Simple Problem... ???

Okay, I have this problem that is seemingly simple (shouldn't be a problem but it is what it is)


Pro/E crashes. Nothing reasonable that i can do about that. Pro/E takes quitea while to save, again, it is what it is. Problem is, Pro/E may crash between saves and i forget what changes i have made. I see three possibilities:


1. Save after every change, and take all day to get anything done.


2. Write down every change, and again take all day to get everything done.


3. This one actually slipped my mind.. but anyhow i was wondering if anyone has conquered (sounds like i think i'm Krakos) this problem.

Jelston,


What you are really looking for is an autosave function (ala AutoCAD) that you can set to run say every 15 minutes. I (and probably every ProE user)have asked this before from a ProE rep and for the life of me I can't remember his answer, but it was negative.


The unfortunate answer, and this is what I do, is get into a habit of saving your models more frequently. (Personally, I try to save every time I complete a major change to my models)


Other than that, welcome to ProE and all its associated baggage.


Kev


PS I still lose changes I have made, but I am now a much calmer person

As you can see from item #3 my memory ain't the best (yes ain't). So it's hard to remember to save.

To coin a phrase...


Lifes a b***h and then software gets a hold of you


I'm going to keep an eye on this thread and see if Looslib etc have any better suggestions


Cheers


Kev

There is an autosave that some company produced that is available for download free. I have downloaded it but not tried it out. I will try to check on where you can download the file.

The autosave I mentioned above is located at:


http://www.cogras.cz/


look in the products area.

You can run a trail file to recover the lost work.

Software shouldn't crash, it's as easy as that ! Saving every 15 minutes is as reasonable as building a second engine in your car to compensate for the first one only working half the time.


First thing to do is make sure that your working environment is OK. CAD is very sensitive to video card, video drivers, settings, background programs, Win service packs, antivirus and firewall ... and it sometimes takes a long time to find the culprit. As an example I last found out that having XNews running screwed up the appearing of hints, on which SE relies for a number of functions, and you would never think the two are related.


If you're sure that this is OK - it may take building a clean out of the box environment on a new computer - then the next thing is files.


If you have a "contaminated" file then this can screw up everything. I know it shouldn't. Each CAD should be sturdy enough to check everything it reads and not allow code that doesn't fit, but the implementation of this internal error checking is not equally good among different CAD suppliers. In this context you can have an issue with different versions. You can be working in WF2 and still use files that were saved in 2001. They get internally upgraded, an assembly may accept this or get in trouble. Again it shouldn't but there are reports of problems with CAD disappearing after first saving everything to new versions and then using it.


But finally, if the environment and istallation is OK then only the CAD software can be blamed because crashing is caused by poor internal error checking. There's little excuse for that. If a situation rises that can't be handled you should at least be offered the chance to save your work before gently phasing out.


Guess there's too much "on error resume next" in ProE.


(in human language : "when an error rises proceed with the next thing you had to do and act as if nothing happened" - which is of course utter nonsense - , and if I got 1 Euro for every time this appears in a program I would be very rich ...)
Edited by: AHA-D

I've found that on my computer the larger the trail file the weirder ProE runs.


It seems to start to lag when the trail file approaches 1meg in size. What I notice most is when I drop down Window to change from an assembly to a part or drawing it takes extra time for the dropdown to dropdown. It also seems the longer I run ProE without closingdown and restarting it, the more likely it is to crash.


I'm running WF3_M060 on a P4 3GHz. w/2GB ram.


Hope this helps.

It could even be down to poor quality RAM or your graphics card. Nvidia graphics cards are the best ones to go for. ATI cards are notorious for crashing with Pro/E; it's justsomething that I know from experience.Set the Config option 'save_objects' to changed only (I think the default is 'changed_and_specified'. Then 'File' > 'Save Changed' to avoid saving files which haven't changed. Saving uneccessarily will take up valuable time. If I'm not mistaken, I think there will be an error file in your working directory with an error code that PTC will be able to tell you what is causing the crashes (if it's consisently due to one thing).


Phil

I have no problems saving before trying anything complicated that might cause Pro/E to crash. I actually find Pro/E is a lot stabler than UG and since it has trailfiles I can recover quite easily from them.

Of course I worked at PTC for some time so I have a lot of knowledge on running and creating trailfiles. To help keep your trailfiles smaller I suggest getting better with using the Selection tools instead of endlessly rotating the model which is fun but when the trailfile records all the mouse spins or laser movement to the trailfile causing them to grow very big. Another thing that is annoying is that when you type in a file name Pro/E records every character you type. I usually type names in a another text window and paste them in.
*'N'*
*'NE'*
*'NEW'*

Another thing that may cause problems is if you run a trailfile edited from a trail.txt.### with every line after the last save. You have to be sure that the Datum Display was as it was when you started Pro/E. Otherwise the trailfile when it is run will be hiding datums instead of showing them because the toggle button is just that a toggle and the 0 or 1 in the trailfile line will just swap the visibility.

For this reason I suggest that you set the datums to all display as they do when opening Pro/E and using the Default Orientation when you save.

Also to get trailfiles to run back without exiting on Out Of Sequence -OOS set the following option in your MY COMPUTER Advanced Tab Environment Settings
Variable&amp ;nbs p; Value
CONTINUE_FROM_OOS 1

Another thing to keep in mind is to Save the Lines recorded when making a save in the trail file. You can then paste these in at various points in the trailfile to save as it runs.

There also used to be an option to switch the run mode to step by step mode during trailfile playback by inserting the lines.
#MISC
#DEBUG
#RUN MODE
#1111

but I don't think this works by default anymore.

By saving a lot when Pro/E crashes you can restart and go get a Coffee knowing that you saved your file recently and don't have to stay longer to make the changes.

In terms of saving being slow I suggest using the config option which pjw also suggested.
save_objects changed
instead of the default changed_and_specified because this will not save parts that haven't been changed in an assembly.

It will say Part has not been saved because no changes were made. Or something similar.

One last tip would be to create a Mapkey that performs a Delete old versions and then saves the file so that you always have two copies, one that you know works because it was just opened and the latest version. Also try to keep as few part windows open in session at the same time. Erase not displayed will not erase any objects in open windows from session. I always close my windows after performing a save.

Something that would be a nice addition if not an auto save would be a recovered data option like Catia has which keeps a fairly updated file in memory that is recovered after the crash with most of the changes made since the last save.

Michael

Edited by: mjcole_ptc