Project will no longer open

[brdad]

I started this project some time ago (1/1/2011) and went to open it today in the new 2.0 and Designer crashes instantly. Figured it was an issue in 2.0 , so I tried it in 1.187 and it crashes there now too. I tried what few settings Designer has plus adjusted my video card without luck. The file is 1/4 the size of my largest project files which still open fine and this project only contains drilled holes, albeit a lot of them - 1,113 holes IIRC. This seems to be my only project that will no longer open. The preview of the new 2.0 shows it fine in that window - it just crashes on open.

So now I am concerned something was changed in a version prior to 1.187 that is causing this issue. It could also be my computer as it has changed since 2011, but my video card has gone from 128 MB of shared video memory to 4 GB of dedicated video memory and system RAM from 2 GB to 16 GB. I understand memory is not the only determining factor, but you'd hope if it worked on the old system it'd work on the new one.


Can someone try and open this file and see if it opens for them so I can decide if I should start over?

[chief2007]

Just tried it and it crashed - Version 1.187

[henry1]

just tried it and it crash 1.187

[Mikewiz]

63421 Opened for me 1.187 and 2.001 demo copy.

[woodie]

Opened fine for me.

[mtylerfl]

I tried to open it...Designer crashes when I attempt to open it on all versions from 1.178 up to the current 2.001 version on my computer.

[bergerud]

It crashes all my versions as well. If it opens for Woodie or Mikewiz, one of you guys should resave it and post it.

[lawrence]

It opens in all versions for me - here it is resaved

Lawrence

[bergerud]

Still crashes my 1.187 and 2.001. Is there anything seems strange about the project?

[Mikewiz]

63423Here is the saved file from my computer. Hope it works for you now. Mike

[lawrence]

Just LOTS of drill holes.

Lawrence

[mwhatch]

My resave 1.187


63424

[bergerud]

None of the above work for me.

[downeastcrvr]

All three version crashed my 1.187.

[brdad]

Unfortunately none of those re-saved files work for me on both versions of Designer.

While not pertaining to my issue, it also seems there may be a file association issue, perhaps from switching back and forth from 1.187 to 2.0 as I am getting "Application not found" errors if I click on the downloaded file through Google Chrome, and if I go to my download folder and click the actual file, Windows brings up the dialog asking what program to open the file with. Telling it to always open using gui.exe (1.189) seemed to fix the issue for now - but clicking the file always opens it in 1.187, which seems like expected behavior. I know someone in another post has file not found issues, that may help.

[Capt Bruce]

Just one more test. Opened fine for me just now in 1.187. Nioce honeycomb there.

[brdad]

Thanks for trying
So that looks like it opens for 5 people and does not for 6. I think I know less now than when I started!
I've tried shutting off all the toolbars, other running programs, antivirus... no luck. And since other, larger project files open fine, other running programs including antivirus should not really be an issue anyway...

I wonder if Designer has a hidden debug window like some other programs have?

[henry1]

It opens in all versions for me - here it is resaved

Lawrence
I tried it Lawrence gave me an error Qui again in 1.187

[bergerud]

Maybe Lawrence could open the project, copy and paste all the objects into a new project and save that.

[lynnfrwd]

Different operating systems?

[brdad]

I didn't think about OS, but I am using Windows 7, the file was created on an XP machine.

[Geomoo1]

It opened fine in my 1.187 on Windows 7... Good luck finding the problem.

[skeeterman]

opened fine with 1.184
steve

[bergerud]

Different operating systems?

XP pro sp3 and does not open in any version of Designer

[lynnfrwd]

Blows that theory. XP Pro SP3 1.187 original file opened just fine.

[liquidguitars]

Opens in 2.01. Win 7

[brdad]

I upgraded every driver I could without luck.

So, now I'm just trying to see if I could start over, and as a test, just laying drill holes out on a normal grid. I can only get to about 450 holes before it crashes. Nowhere near 1113!

I then saved a file with 400 holes in 1.187 and it will not open in 2.01. After 400 holes, pasting fewer holes at once usually will let you get to more holes before crashing.

Starting new with 2.01, it appears my limit of holes is around 300.

[Digitalwoodshop]

How much RAM does everyone have that does and does not open?

AL

[lawrence]

How much RAM does everyone have that does and does not open?

AL

12 GB of DDR3

opens for me

Lawrence

[lawrence]

Maybe Lawrence could open the project, copy and paste all the objects into a new project and save that.

Sorry, just saw this... I'll give it a try when I get a sec.

Lawrence

[liquidguitars]

Will Open. Win 7

Lost some last year during a CEM so I down to 6 gig.

[Digitalwoodshop]

Add "will open" or "not open" with your post... saves going back and playing score card... I am looking for a low RAM to be the issue with NOT opening.

[bergerud]

Only 4 Gig and did not open

[lawrence]

Here it is- I copied and pasted it onto new boards and brought it in... in both 2.001 and 1.187 (what a nightmare for sharing mpcs this is going to be... it feels ridiculous to have to do this in 2 formats... :???: (I am right that I have to share this in 2 formats right? the first one was saved from 2.001 and the second from 1.187... )

2.001 also crashed on me once when opening it... I wasn't doing anything at all to it, it was just 2.001 open without the file opened or anything. I closed it and then tried opening it by clicking on the file instead of opening 2.001 and then hitting "open" on the tabs. This seemed to work better.

Hope this helps,
Lawrence

[fwharris]

Here it is- I copied and pasted it onto new boards and brought it in... in both 2.001 and 1.187 (what a nightmare for sharing mpcs this is going to be... it feels ridiculous to have to do this in 2 formats... :???: (I am right that I have to share this in 2 formats right? the first one was saved from 2.001 and the second from 1.187... )

2.001 also crashed on me once when opening it... I wasn't doing anything at all to it, it was just 2.001 open without the file opened or anything. I closed it and then tried opening it by clicking on the file instead of opening 2.001 and then hitting "open" on the tabs. This seemed to work better.

Hope this helps,
Lawrence

With 2.001 up and running both opened normally from the "normal" open piece folder icon.
With 1.187 #2 got the "created in newer version" message. #3 opened no problem.

Since I had not tried the original file I gave that a shot as well. opened no problem in 1.187. With 2.001 it crashed twice trying to open it from the open piece folder icon. Double clicking the project file designer opened just fine...

I am running win7 64bit - 4 gig ram - i7

[brdad]

How much RAM does everyone have that does and does not open?

AL

As stated in my first post, the file was created on a system with 2 GB of RAM, I have 16 GB now. Video memory from 128 MB shared to 4 GB dedicated now. So, I don't think the amount of memory is an issue.


Intel Core i7-3770 3.40GHz
16GB DDR3 System
4GB DDR3 Video
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I have Pattern Editor, Centerline, and Conforming Vectors on 1.187, but am running nothing on 2.01 since it's the trial (which is going to run out before I'd like it to!)



Here it is- I copied and pasted it onto new boards and brought it in... in both 2.001 and 1.187 (what a nightmare for sharing mpcs this is going to be... it feels ridiculous to have to do this in 2 formats... :???: (I am right that I have to share this in 2 formats right? the first one was saved from 2.001 and the second from 1.187... )

Agreed. And if we don't append the version to the file name when we have two versions, it'll be even more confusing, not to mention having to edit both if one needs to be tweaked. It's not unusual for an older version of a project to not support files from a newer version, but at that point, the old version is considered outdated and no longer supported, and often not even available from the developer. On a side note - in this particular case, I don't think you need to provide the file in 2.01 format - saved in 1.187 should work fine on either version. Well, work for those who can load it anyway. And, it's good to verify the file saved in 2.01 format still crashes on the systems having problems.



Both your 'copy and paste' versions still crash for me. I really think there is nothing wrong with the file, especially since I can't make a new board with more than 450 holes on it.

Thanks for trying Lawrence, as well as everyone else that has tried.

[brdad]

Lawrence, or anyone else that can open the file, can I ask one more favor?

I've run into a file that will open with 1.187 but not with 2.01, and found that if I hide some of the objects it opens fine in 2.01. Can someone please hide all those holes and post the project that way?

[liquidguitars]

it feels ridiculous to have to do this in 2 formats... :???: (I am right that I have to share this in 2 formats right? the first one was saved from 2.001 and the second from 1.187... )

No your not... just save as 1.187 just like its always been.

[bluecobra]

Running ver. 1.186, All files opened in Designer as follows:

First file opened completely with everything fine,
all others open with pop-up window saying that the file was created with a newer version of designer and upgrade to view properly.

Windows 7 64-bit w/SP 1, Pentium Dual Core 2.10 Ghz, 8 GB ddr2 ram, on-board video and whatever else in my sig below.

[lawrence]

No your not... just save as 1.187 just like its always been.

aah, gotcha... that makes sense-

would there be a value (when troubleshooting) for us to save from 2.xxx as well (just for troubleshooting problem MPCs)?

Lawrence

[brdad]

After a few emails back and forth with LHR and not yet coming to a conclusion (but they had not given up), today out of desperation I totally deleted (well, moved) all the Designer files, uninstalled 1.187, and then did a fresh install. I tried to see how many holes I could drill in a project and managed to get fairly consistently just under 1400, which I'd think is doing pretty well. So, I kept adding my old folders and files back into the users\dave\carvewright folder and testing Designer each time until it finally crashed.


A few years ago when someone was selling a collection all the patterns and projects from the forum on ebay, someone made a DVD of all the files that had been posted on the forums and made those files freely available. Within that collection are 897 pattern files, about 54 MB total. It appears the pattern files in that folder were causing the issue!

I have verified it's not any particular pattern file. It is just the sheer volume and/or memory used loading these files on start-up. I'm not sure why Designer loads other directories or if there is a way around it, but am hoping LHR will send back some answer to that soon.


So, it appears it's not just how large your favorites file is, but also how many pattern files you have in your carvewright directory or any sub-folder within that directory.

[fwharris]

It is great you were able to figure out the cause of all your problems. Lets call it karma for buying that CD off of Ebay! ;)

One thing I do with all my CW patterns and projects is to save them in my documents and not in any of the CarveWright folders that are made when doing the software install.

[brdad]

I didn't buy the CD! Someone here made the files available as an easy download for free to counter the ebay sales. Ediit: I had to look it up, it was LittleRedWoodshop that posted it, here is the forum link: http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?20270-Does-Ebay-sales-of-others-patterns-hurt-this-forum&p=173048#post173048

And putting them in the documents folder is an option, but I like having the files in one area for ease of navigation should I want to retrieve one. I figured having them outside the pattern folder would be sufficient. It doesn't seem logical Designer should scan all folders for pattern files and load them into memory - I thought that's what the favorites file is for - but maybe they have good reasoning and will explain in their reply. Maybe we're better off not to save any pattern files in the provided pattern folder.

Regardless, anyone who tried to open my file and failed may want to check the location(s) of their pattern folders.

[fwharris]

Ah restored my faith and thanks for the bump on the post!

Any pattern and collections saved into this location C:\Users\Owner\CarveWright (Owner might be a different name) will show up in your pattern listing (favorites) file and I would stay away from saving any into this location.

[brdad]

Any pattern and collections saved into this location C:\Users\Owner\CarveWright (Owner might be a different name) will show up in your pattern listing (favorites) file and I would stay away from saving any into this location.


Is that correct? I thought you have to willingly save a pattern to favorites for it to show up in your pattern list?
If so, then not saving patterns to the directory makes sense, otherwise Designer really has no reason to scan the folder for patterns on load.

Maybe I'll have to test this when I have time later today...

[fwharris]

I just moved the file with the arrow into that folder location and it now is in the pattern list. Note it is not in the actual favorites list..

[SteveNelson46]

I just moved the file with the arrow into that folder location and it now is in the pattern list. Note it is not in the actual favorites list..

This "Feature" has always been a PITA to me. The Designer lacks a true pattern list handler. Instead, they just scan the entire user profile at start-up and include any .ptn file it finds in the pattern list. Okay, I guess, for novice computer users but, a real level of frustration for others. I don't keep any pattern files in my user profile including any sub-folder of "My Documents" which is in my user profile also.

[fwharris]

This "Feature" has always been a PITA to me. The Designer lacks a true pattern list handler. Instead, they just scan the entire user profile at start-up and include any .ptn file it finds in the pattern list. Okay, I guess, for novice computer users but, a real level of frustration for others. I don't keep any pattern files in my user profile including any sub-folder of "My Documents" which is in my user profile also.

Agree!!! and yes I just save into a "documents" location and never into any of the CarveWright folders that are generated from the software install. These being C:\Users\Owner\CarveWright and in the C:\Program Files (x86) locations..

[brdad]

I just moved the file with the arrow into that folder location and it now is in the pattern list. Note it is not in the actual favorites list..

Ah, thanks - I see now. Not that I understand WHY it is programmed that way, but that's irrelevant I guess. And it explains why I had some duplicates and triplicates.

Pattern handling is definitely one area of Designer I think is lacking - I guess for now I will save my files elsewhere and clear the favorites of any patterns I don't use often.

The hardest part is now I have to go through my old favorites file and find the few patterns I saved to the favorites list without actually saving a pattern file and save those. Not the smartest move, but I know I have done it on a few occasions.

[mca]

Here is what is happening:
When Designer starts up it looks at all the patterns in the CarveWright folder (and recursively ALL sub-folders you have created there)
On Windows Vista, 7, and 8: C:\Users\<username>\CarveWright
On Windows Xp: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\CarveWright
On MacOS X: /Users/<username>/Library/CarveWright
It generates a thumbnail for each pattern, these appear in the Pattern List.
Each Carving you place can have one or more thumbnail images created for it also, these appear in the Carving List.
Each font installed gets a sample text thumbnail, these appear in the Text Editor dialog.
There are several other ways images can be generated but they tend not to grow the longer you use the program, unlike the 3 cases above.

Each of these thumbnails uses one (or more) of a limited resource in Windows called a GDI Handle.
You can see how many a program uses with the Windows Task Manager.
With Task Manager open select: View>Select Columns... and check the GDI Objects box.

The limit is 10000 by default, and if a program exceeds that Windows will kill it.
The limit can be changed with a registry hack, but may make Windows unstable/unusable.

[brdad]

Thanks for the input.

I edited the registry as per suggestion by tech support email, but it was evidently not enough to overcome the memory required for all the 897 patterns. It is working fine now that I have all patterns I am not using outside of the CW folders, and I will delete my pattern file (or at least unused patterns on the list) on a regular basis. Which makes Designer work well, but kind of defeats the advantages of having a pattern list. It would be great to be able to list and categorize all the patterns for easy access.