Blurred Windows 10 dialogs (and icons in AutoCAD) on 9560

I'm mainly using the 9560 for AutoCAD and Revit. The issue I'm having is that some Windows 10 dialog boxes and especially (and most frustratingly) all the icons and toolbars within AutoCAD are slightly 'blurred'. They're not totally clear and crisp, as if just out of focus. Strangely though it's not consistent, even within AutoCAD, as other parts of the AutoCAD UI are crisp and clear, yet only the icons are slightly blurred. It also only affects some other programs dialogs, not all.

I've looked into it and there was a suggestion it was something to do with Windows 10 scaling. On the 9560 itself I have the screen set to 125% scaling as text is just that bit too small for comfort and the blurriness is there but even when scaling is set to 100% the blurriness is still present (although it looks slightly less severe as the icons are now smaller), but it's still there nevertheless. I have an old Dell Vostro 3700 (1600 x 900) and there are no issues with blurriness at all, which makes this issue even more annoying when the 9560 cost more than three times as much.

As I'll mainly be using AutoCAD when the laptop is plugged into two Dell U2414 monitors I was hoping that this issue would not be present but it's still there, but as the screen size of the monitors is bigger it looks even worse.

I've downloaded a suggested Windows 10 DPI Fix program but this doesn't help at all. Besides, it's not needed on the old Vostro running Windows 10 so I can't understand why the 9560 would need it.

As I've been using AutoCAD for 20+yrs this is something which now irritates to the point of considering getting a different laptop unless I can find a solution.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'd really appreciate it.

 

Have you right clicked on the launcher and properties > compatibility then played with the override high DPI scaling behaviours?

 

You're on the right track with DPI Scaling being the most likely culprit.

That is why you have this problem on your Dell XPS 15 (with it's very high resolution screen), and not your older Dell Vostro with it's low resolution screen. The newer, sharper screen on the XPS 15 forces you to use DPI scaling to make text readable.

Gonzo's suggestion of playing with Disable DPI Scaling under Compatibility Settings is definitely the first thing to try. If that doesn't work, then you'll need to hope that some of the other suggestions that other AutoCAD users have will work.

It's also likely that none of that will work for you, and you just need to learn to live with it, or work around it by buying something like an external USB 24-key keypad that allows you to assign AutoCAD functions to each key.

You can look into replacing the laptop, but with limits. The lowest screen resolution you can realistically find these days is 1920*1080 (laptops with lower resolution exist, but none of them are laptops you want to buy). Those screens on Dell XPS 13/15 laptops are matte (non-glossy) and non-touchscreen, if either of those matter to you. Those lower-res screens will also significantly increase battery life anywhere from 60%-100%, depending on specific laptop model, battery config, and hardware config, if that also happens to matter to you.

Your other alternative is to just accept that there won't be a version of AutoCAD that is DPI-friendly anytime soon, and just learn to live with it.

 

Hi, I'd read about that but wasn't sure which option I should select: Application, System or System (enhanced). I've tried it on them all and it makes no difference.

I'm running the same 2018 version of AutoCAD on Windows 10 on a standard desktop i7 PC and do not get any of these blurred icons or dialogs issues at all and that's using a cheap-ish Acer 1980 x 1080 24" monitor.

So the only difference between the two setups is the XPS. On this basis I guess the issue has to be down to the XPS and not the software or operating system. This is what's so frustrating when the 9560 cost so much compared to the desktop.

(BTW my 9560 is 1980 x 1080, 16GB, 500GB SSD, it's not the 4K/touch screen model as I needed the battery life.)

 

Anyone have any ideas? I'm at a loss. Can't find any way of sorting this out. It's not apparent on any other laptop I've seen so it has to be XPS.

 

I didn't realize you have the FHD version and not the 4k screen. This doesn't make a lot of sense then, as there shouldn't be any differences between your Windows 10 desktop and that monitor. I'm at a loss for a solution in addition to those mentioned by others, but here's some general ideas.

• First I would ensure that both your intel card and the NVIDIA card have the latest drivers (links: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/pr...-i7-7700HQ-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3-80-GHz-, http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/123938/en-us)
• I have not used AutoCAD on this model (only Inventor), but I would suggest looking through the display settings of the program. See if anything stands out, and then compare all settings to your good desktop. You can also reset all AutoCAD settings to defaults (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/supp...rticles/How-to-reset-AutoCAD-to-defaults.html)
• I would then compare all display settings between the working computer and the XPS. Look at both the Intel graphics settings and the NVIDIA (since the optimus software is likely using the dGPU for AutoCAD) for differences in resolution, refresh rate, DPI, scaling, etc to see if anything stands out. Both can be accessed through the legacy control panel in Win 10.
• I would then force AutoCAD to run on the Intel iGPU, and then restart and force it to run on the NVIDIA dGPU. You can do this by right clicking the program shortcut and select the graphics card from the "run with graphics processor" menu.

If none of these reveal an issue that is causing the blurriness, I would suggest contacting AutoCAD. It seems like an issue with their software that should be resolvable, unlike the known issues many programs have with high DPI displays like the 4k model. You could also try a reinstall of Windows 10 from scratch, and then a reinstall of AutoCAD

 

Thanks again. Yeah with the FHD display it should all be fine. I'll try all those things you mentioned but where is the legacy control panel in Win 10?

 

Press Windows key and type Control Panel.