cjanderson66 Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 I seem to have been having an issue with X6 crashing my system. It seems to be only happening while I am running a Raytrace but on other occasions just opening an item an modifying it. Has anyone else had any issues with X6 crashing? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Park Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Do you have any error messages you can share with us? Does it only happen when a 3D view is open or a dialog that shows a 3D view? It sounds like it could be video drivers. X6 tries to get more out of the video graphics than prior versions so an updated driver may help. Verify your Radeon is the card being used as well. Open Preferences>Render>Video Card status and make sure it's using the right card and has a relativley new driver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DRAWZILLA Posted February 25, 2014 Share Posted February 25, 2014 Try turning off "Hardware edge smoothing" in the render section of preferences. It has helped with those cards in the past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 No crashing with ray tracing. I get crashes when I want to UNDO something in layout. CA gets locked in a never ending READING FILE and I have to hard boot the Mac.... Did send in to tech support, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted February 26, 2014 Share Posted February 26, 2014 A crash while ray tracing may indicate an overheating problem or maybe running out of memory. If your system is running hot then blowing the dust out might help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breeze_Wood Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 dshell: I get crashes when I want to UNDO something in layout. did you create a new layout page from the X6 file ? when I brought up the layout from X5 the computer crashed whenever I tried printing - created a new layout from X6 file and now have no problems printing etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 did you create a new layout page from the X6 file ? when I brought up the layout from X5 the computer crashed whenever I tried printing - created a new layout from X6 file and now have no problems printing etc. No I did not. When I get a chance I think I will start from scratch for both plan and layout, good suggestion. I did send it in, and he suggested VERIFING my fonts. He gave me directions for doing that, I am monitoring situation to see if that fixed the crashing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 One of our guys reproduced the crash. I think he has it nailed down. If I understand it correctly if you undo the deletion of the only layout box that refers to a plan that is not currently open in other views the crash may occur. BTW, thanks again for being diligent about sending in reports of issues. These reports are helping a lot to make Chief better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 One of our guys reproduced the crash. I think he has it nailed down. If I understand it correctly if you undo the deletion of the only layout box that refers to a plan that is not currently open in other views the crash may occur. BTW, thanks again for being diligent about sending in reports of issues. These reports are helping a lot to make Chief better. If this was directed at me, I do not understand the question. Whatever the case may be, I just tried to make it crash and it did not crash, I think I might attribute this to the advise I received from Kirk which was (validating the installed fonts, do not understand why I need to do this, but I took Kirk's advice, so far so good) ..... I will continue to monitor and let you know if I experience another crash while UNDOING SOMETHING IN LAYOUT. Hello Scott, I was able to reproduce this error when I opened the layout alone without opening the two attached plan files. However, if I open the two plan files first then open the layout I don't get the error anymore. I tested both of these scenarios on my Windows 8.1 machine and could not reproduce an error at all. I did notice that on the Windows side I get a missing fonts warning so there are some fonts that are unique to Mac being used in these files. The only thing I can suggest in light of this is to validate your installed fonts: - In a Finder window, go to '/Applications' and launch the Font Book. http://goo.gl/u6pbLn - Click 'Edit> Select All'. http://goo.gl/rNfJUJ - Click 'File> Validate Fonts'. http://goo.gl/FdA6ya Other than that, can you confirm if you are getting the error when both the plans are opened first then the layout? Kirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddaigle Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 On the subject of crashes ... X6 has been crashing on me all day during a raytrace. I've modelled a 10 storey apartment building. I'm trying to generate an exterior raytrace. I'm using photon mapping, but had to turn off caustics, as with that turned on, I can't even get past the first iteration. I haven't done a lot of high-rise buildings, so I'm not sure if there is a limit with floor sizes, or if it's something with X6. My raytrace crashes after a few iterations. Sometimes after 3 or 4 passes ... I can't get beyond 7 passes. A few times, my whole pc crashed when this happened, and I had to reboot. Has anyone else had this problem either with X6 ... or with raytracing multiple floor buildings with lots of windows? I've posted my plan. Thanks, Dru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshall Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 On the subject of crashes ... X6 has been crashing on me all day during a raytrace. I've modelled a 10 storey apartment building. I'm trying to generate an exterior raytrace. I'm using photon mapping, but had to turn off caustics, as with that turned on, I can't even get past the first iteration. I haven't done a lot of high-rise buildings, so I'm not sure if there is a limit with floor sizes, or if it's something with X6. My raytrace crashes after a few iterations. Sometimes after 3 or 4 passes ... I can't get beyond 7 passes. A few times, my whole pc crashed when this happened, and I had to reboot. Has anyone else had this problem either with X6 ... or with raytracing multiple floor buildings with lots of windows? I've posted my plan. Thanks, Dru I did not see posted plan. Oooohhhhh. I hate crashes, such a waste of time. I don't do photon mapping, but, I think you said you turned it off. My first thought was maybe you had some LIGHTS IN YOUR PLAN AND THEY WERE TURNED ON. When I do RT's I stay away from the RESOURCE HOGGING settings and I usually get what I need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KilgoreTrout Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Are you using the 32 bit or 64 bit version? If you are using the 32 bit version, I would bet that the problem is that you are running out of memory. You could try downloading and trying the 64 bit version to see if that solves it for you. If not, I would try contacting tech support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Park Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 ... A few times, my whole pc crashed when this happened, and I had to reboot.... If the entire system crashes it's a strong indicator of a hardware problem. If only the program crashes but other programs and the operating system continue to work it's likely a software problem. Is it a crash (I got an error message, or the computer shut down, blue screened etc.) or is it a hang (The computer stopped responding to my input or got really slow) If it hangs or becomes unresponsive during a ray trace this may just indicate the system is really busy. A faster computer or limiting the number of cores devoted to ray tracing can help. If possible use the term 'hang' when the system is simply not repsonding. Use the term 'crash' if the program throws an error or simply quits. If you see a blue screen or the computer shuts down let us know as well. Learning the correct terminology to describe the problem will help a lot in determining the solution. Lastly, if you get an error take a screen shot or copy it down and post the message here or contact support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddaigle Posted April 8, 2014 Share Posted April 8, 2014 Sorry folks ... I used to get emails letting me know when I got a message from Chief. I guess I need to set this up again for the new forum. I'll answer your questions in the order given: dhsall - I didn't turn off photon mapping, but I did turn off caustics. I'm needing the raytrace to be pretty high quality, as it is being overlayed on a photo for a building facade make-over proposal. I only have sun, no other lights. Not sure why my plan didn't get posted. Maybe I have to zip it up first ... I'll try again. KilgoreTrout - I'm using 64 bit. Dan - Sorry for my vague terminology. I was tired when I posted this! Most of the time just the raytrace just stops with an error, but I'm able to modify the image, and export it. There a few times that my whole pc crashed (blue screen), and once I rebooted, the file was corrupt... I had to revert to a back-up. I may have been taxing the system when this happened (i.e. still using Chief while the raytrace was operating). I can't recall. However ... If I turn caustics on, the system hangs at about 91 percent in the first pass. Come to think of it ... it might be the caustics that give me the blue screen of death. I can try again. I'm attaching my error messages, and my plan (again). apt 3.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glennw Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 No problems here with crashing or Raytracing. Could be a hardware problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IanPellant Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I have been running X6 on three computers with no crash problems until yesterday when I tried to train a colleague on X6. A plague of crashes occurred while doing very preliminary tasks such as reviewing Preferences and Plan Default Settings... as far as we got was to place 4 walls and review Wall Types... and crash again. Stopped the training session and took a lunch break... during which did a Windows Update check and found four Optional Updates that had not been installed. Windows 7 64 Pro - been running since early 2012. Installed the updates, rebooted, did further training on Chief X5. No crashes or problems. This morning did a torture test with X6. No crashes. Hypothesis: there was something in the Optional Windows Updates that fixed a problem in Windows 7 64 Pro that was causing the crashes in X6. The computer has been running X4, then X5 almost daily for the past two years, so whatever the updates affected was only applicable to some new technology that X6 is calling. I haven't had time to do forensics on the KB numbers to try and find what was in the KB update fixes... I suspect it may be C runtimes ? Will post details if I can pin it down. Suggest that anyone with X6 crashes run Windows Update and install those mysterious "Optional' Windows updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddaigle Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 That's interesting Ian. I just looked ... I have 64 optional updates that have not been installed! ... Do you know which 4 you installed so that I don't have to install all 64? That would be most helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_Gavin Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I have had crashes on both X5 and X6 while ray tracing and then trying to carry on with other work. I am assuming my computer just isn't up to the task. I have a new one on it's way. I better not get crashes now!!!!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Park Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 If you get a blue screen crash on Windows it's hardware. Hardware crashes fall in two categories: Physical hardware failure and Drivers. You can't do much about a physical failure except replace the failing hardware. You can often update drivers. Video drivers are quite often the source of crashes in chief. In most cases updated drivers or different driver versions will resolve issues where the hardware is relativley new. Really old hardware may not have updated drivers. Ray tracing is going to run your system flat out as fast as it will go on all cores. It could be overheating, hitting bad ram, or something else. Make sure to blow the dust out of the heat sinks. I have seen weak power supplies cause crashes as well. Usually low power behaves like unplugging your computer. It simply shuts off to protect the hardware. Also look at sleep settings. Some systems crash when going to standby.. You probably don't want that to happen while in a ray trace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddaigle Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I ran all of my windows updates .. and have great improvement. For the plan I attached in my previous post, I am now able to run my raytrace (without caustics turned on) without the raytrace stopping, or my computer crashing. Caustics on ... still causes a problem for this file ... but not my other files. Am wondering if it's because there are too many windows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan_Park Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 If you see a problem on a specific plan open a support ticket and send us the plan. If it is plan specific and we can repro the problem we can fix the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtcapa1 Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Do you have any error messages you can share with us? Does it only happen when a 3D view is open or a dialog that shows a 3D view? It sounds like it could be video drivers. X6 tries to get more out of the video graphics than prior versions so an updated driver may help. Verify your Radeon is the card being used as well. Open Preferences>Render>Video Card status and make sure it's using the right card and has a relativley new driver. Thanks for stating this Dan, I've been using X6 on my new laptop for months and I never check which card it was using, then come to find out it is using the built-in slower card. How do you force CA to use the added NVida card instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 Go to the NVIDIA Control Panel>Manage 3D Settings and then select which video card you want to use. You can set things up on a per application or global basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ddaigle Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Just wanted to update those following this thread ... I thought the windows updates were the answer ... BUT ... they were not. I've submitted a ticket with support. X6 raytrace has been getting progressively worse on my machine. It is now failing on every raytrace of every file (whether I'm using photon mapping or not). Sometimes it fails ... and other times, I get the blue screen of death. I went back to X5 and tried raytracing there without issue. I know it's not file specific, as I tried raytracing the same file in X6 (as I did in X5), and failed. I more than meet the hardware requirements for this software ...so am stumped ... and frustrated, because I will have to go back to X5 and work there until we can figure out this problem. Don't really want to rebuild my machine ... Pain in the butt!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug_Park Posted April 14, 2014 Share Posted April 14, 2014 Blue screens are almost always an indicator of a hardware failure. Bad memory is the most likely culprit, but other things can be the cause. Sometimes there is a clue in the blue screen. You may want to capture it with a camera and share that with your IT guy. Depending on your hardware there may be a system level diagnostic, such as what Dell provides, to test the hardware. Another option is to run memtest to see if it shows a problem with memory. http://www.memtest.org/ Hardware failures like this are very frustrating, but if you can diagnose the problem they can sometimes be fairly cheap to fix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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