Installation & update
About program installation and update, hardware, operating systems, setup, etc.
SOLVED!

ArchiCAD mouse pointer insanely small Windows 10

Paul King
Mentor
Is anyone else finding that on a 4K screen, following the recent Windows 10 Creators update, that the ArchiCAD mouse pointer is now insanely small? (for all ArchiCAD versions)

ArchiCAD is the only application so affected, and while increasing windows UI scaling, and increasing windows mouse pointer size to maximum within Windows Control Panel generallyworks as expected for everything else, the mouse pointer once moved over the ArchiCAD application window) becomes so tiny it is barely visible - and certainly the ArchiCAD dynamic pointer style context feedback is utterly undetectable.

This seems to stem from ArchiCAD's non compliant method of handling the custom mouse pointer DPI scaling rather than anything with the OS - as is demonstrated by nearly ALL other applications that predate the windows update being unaffected. (perhaps a compromise or carry over from the way custom mouse feedback is implemented for the Mac platform?)

Rolling back to or reinstalling an earlier version of Windows 10 are not good options in my case.

What have others done to solve this serious problem?
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-28 | Twinmotion 2024
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
Solution
Daniel Kovacs
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Paul wrote:
Looks like that update for AC20 last year never happened, which means I am pretty much crippled on projects still running under AC20. When will AC20 realistically be patched with a windows 10 Creators update DPI fix now?
Hi,

Yeah, the ARCHICAD 20 7001 update got a little bit delayed (was stuck in preview phase), but last week it was publicly released. You can download it from here!

Regards,
Daniel Alexander Kovacs

Professional Services Consultant

GRAPHISOFT



For Troubleshooting and useful Tips & Tricks visit

View solution in original post

25 REPLIES 25
Ralph Wessel
Mentor
Paul wrote:
Is anyone else finding that on a 4K screen, following the recent Windows 10 Creators update, that the ArchiCAD mouse pointer is now insanely small? (for all ArchiCAD versions)
Yep, same problem here.
Ralph Wessel BArch
Software Engineer Speckle Systems
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Do you have the latest AC21 update, build 4004, installed?
In the list of fixes I read this:
230368 USER INTERFACE: For Ultra High Definition (4K) screens, mouse cursor appeared small inside ARCHICAD in Windows 10 with Display Scaling enabled.
http://www.graphisoft.com/downloads/archicad/updates/AC21/AC21-3005to4004-ReleaseNotes.html
http://www.graphisoft.com/downloads/archicad/updates/AC21/ImprovementsList.html#4004
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Paul King
Mentor
Thanks Lazlo - that update looks hopeful. Not yet tested or released for New Zealand I see.
I would update with the preview version now anyway (a great idea making these available!), but have BIMserver & other users to consider.

In the meantime, is there a way that Windows 10 can actually have display scaling disabled? (since as described that appears to be a requirement for the bug to manifest)

I have not found a setting that makes any difference in Windows control panel or via application compatibility settings
Ticking the 'disable display scaling on high DPI settings' option in ArchiCAD properties/compatibility settings menu does nothing for example.
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-28 | Twinmotion 2024
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Paul King
Mentor
Just tested the 4004 update, and sadly no immediate improvement at all to issue "230368 USER INTERFACE: For Ultra High Definition (4K) screens, mouse cursor appeared small inside ARCHICAD in Windows 10 with Display Scaling enabled."

However the update does now allow windows application compatibility settings for DPI scaling to work for ArchiCAD 21 (previously they made no difference)

After patching ArchiCAD, AND toggling DPI scaling compatibility settings to 'on' then 'off' again, seems to clear the mouse pointer scaling issue

Process is: Right click the ArchiCAD 21 icon to access properties/compatibility settings, then tick to 'Override High DPI scaling behaviour' for all users, then apply. Restart PC (not 100% sure this step is required, but is what I did), then go back , right click icon again and revert compatibility settings for all users back to the default

Mouse pointer is then back to normal size.
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-28 | Twinmotion 2024
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Not helpful for the size, but if you find you keep losing the cursor, you can enable rulers, right click in them and choose cursor projection. You get cross hairs on your screen.

A bit of a hidden feature, so thought I'd mention it.

Would be nice if this gets fixed for whenever we do upgrade from HD screens to 4K, though.
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Paul King
Mentor
Erwin wrote:
Not helpful for the size, but if you find you keep losing the cursor, you can enable rulers, right click in them and choose cursor projection. You get cross hairs on your screen.

A bit of a hidden feature, so thought I'd mention it.

Would be nice if this gets fixed for whenever we do upgrade from HD screens to 4K, though.
Thanks Erwin. After patching with preview 4004 update I discovered the problem can now be solved by also toggling DPI scaling compatibility settings on then off again as above - but ruler trick will help people waiting for the official release
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-28 | Twinmotion 2024
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Erwin Edel
Rockstar
Doesn't help with seeing the actual cursor icon any clearer I would assume though, but at least it is very obvious where it is

The broken work around toggle thing at least gives hope for a future fix!
Erwin Edel, Project Lead, Leloup Architecten
www.leloup.nl

ArchiCAD 9-26NED FULL
Windows 10 Pro
Adobe Design Premium CS5
Paul King
Mentor
OK, looks like the tiny mouse pointer bug is definitely not fixed - every time I reboot the PC, the problem is back.

You can clear it with the compatibility toggling procedure I outlined above, but users should not be forced to jump through these hoops every time the boot up their computer
PAUL KING | https://www.prime.net.nz
ArchiCAD 8-28 | Twinmotion 2024
Windoze 11 PC | Intel Core i9 10900K | Nvidia Gforce RTX 3080 | 32 Gb DDR3 | 2x4K monitor extended desktop
Daniel Kovacs
Graphisoft Alumni
Graphisoft Alumni
Hello everyone,

We have just released the final version of the first update of ARCHICAD 21. The preview update (4004) had part of the solution for this problem, but the final version (4022) has the full solution, so make sure you have that installed!

In most cases installing the update should solve the issue, but sometimes (like in case of Paul King) this fix won't change a thing. In these cases you will have to manually set the cursor size from the Registry. You can find a full description of this issue and the solution in this Article:
http://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/?p=74887

Good Luck!
Daniel Alexander Kovacs

Professional Services Consultant

GRAPHISOFT



For Troubleshooting and useful Tips & Tricks visit