Thanks, the lib/dll downgrade to java3d-1.3.2 does appear to work better. I can access the properties and print preview as well as I could with the DirectX method.

As a user data point of what doesn't work out of the box, but will with java3d downgrade: this is on a laptop with a Mobile Intel 965 ...

On both our computers, on all of Ubuntu 9.04, Windows XP SP3, and Gentoo Linux, SweetHome3D has the full measure of the 3D problem: http://www.sweethome3d.eu/faq.jsp#errorIn3DRenderingSystem

We don't use Java or Java Web Start in our browsers. Can you post the command line invocation and/or .ini ...