Using two monitors with Aspire

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Aspire Friends.....

I use two monitors with my PC. In programs like Photoshop, I can take any panel, tear it off of the main display, and drop it on my secondary monitor. It stays there, and I doesn't get messed up or changed by any actions I take on my primary monitor.

But with Aspire, the only way I can use my secondary monitor, is to stretch the display of the primary monitor across both monitors. When I do that, mostly, I aim to put the 3D view on the right monitor, and keep the 2D view on the left monitor. However, when I do this:

1) It is a bother to carefully stretch and resize the second monitor display

2) the display on the right/secondary monitor does not line up vertically with the left/primary monitor..... So if the left display is correctly filled with the Aspire main window and 2D display, the top of the right display is dropped by about 4", and the bottom 4" of the Aspire panel is cut off on the right display.......... And so to get nothing cut off on the bottom of the right display, I have to shrink the left display, by pulling up its bottom by about 4", so then, I have wasted 4" of display on the top of my right display, and 4" on the bottom of my left display. (I have right clicked on the screen, to access the screen set-up, but have found nothing that allows me to vertically offset the right display relative to the left display.

3) The display on the secondary monitor is very unstable, and after going to bother to get things set up as well as possible, various operations in Aspire (I forget now, as I haven't actually done this in a while, due to frustration) go and mess up the alignment of the right display............ requiring more fiddling to re-adjust. (I am foggier on this point, because when I had messed with this a lot in the past, it was several versions back of Aspire, and I had given up. But today, I thought I should play with this some, since for Aspire work, I am effectively limited to one monitor,,,, and I quickly reverified that points 1 and 2 are problems as they were when I messed with this a lot a few years ago......)

Anyway:
A) Are there any simple things I can do, especially to fix item 2????
B) What I wish would be possible, is that I could simply take the 3D tab at the top of the Aspire work window, and drag it off to my right monitor, and size and position it however I wanted, without any concern for what is going on in the left/main monitor. That is how it works in Photoshop.

Thanks, Chuck

[Frunple]

Are both monitors the same size and resolution?

[Adrian]

Not sure why you're having those problems. I don't run across two monitors anymore as I have a single larger monitor now but I ran across two monitors for years without problems and even three for a few months. With the three monitor setup I had the 2D window on one, the 3D on another and all the tabs permanently open on the 3rd as you can undock all of them.

Have you got all the save layout options checked in the Options on the Edit menu?

Make sure that you have both monitors to be the same resolution in Windows. It sounds like you're using two monitors with different resolutions.

I never came across the problem you mentioned in point 3 so that may well be connected with the different resolution problem that I'm sure you have.

[Chuck Keysor]

Thank you Adrian and Frunple, you guys are fast!

Both monitors are different sizes and resolutions. The smaller older monitor is about 11.75" x 14.75" 1280 x 1024 resolution. The newer/primary monitor is about 11.5" x 20" with 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The older monitor doesn't have any higher resolution option.

I guess it makes sense that I would have some problems, but I hadn't thought of it since Photoshop (that I use a lot) allows me to undock control panels and panels and drop them on the older secondary monitor.

I have to go now and check on: "Have you got all the save layout options checked in the Options on the Edit menu?"

Thanks,,,,,,,,,,, Chuck

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Adrian. Here are the settings that I had on the Edit/options panel. The second image shows what I get across two displays, after adjusting/nudging display to not be cut off on either display...

I have changed the Options as you have recommended.........

Now, is there any way I can undock the "3D View" tab then drag and drop it on the right monitor, or is this a lost cause with my different monitors?

Thanks again, Chuck

[Adrian]

You should have the top three options under Window layout set to Yes. That way once you've got everything set the way you want the next time you load Aspire it should be the same.

Make sure that you use the Tile Vertical option on the View menu (or press PageUp) to get the 2D/3D windows side by side automatically.

You're going to have some issues with different resolution monitors as the way you use two monitors with Aspire (usually) is to extend the main program window over both screens rather as the 2D/3D windows are part of the main window rather than separate windows which you can tear off.

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks Adrian! I have now set the top three options to "yes". But as I understand your last sentence, you have verified that I can't tear off the 3D tab and drop that onto my other monitor. And that is very helpful to know, so that I don't keep hoping for a quick fix on this.

I do have another slightly larger monitor, that is newer, that I'm using for something else,,,, I'll hook that up in place of my old secondary monitor, and hopefully I can get both monitors running on the same 1920x1080 resolution.

Thanks again, Chuck!

[Rcnewcomb]

I'm running with 3 monitors. The lower resolution one is turned to portrait and I tear off the menus to that one. My other two monitors are the same resolution and are aligned with one above the other. The main Aspire window is stretched across those two with 2D on one and 3D on the other.

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks Randall, that sounds like a good set up. Chuck

[Chuck Keysor]

Thanks for the information and suggestions. I changed my secondary monitor, so it is now the same size and resolution as my primary monitor, and now I can stretch my Aspire window across both screens without any problem! Thanks, Chuck