Member Avatar for Mattethington

Hiya to anyone that can help, or anyone who's scanning over this thread. Here's my issue, I teach an engineering class in Michigan ( not important) and I installed synchroneyes on the classroom computers so that I could watch what they were doing from my screen and if they have any problems I could assist multiple students at one time sitting from desk. for anyone that is familiar with Synchroneyes you know that you can view all of the computers on your network at one time. Anyhow, when I use this software with Autodesk Inventor 11 I get a 1/2 second or so lag in viewing the work that they are doing. So the question I have is, #1 has anyone used this type of setup before? and #2 if i can't find a solution with Synchroneyes does anyone know another monitoring software package that offers the same features as Synchroneyes?

thanks in advance for any help anyone could give me.

Mattethington

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A short expert summary and practical checklist to diagnose and fix the Inventor + SynchronEyes monitoring lag described by , expanding on and without repeating earlier posts.

SynchronEyes (SMART SynchronEyes / SMART Sync) is a classroom-management product that displays thumbnail or full‑screen views of student machines; that thumbnail/real‑time capture approach is exactly the place where 3D CAD viewers show problems. (news.thomasnet.com)

Quick diagnostic steps (try these in order):

  1. Confirm whether lag is only with Inventor: open a plain app (Notepad) on a student PC and watch it. If non‑3D apps are smooth, the issue is graphics capture, not raw network throughput.
  2. On a student machine, toggle Inventor to software rendering to test the hypothesis: Tools → Application Options → Hardware tab → check "Use software graphics" and restart Inventor. If the lag disappears, the cause is GPU/hardware‑accelerated frames not being captured the same way as ordinary desktop draws. (Do this only as a test — software rendering is slower for the user.) (forums.autodesk.com)

Why this happens and what to look for next:

  • Modern GPUs render OpenGL/Direct3D output differently; general GDI screen‑grab methods can miss or delay those frames. Windows provides the Desktop Duplication API to access GPU‑backed frames efficiently (Windows 8+); older approaches relied on mirror drivers or API hooking and are less reliable. Choose monitoring software or capture settings that explicitly support GPU/DirectX/OpenGL capture or the desktop‑duplication pipeline. (learn.microsoft.com)

Practical fixes and next steps:

  • If the software render test helps: update video drivers on student PCs, then revert and retest.
  • Lower teacher view load: view single student full‑screen instead of many live thumbnails, reduce thumbnail size or refresh rate, and reduce color depth/resolution when possible.
  • If Synchroneyes lacks a GPU‑capture option, trial products that advertise explicit “high‑performance thumbnail/watch modes” (NetSupport School and others have feature sets built for classroom thumbnails/watch mode) or ask vendors about mirror‑driver / DXGI/desktop‑duplication support before buying. Always validate with a short orbit/rotate test in Inventor so you can see real‑time responsiveness under your network and hardware. (netsupportschool.com)

Notes: using Inventor in software graphics is only a diagnostic step — it reduces rendering performance for students. If tests point to GPU capture limits, prioritize driver updates and a monitoring product that documents support for hardware‑accelerated capture.

Member Avatar for gurnage

Hiya to anyone that can help, or anyone who's scanning over this thread. Here's my issue, I teach an engineering class in Michigan ( not important) and I installed synchroneyes on the classroom computers so that I could watch what they were doing from my screen and if they have any problems I could assist multiple students at one time sitting from desk. for anyone that is familiar with Synchroneyes you know that you can view all of the computers on your network at one time. Anyhow, when I use this software with Autodesk Inventor 11 I get a 1/2 second or so lag in viewing the work that they are doing. So the question I have is, #1 has anyone used this type of setup before? and #2 if i can't find a solution with Synchroneyes does anyone know another monitoring software package that offers the same features as Synchroneyes?

thanks in advance for any help anyone could give me.

Mattethington

Remote control software typically has a problem viewing 3-D images. This may be one of the reasons for the lag. We use NetSupport School and adjusted the setting to screenscrape mode and it works fine.

Member Avatar for Mattethington

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Do you use an software like Inventor 11?

Member Avatar for Dougbub

Good Afternoon Matt -

My name is Doug Whittlesey and I'm with Geneva Logic. We have a software solution for Classroom Lab Management called Vision.

The speed issue that you mention is something that we have overcome in our product and in fact we now work in a wireless environment. We also just released a Teach-Pad remote that you may also be interested in.

If you would like to check us out I've included a link below to our main Vision page from our website, where you can download a copy to evaluate. If you choose to do an evaluation, I would encourage you add both Surf.Lock and App.Control to your evaluation, plug-ins that complete Vision.

I won't try to contact you any after this, was just browsing through and noticed your post and thought I would offer you another solution.

Cheers!

Doug Whittlesey
Regional Account Manager - GenevaLogic, Inc.
15725 SW Greystone Court, Suite 105
Beaverton, Oregon 97006 USA
Toll Free: (866) 725-7828
Direct: (503) 352-3546
Fax: (503) 352-3413
E-Mail:

Hiya to anyone that can help, or anyone who's scanning over this thread. Here's my issue, I teach an engineering class in Michigan ( not important) and I installed synchroneyes on the classroom computers so that I could watch what they were doing from my screen and if they have any problems I could assist multiple students at one time sitting from desk. for anyone that is familiar with Synchroneyes you know that you can view all of the computers on your network at one time. Anyhow, when I use this software with Autodesk Inventor 11 I get a 1/2 second or so lag in viewing the work that they are doing. So the question I have is, #1 has anyone used this type of setup before? and #2 if i can't find a solution with Synchroneyes does anyone know another monitoring software package that offers the same features as Synchroneyes?

thanks in advance for any help anyone could give me.

Mattethington

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