Dynamo FAQ

Q: The background 3D preview is not available.
A: Since Dynamo 0.8.2, Dynamo uses DirectX for hardware accelerated graphics. If the background preview is missing, your machine might have switchable graphics. Many laptops have two GPUs, a dedicated GPU (NVidia, AMD, etc.) and an "integrated" GPU (Intel HD Graphics). Graphics card manufacturers have each developed their own protocols for switching between your integrated chip and your "high performance" chip to conserve battery life. In most cases these manufacturers provide a control panel where you can specify what applications should use the dedicated GPU. Autodesk has published a number of pages for different applications on dealing with these issues. We recommend you try some of the solutions listed here or [here] (https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/infraworks-360/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-force-your-laptop-to-Run-with-Graphics-Processor-vs-the-default-Integrated-Graphics-for-InfraWorks.html). If this does not work make sure you have the necessary end-user DirectX runtimes installed, which can be found [here] (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109).

Q: Can I use Dynamo with Parallels or Fusion on my Mac?
A: Yes! In order to use Dynamo with Parallels or Fusion on a Mac, you will need to enable Hardware Acceleration. To learn more, see this article in the Parallels knowledge base. As of this writing, Parallels only supports DirectX 10, so any future Dynamo features based on a higher version of DirectX may not be available. Fusion Version 8 supports DirectX 10, previous versions do not.

Q: Can I use Dynamo on a virtual machine like those provided by Amazon EC2?
A: Yes. The best way is to use a G2 (GPU) instance. You can see more about instance types here. Dynamo also supports WARP, so it may also be possible to use a non-GPU instance type which has been configured to support WARP, but this has not been tested at the time of this writing.

Q: I'm a BIM manager, can I turn off update notifications in Dynamo?
A: Yes. If you can create an xml file named UpdateManagerConfig.xml with following content, in your Dynamo installation directory, then update manager is disabled. Once this file is deleted, update manager is available again. <?xml version="1.0"?> <UpdateManagerConfiguration xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <InstallerNameBase>DONOTINSTALL</InstallerNameBase> </UpdateManagerConfiguration>

Q: How to change the backup frequency?
A: By default, Dynamo files will be automatically backed up every one minute. The frequency can be changed through the file: "%AppData%/Dynamo/<version number>/DynamoSettings.xml". The <version number> need to be updated to a proper one. For example, if you are using Dynamo 0.8.2, it is 0.8 and the file is "%AppData%/Dynamo/0.8/DynamoSettings.xml". After you find this file, you can find a place like this in the file: <BackupInterval>60000</BackupInterval>. 60000 means 60000ms. You can change the backup frequency by modifying this number.