Re: One big monitor, or two smaller ones for CAD work?

Keep your 17" for the secondary, use get a new 19" for the primary. Best of both worlds. ___

I agree, I had a 21" Ilyama and a 19" LG the big one was my primary, it was great especially when drawing those Sections, you can stretch the AutoCAD over 2 screens and working in paper space using 2 viewports, one on each screen, It saves a shit load of time. Also when drawing Elevations, you can have digital photos or video footage of what your drawing on the small one and draw on the big one.

Go for the 2 17" monitors. They give you and effective viewing width of about

24"+/- versus 17"+/- with the 19" monitor. You get twice the viewing realestate then with the 19" monitor and well all know that viewing realestate is priceless. The more the better.

I've wrestled with this one for a long time. However, I finally realized that, for my work, I almost never make use of two windows open at the same time. Since spanning a window across two screens would make it difficult to follow a line across the gap... I don't think it is an option for me.

But I have a co-worker who uses toolbars and other similar things alot. For him, the second monitor can hold all that stuff. Another co-worker does a lot of work which references another electronic document, and she makes good use of a dual monitor set-up.

One final consideration is that the resolution of the display is much more imprtant than the size of the display. But, like most things, your own work may have different priorities than mine.

Joe

Hi - just started lurking, to see if I could pick up any tidbits - I'm using MDT6, and kind of rock-climbing the learning curve :-)

And lo and behold, this is the first post I see. Two Monitors? I did that a millennium ago with a Monochrome and CGA, but Two Monitors, These Days?

How do you do it?

(see a sample of what I'm up against:

other stuff, of course.)

I'm guessing that I'd need a new adapter, and some software, and a way to configure the adapter, etc, etc, etc. (there's a spare monitor in the office collecting dust.)

Thanks! Rich

You might just be lucky enough to have a video card that supports dual monitors, if so just read the manual that came with it. Most CAD software will support dual monitors. Just have to do some reading and fiddling with the software to get the best set-up for your purposes.

i dont' know what bezel is, but i have worked on monitors from 15" to 21" and i would definitely go for the bigger monitor. you will find the 19" would definitely save you a lot of eye-strain and/or zooming in/out. if your going to spend any amount of time on it, i would even suggest finding a new-but-used 20"+.

but of course, keep the 17" monitor and get a vid card that supports dual monitors and you will be in heaven.

Best regards,

you find that working with 2 monitors is better than one big one? i find that the space in between is quite annoying. there's nothing like a honkin'

21" monitor to make you sit back in your chair and draw while in an all relaxed state/position. i find that with smaller monitors (even 2 of them) i always have my nose pressed against the screeen.

s

It depends on how you arrange your desktop. We have the AutoCAD main screen on our main monitor, and all of the other grimble (text window, a few toolbars, etc., plus whatever other concurrent applications we may be using -- TextPad, StrucCalc, etc. -- "at the ready" on the secondary monitor. Everything's handy, nothing's in the way. ___

You only need a second monitor and an adaptor. Win2000Pro (and WinME ?) and onwards support two adaptors without needing any further software but the display drivers.

John B

johnbogie btinternet.com Put the "at" in the gap.

I'm currently on contract to Mustang Engineering:

.

My title is ostensibly "tech writer," (I did the website), and they got a big contract with Northrup-Grumman to build the power supply for the Airborne Laser. It involves a lot of tube bending.

In my spare, spare, spare time I hope to get some of those tube tooling drawings up on the website, but it turns out I seem to have a flair for drawing stuff, which is neater than a rat. I've only been drawing (for money) for a couple of years, but the book helps a lot!

Thanks, Rich

There are some "thin" bezel monitors that are designed to be placed next to each other with minimal amount of plastic in between screens.

I have seen these in use and you quickly learn not to notice the bit in between screens.

dg

No need to stretch the graphics screen across the second monitor; after all, having it on the larger, primary monitor is no worse than having a single monitor, and having the second screen to park all that other stuff on really maximizes the use of the primary one. ___

At work I have two (2) 21" monitors side by side. After awhile you don't realy notice the division between the two monitors. Just set up

2 viewing windows so that one is on the left monitor and the other on the right monitor. Besides, you can have a lot more drop down menus.

At home I have one (1) 21" monitor. I wish that I had room for two, I would get a second monitor in a heart beat.

It all depends on the software you're using. In my previous life we first had EMS (Intergraph) which worked fine on one monitor (there wasn't even any other choice back then) since there were not that many icons and they were different according to the working environment. After this they chose for Microstation, which would probably even benefit from more than 2 monitors. Menu items and toolbars above, toolbars and information panes below, toolbars to the left and floating everywhere around and the need to have more than one view open to be able to work. All this makes that you found yourself working in little postcard-sized windows.

In my present life I work on SE. Limited number of toolbars, one line of menu-items and an adaptive environment. If detail windows are needed they pop up and disappear automatically in the flow of working. So I'm perfectly happy behind my 22" screen (1600x1200). Typically it leaves 1277x1080 pure working area, which is about 72 %.

Alex

| > > However, looking at the prices, I can pick up two thin bezel 17" | > > displays for about the same price as one 19" display. | > >

| > > I was just wondering what would be the better option? | > > I do mainly construction work on ADT 2004 - and will be making use of | > > VIZ more in the future. | > >

| > > cheers | > >

| > > dg | >

| > Go for the 2 17" monitors. They give you and effective viewing width of | about | > 24"+/- versus 17"+/- with the 19" monitor. You get twice the viewing | realestate | > then with the 19" monitor and well all know that viewing realestate is | priceless. | > The more the better. | |

I am currently using 2, 21" Hitachi Accuvue monitors. These were purchased in about 1994 or 1995 along with 2 Metheus display cards capable of operating at the same time. I cannot envision doing **any** design work with only one monitor. I am currently using a NVidia 5200 based Video card from PNY. It has Dual SVGA outputs and is capable of driving both displays at 1600 x 1280 @ 72 Hz. It cost $99.00 dollars and comes with 128 meg of memory. My original Metheus boards cost about $600.00 each and had 8 megs of memory. Each monitor was over $3k new. They were worth every penny. Eventually when the 21" monitors wear out, I will replace them with 19"-24" rotable flat panel monitors. Bigger is always better!!

Check out the NVidia board. Also, try to purchase the very best monitors you can affford. e.g. high resolution and high refresh rate. I recommend Idek, Nanao, Sony etc.

Regards, Robert