Pen, Technical, and Artistic views not working

Rhino
1

I use Rhino 6 (with V-Ray) and suddenly, about a month ago, the pen view (and technical and artistic views) essentially stopped working. With anything more than an incredibly simple model, it freezes the whole computer. I assumed it was my old computer, but I now have a new, much more powerful one, and am having the same problem (I don’t have any trouble with rendering or anything like that, which is very fast on this computer, just those views). I know the issue is some sort of conflict my system rather than the models, as I have tried all kinds of models with the same problem.

I have tried everything I have found in the forums - one person mentioned and issue with BitDefender, which I did happen to install on my previous computer (and also have on the new one) around the time I started having the problem. But, I do have an exception for Rhino in it, so I don’t know if that could somehow still be the problem.

Any ideas?

SYSTEM INFO:
Rhino 6 SR35 2021-8-10 (Rhino 6, 6.35.21222.17001, Git hash:master @ 073ac7b225c67348731c6597127b9410126c3139)
License type: Commercial, build 2021-08-10
License details: Stand-Alone

Windows 10.0.0 SR0.0 or greater (Physical RAM: 64Gb)
Machine name: HCOMPUTER

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Plugged in [99% battery remaining]

Hybrid graphics configuration.
Primary display: Intel(R) UHD Graphics (Intel) Memory: 2GB, Driver date: 6-8-2024 (M-D-Y).
> Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display is laptop’s integrated screen or built-in port
Primary OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 12-3-2024 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 566.36
> Integrated acclerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Video pass-through to primary display device

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 12-3-2024
Driver Version: 32.0.15.6636
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8188 MB

Rhino plugins
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 6.35.21222.17001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\AnimationTools.rhp “AnimationTools”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 6.35.21222.17001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\rdk_ui.rhp “Renderer Development Kit UI”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 6.35.21222.17001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 6.35.21222.17001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros\V6\VRayForRhino.rhp “V-Ray for Rhino”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\BlockEdit.rhp “BlockEdit” 6.35.21222.17001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”

2

Hi Hannah,

This remained a problem in Rhino 7 but appears to have been fixed in Rhino 8, at least for a moderately detailed file which displays instantly there while just churning away “calculating” in 6 or 7…

(It works in 8 whilst Bitdefender is running too).

Regards
Jeremy

3

Thanks, but what do I do in Rhino 6?
I used for years without a problem. Is there something to do with bitDefender?

4

It does look like installing Bitdefender has triggered this (I ran R6 on a newly built system which didn’t have Bitdefender installed and Pen mode was quick; I installed Bitdefender and Pen mode with the same simple drawing became very slow).

Unfortunately, suspending Bitdefender antivirus from the program’s settings did not take the brakes off. I don’t know whether uninstalling Bitdefender would work any better (it might have caused the problem by installing a different version of a .NET or C+ runtime file dependency from the one R6 needs and leave that behind).

There may be a McNeel developer who made a change to R8 that makes it work while Bitdefender is running who can say whether there is anything you can do in R6 (perhaps @stevebaer could tag them) but if changes are necessary to the R6 code I can’t see McNeel finding the time to fix an old version of the program when they have so much to do in the current release.

Would you consider the upgrade to R8? There’s been a lot of good stuff added since R6.

Regards
Jeremy

5

I’m not opposed to Rhino 8 on principle, but 600 euros seems like a lot of money to spend because of some minor technical issue that seems solvable (I believe I would have to upgrade V-Ray too).

Basically not financially in the cards, so I would really love it if someone knows how to fix this!

6

Hi Hannah -

From that different thread, whitelisting Rhino in BitDefender worked for Rhino 7.

There was no change to Rhino 8.
We have this issue on the list as “won’t fix”:
RH-81738 Anti-Virus software inhibits display modes (Pen,…) Rhino 7

Perhaps it’s only a matter of time when an update to BitDefender also makes it inject its DLLs in the Rhino 8 process? We have no control over this in any way…
-wim

7

I wanted to share that I finally found a solution! (Well, ChatGPT did :))

It suggested adding much granular exclusions in Bitdefender (specifically in the antivirus settings as opposed to just the Firewall) with detailed instructions, and it worked! I will post the specific instructions here, in case anyone else is stuck in this situation:

Step 1: Open Bitdefender

  1. Open the Bitdefender Security Center from your system tray or Start menu.

Step 2: Navigate to the Exclusions Settings

  1. In the Bitdefender interface, go to the Protection section on the left-hand menu.
  2. Under Antivirus, click on Settings (gear icon) in the top-right corner.

Step 3: Add Exclusions

  1. Go to the Manage Exceptions section.
  2. Click the Add an Exception button.

For Executables:

  • Add the paths to the Rhino and V-Ray executables. Common locations include:
    • C:\Program Files\Rhino 6\System\Rhino.exe
    • C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray\V-Ray for Rhinoceros\vray.exe (if applicable)

For Folders:

  • Add the following folders:
    • Rhino installation folder: C:\Program Files\Rhino 6
    • V-Ray installation folder (if applicable): C:\Program Files\Chaos Group\V-Ray
    • User AppData directory: %APPDATA%\McNeel
    • ProgramData directory (if applicable): %PROGRAMDATA%\McNeel

Step 4: Configure the Exclusion Rules

When adding each exception, you may see an option to select what to exclude the folder/file from:

  1. Enable exclusions for:
  • Antivirus Scanning
  • Advanced Threat Defense
  • Online Threat Prevention
  • Ransomware Remediation
  1. Save the exclusion.

Step 5: Restart Your System

After configuring the exclusions, restart your computer to ensure Bitdefender applies the new settings.

Step 6: Test Rhino

Open Rhino and test the problematic viewport styles to see if the issue is resolved.