How can I tune the parameters?

Select ViewGraphics Options from the main menu bar. Abaqus displays the Graphics Options dialog box shown in Figure 1 from which you can select the desired settings. This approach allows you to select from only the most commonly used tuning parameters.

Figure 1. The Graphics Options dialog box.

The settings in the Graphics Options dialog box are described in Configuring graphics display options.
Use an Abaqus Scripting Interface command to select the desired settings. You can enter the command in the command line interface (CLI) and modify the values of the tuning parameters. This approach provides complete control of all the tuning parameters and is described in Using the Abaqus Scripting Interface to tune the graphics parameters. This section also describes how you can use an Abaqus Scripting Interface command to obtain information about the graphics card that you are using.

Table 1 shows the tuning parameters that are available from Abaqus/CAE and Abaqus/Viewer. The table also shows the standard value of each parameter and whether you can use the Graphics Options dialog box to modify it. Certain parameters can be modified only before starting an Abaqus/CAE or Abaqus/Viewer session (see Making your graphics configuration permanent, for details on modifying parameters on startup).

Table 1. Tuning parameters.
Parameter	Standard value	Modify using Graphics Options dialog box	Modify only on startup
displayLists	On	Yes	No
antiAlias	On	Yes	No
translucencyMode ²	More accurate than fast	Yes	No
highlightMethod ³	Hardware	Yes	No
highlightMethodHint	Hardware	Yes	No
dragMode	As-is	Yes	No
autoFitAfterRotate	Off	Yes	No
backgroundColor	#333366	Yes	No
backgroundBottomColor	#acacc1	Yes	No
backgroundStyle	Gradient	Yes	No
backgroundOverride	On	Yes	No
doubleBuffering	On	No	No
polygonOffsetConstant	0.0 to 100.0	No	No
polygonOffsetSlope	0.0 to 100.0	No	No
printPolygonOffsetConstant	0.0 to 100.0	No	No
printPolygonOffsetSlope	0.0 to 100.0	No	No
textureMapping	On	No	No
printTextureMapping	On	No	No
vertexArrays	On	No	No
vertexArraysInDisplayLists	On	No	No
backfaceCulling	On	No	No
directRendering	On	No	Yes
accelerateOffScreen	Off	No	Yes
backingStore	On	No	No
hardwareAcceleration ⁴	On	No	Yes
hardwareOverlay	None	No	Yes
hardwareOverlayAvailable ⁵	None	No	N/A
shadersAvailable ⁵	None	No	N/A
viewManipDisplayListThreshold ¹	40	No	No
contourRangeTexturePrecision	5.0×10⁻⁶	No	No
¹The threshold is only used in the Visualization module of Abaqus/CAE (Abaqus/Viewer) when display lists are enabled.
²Translucency mode settings for rendering of translucent objects range from 1 (optimized for performance) to 5 (optimized for accuracy). The default value is 4.
³The highlight method is indirectly set by setting the highlightMethodHint parameter. Abaqus uses this value to determine an appropriate setting for highlightMethod.
⁴Hardware acceleration is applicable only to Windows platforms.
⁵You cannot directly set the hardwareOverlayAvailable parameter or the shadersAvailable parameter. Abaqus automatically sets these parameters by detecting the available hardware on your system.