Bug reporting - designer 2.001

[CW-HAL9000]

Don't blame the testers I never had any issue with any install from LHR. I think the guys with XP need to consider that its not the OS they think it is...

I wonder if there is a mix of financial abilities in the beta testors. In other words are all the beta testors as successful as Michael Tyler and liquid guitars? Who probably have the latest greatest computers and the know how to keep them that way? How many beta testors who are more the norm with a 5 year old gateway and just enough computer knowledge to get there CW to carve with occasional help from this forum. Like metallus said most who need help don't know what OS they have. Some of those should be beta testors. They are the true customer base.

[lynnfrwd]

All he said was he has tried every OS and can't figure out what is different and why he can't repeat the issues.

[lawrence]

Lawrence
That response was not from Customer Service, Sales or Marketing. It was from a frustrated software engineer trying to figure out what circumstances are creating crashes, which ones are due to old or underpowered computers, security systems and firewalls, bad ptns or mpc's that are cratering during the initial database builds, WMI issues or bad installs.

It would help to know what operating system and when the issue or crash occurs. Is it on registration, when it very first starts, a few seconds or minutes, on upload attempt, loading file, or using adv features?

They are working diligently to identify and resolve issues. If we have gotten abrupt in our responses, we apologize. We could all do with a little more patience, understanding and gentler tones.

Connie, I very much sympathize that you and the other folks are working hard to improve the software's situation. I also appreciate that you and the others can sympathize with some of us expressing our disappointment in the product we've paid for though I'm also disappointed in LHR's reactions to our questions and concerns about what our money is purchasing.

I still do not understand all the medium-term consequences of purchasing or not purchasing this software are and this is troubling to me...

We once again do sympathize with the stresses that you all are under to provide this product to us. Though this sympathy means that I will continue to try to be patient, understanding and will will remain tactful, I also do have expectations as a consumer that I do not feel were met by LHR when the product was put on the market. Thankfully, this forum is an expedient (and relatively private) route to express these disappointments in a constructive way.

To bring this back on topic, could LHR provide a template to report bugs/glitches? This may help us to all bring this software up to an acceptable level with regard to crashing/glitching. Tonight I have been updating/backing up my new computer and will (hopefully) be documenting my experiences with 2.xx on this brand new machine. I'm willing (though not thrilled) to load 2.xx as one of the first new programs on a fresh machine and compare it with my other machine if that will help troubleshoot to help the engineers find solutions to ensure that the 2.xx software functions stably in various real-world environments.

I know I ask tough questions- but just as I am willing to point out flaws, I am also willing to both propose and help implement solutions. (though certainly am less happy to do so when I am paying for the product...)

Those of us that are unsatisfied are going to be a pain in LHR's backsides no matter what happens, but if we work together we can at least be useful pains in your backsides...

V/r
Lawrence

[lynnfrwd]

First of all, it is no NEWS FLASH, Lawrence that you are unhappy or dissatisfied. I think you have stated that once, maybe twice, on this forum.

What I would prefer to see you post on this thread is actual bugs, since it is a forum thread for Bug Reporting - Designer 2.001. I stated what information is needed:

It would help to know what operating system and when the issue or crash occurs. Is it on registration, when it very first starts, a few seconds or minutes, on upload attempt, loading file, or using adv features?

Bugs are weeded out and posted in an actual reporting system by beta testers.

[DickB]

I got a private message to uninstall Designer 2.001, then check that the Designer2 folder had been deleted (it had), then reinstall. The reinstall worked. I had tried this before unsuccessfully, but didn't check to see if the Designer2 folder had been deleted. I don't know why it did not work for me earlier, but did this time.

I don't have an old computer. I have a 6 month old computer with an Intel core i5-3450 CPU at 3.10 GHz, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics card (Ok, that's a little old), 64 bit Windows 7, and an SSD and a hard drive.

[Jeff_Birt]

I wonder if there is a mix of financial abilities in the beta testors. In other words are all the beta testors as successful as Michael Tyler and liquid guitars? Who probably have the latest greatest computers and the know how to keep them that way? How many beta testors who are more the norm with a 5 year old gateway and just enough computer knowledge to get there CW to carve with occasional help from this forum. Like metallus said most who need help don't know what OS they have. Some of those should be beta testors. They are the true customer base.

It has nothing to do with the age or cost of the PC. I almost never have a newer PC, when I do buy a new one it is not the latest and greatest one. I'm a value shopper, I try to get the most for my money.

I work with folks on a daily bases with a variety of CNC related software. In the past five years I have come across a handful of cases where a new piece of software simply would not install or run properly because the OS was so messed up. This can come from viruses, malware, or users accidently deleting/replacing the wrong files. These have been from 7-8 year old PCs to new ones. In these cases the only real solution is to reinstall the OS and start from scratch.

I recently had an issue getting a piece of software to install from DVD. It would just hang up about 3/4 of the way through. Since it was distributed as an ISO I was able to mount the ISO as a virtual drive and it installed fine. Something with my DVD drive was going wonky. Situations like that are impossible for a software developer to anticipate, sometimes they can work around it if they get enough reports of the problem to understand what is happening.

Since this is a bug reporting thread please reserve it for such. The software guys are working really hard to take care of the bugs that have so far been reported.

[brdad]

I won't call it a bug, but a "button that does nothing" - I'm referring to the texture button that does nothing when pressed. Can't it be made to either cycle through the textures or if that can't be done at least activate the drop-down menu?

The Front and Rear buttons also would be nice if the currently selected button is "down", so you can verify what side of the board you are working with.

[lynnfrwd]

I won't call it a bug, but a "button that does nothing" - I'm referring to the texture button that does nothing when pressed. Can't it be made to either cycle through the textures or if that can't be done at least activate the drop-down menu?

The Front and Rear buttons also would be nice if the currently selected button is "down", so you can verify what side of the board you are working with.

These should be in the Designer Wishlist thread.

[fwharris]

I won't call it a bug, but a "button that does nothing" - I'm referring to the texture button that does nothing when pressed. Can't it be made to either cycle through the textures or if that can't be done at least activate the drop-down menu?

The Front and Rear buttons also would be nice if the currently selected button is "down", so you can verify what side of the board you are working with.

At first I thought you were talking about the texture feature used in carve regions but I think you are talking about the board texture for having either wood grain, litho or none for viewing the board. If so you can edit your tool bar icons so you have the texture drop down button. See picture..

You can also do the same for the board rotation buttons.

[brdad]

These should be in the Designer Wishlist thread.

I thought of this and briefly searched, but wrongfully searched for "feature request" confusing it with another forum I frequent. I wonder if it's time to start a new wishlist thread anyway now that we have a new version of Designer? It's also hard to tell is our requests are even heard and would be a neat to have a list pinned somewhere along the lines of "on the list", "under consideration", and "not currently practical or possible". Using the thumbs up feature there might be some indication of desire for a feature.

At first I thought you were talking about the texture feature used in carve regions but I think you are talking about the board texture for having either wood grain, litho or none for viewing the board. If so you can edit your tool bar icons so you have the texture drop down button. See picture..

You can also do the same for the board rotation buttons.

Correct, Those are the buttons I was talking about, I do have them on my toolbar, but their behavior is not similar to the other buttons. Try clicking the board texture button - it goes down, but does nothing (you need to click on the arrow next to it for anything to work).