but in this case, i’d be curious to know what happens if you get the black box dimensions then save the file and relaunch… are the boxes still in there or have they reverted to the proper numbers?
that little test may/may not be able to narrow it down to some sort of gpu glitch or if rhino itself is putting out bad text)
Hi Guys,
It was OK the next day after I restarted. I’m using a MacBookPro late 2013 (just prior to retina) with 8 gig so it’s not an all singing all dancing machine
I’m so happy that this thing is on Mac and so happy it’s free for now to play around with. I used Rhino 4 a lot in two previous jobs as a designer - will definitely be buying myself a personal license when it’s launched on Mac.
I’m not too bothered with glitches
Cheers
Andy
Yes, I’m having this same issue. 
Can you provide more information please?
Does this happen with every model, or just one model?
Does this happen as soon as you start Rhino, or does it start after a while?
Do you have corrupt fonts? How to check for font problems on your computer
Does this go away if you close that model and reopen it?
Does this go away if you quit Rhino and restart Rhino?
Does this go away if you restart your computer?
Any other additional information you can provide would be helpful.
Hi Steve,
It’s an intermittent issue with mine that I live with now - it rarely happens.
It goes away if I reopen the model, my original post was quite a while ago.
Cheers
Andy
I’ve been having this issue intermittently as well. It just randomly shows up.
I have this issue since the latest update. Dimensioning tool is messed up so modeling is impossible.
Version 2014-07-28(519)
Earlier in this thread I posted a number of questions. Could you provide your answers to these questions? Also, please post your computer settings from the OpenGL preference panel.
Hi Marlin, sorry I didn’t notice I hadn’t responded.
It happens intermittently but mostly after a model has been opened for quite a while.
It’s only happened two or three times with different models.
I’ll check my fonts to see if this is the case.
Yes it goes away after restarting Rhino but not after opening and closing the model within the same session.
Hopes this helps, again sorry for not responding sooner!
Hi,
this bug seems rather old, but for what I can say it’s not yet fixed. So I’ll go ahead and put some more details in.
I’m attaching a few more screenshots than I normally would do, because as you can see, the fragmentations vary from pic to pic. They all come from one model with no changes made once the first font problem became visible. All variations from then on came from zoom level modification and, very reproducible, from other application’s background activity in terms of memory consumption. The ‘best’ results I got happened after switching back to rhino coming from an app like a browser with opening large images in several tabs.
Please see my system’s configuration below.
Furthermore, this also might help:
This font rendering problem also happend in one earlier modell I was working on a few weeks back. Unfortunately, I didn’t do any screenshots then. The kind of fragmentation was the same like today.
This happend after a while (a few hours) of working on that model.
The font in question is Arial and is okay from what Font Book’s test routine tells. There are two or three problematcic fonts installed in user land, but they aren’t used by rhino. Also, these fonts appear to work fine in other apps.
If I close and reopen rhino and that model, the problems are gone.
When selecting one corrupt dimension using Gumball (4. pic) and move that one around, the sort and size of that corruption remains. Only resizing (zoom) that viewport and/or camera movement result in variations.
Software information
Software versions
Rhinoceros version: 5.0 WIP (5A671)
IronPython version: not installed
Language: en (MacOS default)
OS X version: Version 10.10.1 (Build 14B25)
Plug-ins
/Library/Frameworks/3DconnexionClient.framework/Versions/A/3DconnexionClient
Third party kernel extensions
com.3dconnexion.driver (10.2.1)
net.lundman.kernel.dependencies (10.0.0)
net.lundman.spl (1.0.0)
net.lundman.zfs (1.0.0)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (4.3.18)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (4.3.18)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (4.3.18)
org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (4.3.18)
Hardware information
Computer hardware
Hardware model: Macmini5,1
Processor: Intel Core i5-2415M CPU @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 8 GB
Architecture: Intel 64 bit
Video hardware
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Screen size: 2560 x 1440, 1920 x 1080
Displays: Thunderbolt Display (109dpi 1x), BenQ GW2260 (102dpi 1x)
USB devices
Apple Inc.: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Apple Computer, Inc.: IR Receiver
3Dconnexion: Space Navigator
hp: deskjet 5600
Apple Inc.: Apple Thunderbolt Display
Apple Inc.: FaceTime HD Camera (Display)
Apple Inc.: Display Audio
Bluetooth devices
Apple: Apple Wireless Mouse
Broadcom: Apple Wireless Keyboard
OpenGL information
OpenGL software
OpenGL version: 2.1 INTEL-10.0.19
Render version: 2.1
Shading language: 1.20
Maximum texture size: 8192 x 8192
Z-buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum viewport size: 8192 x 8192
Implementation settings
Use texture compression: No
Appearance settings
Antialiasing: 2x
Mip map filtering: None
Anisotropic filtering: None
I no longer get any text in the dimensions after switching to fractional. Seem by now this issue would have been resolved or at least a reliable work around.
That link is not working
NoSuchKey
The specified key does not exist.
Releases/Rhino/5.0/Mac/RhinoWIP5E12w
D8A40835AE834645
nyTWTASOs6uLRKaqbnU1lnBHqrTRpDgzjyCFpnXO+IeNSaeYVoVJydODX55m6lY2WO2uVx5BAQI=
Got it - never mind