Flexisign issues with Windows 10

[dirtwrap]

I wanted to see if anyone had any info on a problem I am having. I own Flexi 11 and have used it for the past 7 years on Windows 7 Professional machine. The computer was never that good to start with, it was just an HP business machine with an integrated graphics card. But Flexi ran perfectly. Fast-forward, I just had a new machine built with a Ryzen processor and a GTX 1350 graphics card and Windows 10, and when I installed Flexi everything appears to run ok except for the fact that the tool bars and swatch palettes are really, really small. But at 3840 x 2160 everything looks super crisp. To see if it was a Flexi 11 issue, I downloaded a trial version of Flexi 21. Running them side by side, the Flexi 21 has normal sized tool bars and swatch palettes, but, the resolution is terrible, like everything is a pixelated jpg. All at the same the resolution.

So I called SAI, and a tech remotely took control of my computer and tried all the basic display settings that I had already tried, as well as some other stuff that I couldn't see because for some reason the screen would black out on my side, but after an hour and a half he came up with nothing. He put in a ticket to engineering but that was yesterday and I haven't heard anything yet, and honestly, I don't know if I will. If I don't get this fixed, I have a massive problem because my options are to 1. Use 11 on the new machine and tried to get used to the tiny tool bars, 2. Use 21 on the new machine and accept not only the loss in resolution but also wasting the money, or 3. Continue to use my old 7 year old machine. None of which are long-term solutions.

So at this point, I don't know if it is a hardware issue or a software issue with either Flexi or Windows, and, whether Flexi is going to be willing to help me or not. But from what I gather Flexi 11 should work on Windows 10, it would have almost had to right? I wanted to see if anyone had seen any of these issues and/or could guide me to a long-term solution.

 

[easystar]

Your experience confirms what I was told. I also use windows 7 with flexipro 11 (and will continue to do) because I was told many moons ago that flexipro will not work with windows 10 platform. You seem to, but I think the little issues you are experiencing with windows is one of the problems.....when my computer crashes, I expect to use the windows 7 platform with a custom made computer for use with flexipro 11. There is nothing I miss with this version when compared to later versions of flexipro.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

when my computer crashes, I expect to use the windows 7 platform with a custom made computer for use with flexipro 11. There is nothing I miss with this version when compared to later versions of flexipro.

Be careful with this. Be prepared to have to look for used and/or older/lesser specc'ed parts as there will be a time when new components will not have drivers for Win 7, so won't be on the latest and greatest. My suggestion would to actually use a VM, it'll take a little more know how to get everything setup right connecting the guest OS to external hardware (make sure you don't upgrade those printers/cutters/laminators either as the newer ones won't have drivers for the older software), but at least you'll be able to run newer hardware and still keep your older software (this is how I run Win 98 for some things, but that is even more involved, even without external hardware connections compared to Win 7, but I digress).

To the OP: It's quite possible, you weren't supposed to see some of those things related to their software and that could be why it blacked out on you for a time (hopefully). I wouldn't expect much in the way of help from SAi. I do not think Flexi 11 has official support on Win 10 as the official OS version are Vista thru 8. It may for a time have worked, but due to the rolling Beta release nature of Win 10, any update could have killed that ability (or some elements of running the program smoothly).

It sounds like SAi, just did upscaling of their icons etc versus actually having a set that handles hiDPI (with regard to 21), but I'm not that there to see, so I can't say for sure.

 

[Pauly]

I wanted to see if anyone had any info on a problem I am having. I own Flexi 11 and have used it for the past 7 years on Windows 7 Professional machine. The computer was never that good to start with, it was just an HP business machine with an integrated graphics card. But Flexi ran perfectly. Fast-forward, I just had a new machine built with a Ryzen processor and a GTX 1350 graphics card and Windows 10, and when I installed Flexi everything appears to run ok except for the fact that the tool bars and swatch palettes are really, really small. But at 3840 x 2160 everything looks super crisp. To see if it was a Flexi 11 issue, I downloaded a trial version of Flexi 21. Running them side by side, the Flexi 21 has normal sized tool bars and swatch palettes, but, the resolution is terrible, like everything is a pixelated jpg. All at the same the resolution.

So I called SAI, and a tech remotely took control of my computer and tried all the basic display settings that I had already tried, as well as some other stuff that I couldn't see because for some reason the screen would black out on my side, but after an hour and a half he came up with nothing. He put in a ticket to engineering but that was yesterday and I haven't heard anything yet, and honestly, I don't know if I will. If I don't get this fixed, I have a massive problem because my options are to 1. Use 11 on the new machine and tried to get used to the tiny tool bars, 2. Use 21 on the new machine and accept not only the loss in resolution but also wasting the money, or 3. Continue to use my old 7 year old machine. None of which are long-term solutions.

So at this point, I don't know if it is a hardware issue or a software issue with either Flexi or Windows, and, whether Flexi is going to be willing to help me or not. But from what I gather Flexi 11 should work on Windows 10, it would have almost had to right? I wanted to see if anyone had seen any of these issues and/or could guide me to a long-term solution.

What is your monitor resolution?
It may or may not be a scaling issue which is a common issue with programs.

 

[dirtwrap]

Thank you for the comments, the information is very helpful. I have just reached out to my IT person to see what my options are to load an older version of windows on my new machine, so I will see what he says. I guess another option would be to see if I could find a version of Flexi 12. I didn't realize the compatibility until you said it WildWest, I didn't know there was a version in between 11 and 19. Of course I would rather be able to get my 11 version to work because from what I see there are zero differences in 21 from 11 that affect me.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I heard a while ago that Flexi doesn't resize well with super high resolution monitors.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I heard a while ago that Flexi doesn't resize well with super high resolution monitors.

It's sounding like they are just essentially upscaling. While it takes time to change out all the sprites for a program, so it's not a trivial task, but hopefully they would handle that sooner rather then later.

 

[Pauly]

I heard a while ago that Flexi doesn't resize well with super high resolution monitors.

It's sounding like they are just essentially upscaling. While it takes time to change out all the sprites for a program, so it's not a trivial task, but hopefully they would handle that sooner rather then later.

Right click program icon - properties - compatibility - change DPI settings - select "override high DPI scaling behaviour - select "system" or "system enhanced" if system doesn't work.

This solves 99% of all scaling issues. which is what OP is describing with flexi 21.

Same issues presented in all adobe software.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Right click program icon - properties - compatibility - change DPI settings - select "override high DPI scaling behaviour - select "system" or "system enhanced" if system doesn't work.

This solves 99% of all scaling issues. which is what OP is describing with flexi 21.

Same issues presented in all adobe software.

You know, what that works for the majority, it's the kind of thing that grinds me the wrong way. This is kind of the spit and polish that I would expect subscription based commercial applications to handle as part of their iterative upkeep of their software as tech changes. But maybe I'm just too harsh.

 

[Pauly]

You know, what that works for the majority, it's the kind of thing that grinds me the wrong way. This is kind of the spit and polish that I would expect subscription based commercial applications to handle as part of their iterative upkeep of their software as tech changes. But maybe I'm just too harsh.

Goes both ways.
Windows scaling isn't great.
But these days, most software works with the scaling just fine. only the odd, lower budget software may have scaling bugs.

There was also a time this wasn't an issue when higher PPI monitors didn't exists.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

But these days, most software works with the scaling just fine. only the odd, lower budget software may have scaling bugs.

It has to really be the odd duck, the open source programs(not necessarily free though, common misconception about open source and free of cost) that I use (even the frameworks that I use for the games that I write, although I'm cheating there as it is openGL/Vulkan, so different rendering backend, which I would argue we need to move away from retained mode to more of an immediate mode, but I digress) are hidpi.

There was also a time this wasn't an issue when higher PPI monitors didn't exists.

Times change, if they are selling latest and greatest for the reason to always keep on paying, they need to keep up with the latest and greatest hardware as well.

I mean a lowly open source program (Krita one of my favorites) had full blown HDR support (full editing etc) before the big boys (on Windows that is). I'm still not inclined to cry a river over their lag on something that is spit and polish.

 

[dirtwrap]

What is your monitor resolution?
It may or may not be a scaling issue which is a common issue with programs.

I am running 3840 x 2160 and the scaling does not help at all. It actually did a little bit before the Flexi tech worked on my computer, but now it has no effect. But even before, jacking up the scaling didnt effect it enough to where it was usuable on a day to day basis.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

So 4k. Yea most of my programs that have had changed their sprites to compensate work on my Viewsonic 4k (I have a QHD Wacom (which the best that I can desribe it is between HD and 4K, so that rarely has scaling issues on any program, rather they have fixed the icon sets or not).

 

[Image Makers]

I wanted to see if anyone had any info on a problem I am having. I own Flexi 11 and have used it for the past 7 years on Windows 7 Professional machine. The computer was never that good to start with, it was just an HP business machine with an integrated graphics card. But Flexi ran perfectly. Fast-forward, I just had a new machine built with a Ryzen processor and a GTX 1350 graphics card and Windows 10, and when I installed Flexi everything appears to run ok except for the fact that the tool bars and swatch palettes are really, really small. But at 3840 x 2160 everything looks super crisp. To see if it was a Flexi 11 issue, I downloaded a trial version of Flexi 21. Running them side by side, the Flexi 21 has normal sized tool bars and swatch palettes, but, the resolution is terrible, like everything is a pixelated jpg. All at the same the resolution.

So I called SAI, and a tech remotely took control of my computer and tried all the basic display settings that I had already tried, as well as some other stuff that I couldn't see because for some reason the screen would black out on my side, but after an hour and a half he came up with nothing. He put in a ticket to engineering but that was yesterday and I haven't heard anything yet, and honestly, I don't know if I will. If I don't get this fixed, I have a massive problem because my options are to 1. Use 11 on the new machine and tried to get used to the tiny tool bars, 2. Use 21 on the new machine and accept not only the loss in resolution but also wasting the money, or 3. Continue to use my old 7 year old machine. None of which are long-term solutions.

So at this point, I don't know if it is a hardware issue or a software issue with either Flexi or Windows, and, whether Flexi is going to be willing to help me or not. But from what I gather Flexi 11 should work on Windows 10, it would have almost had to right? I wanted to see if anyone had seen any of these issues and/or could guide me to a long-term solution.

You might want to go to walmart and get a 40 plus inch TV. I'm running a high end laptop ( gaming machine ) and had the same problem with all my design software, so just hooked up a 40" TV and works just fine.

 

[dirtwrap]

Right click program icon - properties - compatibility - change DPI settings - select "override high DPI scaling behaviour - select "system" or "system enhanced" if system doesn't work.

This solves 99% of all scaling issues. which is what OP is describing with flexi 21.

Same issues presented in all adobe software.

Pauly, thank you for the advise, what you said worked when I selected "system". Now I am able to run my scaling at 175% (150% is the recommended setting) and all my toolbars are normal, resolution is nice and everything seems to work. I owe you a beer or 12!

 

[Pauly]

Pauly, thank you for the advise, what you said worked when I selected "system". Now I am able to run my scaling at 175% (150% is the recommended setting) and all my toolbars are normal, resolution is nice and everything seems to work. I owe you a beer or 12!

Send em over
Glad you solved your issue. It's an overlooked scaling issue for 99% of programs. Unfortunately, windows has this setting tucked away.