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PCB editor interface not scaled on high resolution displays

eddoh

Hi,

I am working on a 3840x2160 display on Win 10 64 and - while I have no specific issues with Orcad Capture, things get really messy using PCB Design. 
I have managed to increase the size of text, which is bringing some weird interface, as the font scales but not the interface - so text lines are clipped (see below) but I can manage.
I'm aware I could increase the size of icons, but at the moment they look just fine.

I know I could change the system Display resolution but doing that everytime I need to swap from PCD designer to another app is a real pain. (As global scaling in making the Windows Taskabar bulge and so on)

What is really a showstopper is the fact that checkboxes do not resize, they stay about 1mm wide and the checkmark is really barely visible - see below

Is there some setting somewhere which can improve the situation?
I'm sure there are quite some users with High res displays nowadays

Thanks!

  • +1

    Hello,

    I have seen this happen on multiple display configurations with different resolutions and font scaling.  Starting the Layout Editor on a display at different resolution and font scaling than moving it to a 4K Display could cause issues. (ex. Starting on Laptop and moving it to a 4K Monitor)

    The following may help to improve the High Resolution Display taken from the Migrating from 17.2-2016 to 17.4-2019 :

    High Resolution Displays

    • UI display on high resolution displays (4K or higher) may require setting a new OS System Variable to improve display visibility.
           Variable: ALLEGRO_HIGH_DPI_ENABLED / Value: 1
      NOTE: This is not a User Preferences (ENV) setting but an OS level setting which must be set prior to starting the layout editor.
    • Some Windows applications will not respond to Scale and Layout changes made under Display Settings until you sign out. This font scaling will automatically be changed by Windows depending on the display resolution to allow UI text to be more readable. Some scenarios where different resolution and font scaling can lead to incorrect fonts sizes are:
      • Switching to a different display source when coming out of sleep mode.
      • Adjusting the Font Scaling without sign out and sign in to Windows.
      • It is recommended to sign out / in to Windows for the fonts to be sized correctly.
    • The Layout Editor or associated forms displayed in a different resolution or a different font scaling could cause the following issues:
      • Main menu and right mouse button pop-up menus display at the wrong location, display partially, or not display at all.
      • Form fonts would be incorrectly sized when displayed on a different monitor than the layout editor UI due to resolution and font scaling differences.
      • Moving the layout editor to a different monitor than originally started from could show incorrect fonts size.
      • It is recommended that the layout editor and its associated forms be displayed on monitors of the same resolutions and font scaling to avoid this issue. Setting the resolution and font scaling the same on multiple monitors would resolve the issues

    Another tip is to make sure you are using the latest version of software.

    Hope this helps,
    Mike Catrambone

  • 0 in reply to mcatramb91

    YES! 
    Mike, Thank You so much! you made my day!
    That was the setting. How on earth you managed to get to that piece of doc I don't know, but it is the required setting.
    Here is the result

    Wonderful help, thanks again!

  • 0 in reply to mcatramb91

    Hello !
    Could you clarify on how you set that variable on Windows ?
    I just switched to a 4K monitor and Allegro 16.6 interface is incredibly small...
    Thank you very much !
    EDIT : I managed to do it using windows cmd : 

    setx [variable_name] "[variable_value]"

    Unfortunately it didn't changed anything for me :(

  • 0 in reply to soll

    In PCB editor goto setup - user preferences - in search menu type ALLEGRO_HIGH_DPI_ENABLED and provide the value 1 as mentioned

  • 0 in reply to Micheal schenk

    Hello and thank you for the reply. I don't have that preference in the User Preferences menus... I absolutely don't know why as everyone seems to have it...

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