Troubleshooting PowerMill Graphical Issues

Modified on Wed, 2 Apr at 4:02 PM

Issue: 
PowerMill's graphics are performing poorly. Lagging/choppy while rotating, screen flashes, errors in display, etc.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Verify your graphics card is supported by PowerMill
Make sure the Correct GPU is being used
- Changing preferred Graphics Card On Windows 11
- Changing preferred Graphics Card On Windows 10
Update your graphics card driver
Plug your monitor into the dedicated GPU

Verify your graphics card is supported by PowerMill

PowerMill GPU Minimum requirements:

NVIDIA GPU or graphics card from their professional range, such as Quadro®
At least 2 GB fully OpenGL® 2.0 compliant

PowerMill supports only NVIDIA graphics cards. AMD cards will cause graphical glitches and should never be used with PowerMill. 
View the full PowerMill system requirements here: PowerMill System Requirements

Make sure the Correct GPU is being used

Windows might be default to using the your PC's integrated graphics rather than the dedicated NVIDIA card. Make sure Windows knows which graphics card it should use with PowerMill.

Changing preferred Graphics Card On Windows 11

1. Search for graphics settings in your windows taskbar and open up the best match

2. Search for PowerMill to add to the list of applications. The path is going to typically be this for 2025 PowerMill:

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\PowerMill 2025\sys\exec64\pmill.exe".

3. Once you add PowerMill, search for it listed in the applications and select options.

4. Select the high performance GPU and save the selection.

Changing preferred Graphics Card On Windows 10

Right click on an empty spot on your desktop and click on "NVIDIA Control Panel"
Go to manage 3D settings in the NVIDIA control Panel.
Click on the Global presets drop down. By default this is set to "Base profile".
Change this value to "3D App - Visual Simulation"
Verify that the Preferred graphics processor is set to "High-performance NVIDIA processor" and then press apply.

Update your graphics card driver

After verifying you have a supported graphics card and that Windows is using the high performance card on your PC but you are still running into issues, check that you have the most resent drivers for your graphics card.

You can visit the NVIDIA website for more information on how to update your driver. Search for your graphics card manually or look into getting automatic driver updates.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

Plug your monitor into the dedicated GPU

Don't use the motherboard's integrated graphics port:

If you plug the monitor into the motherboard's VGA port, you're not using the GPU, and you'll likely experience poor performance or no display at all.

Locate the graphics card (usually a longer card in a slot on the motherboard).

Use a Display Port cable if possible, as they will perform better. Otherwise use an HDMI cable if you don't have a display port.

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