Anyone else having problems?

[p_hanson]

Anyone else having problems?

I have had consistent problems with my AD software just quitting on me with no warning other then "Alibre Design has encountered a problem and must exit." This is VERY disturbing as I am having to do things two, three, and sometimes four times. I have contacted Alibre and been told to do the Microsoft Updates and this hasn't helped at all. I'm not pleased with the V8.2 upgrade nor the newest "patch" that isn't doing anything but causing the software to run even slower and have more frequent failures. Has anyone else experienced these problems, and is there a possible fix? Any help would be appreciated.
I know this may sound like a negative post, and I apologize for the "venting" but I have lost my patience. All in all AD is a wonderful software package and I have promoted and supported the product as much as possible.

P. Hanson

 

[swertel]

Need your system specifications:
Computer model and manufacturer (if not custom)
Video card and driver version
Sound card & driver
NIC
Any animations running in the background (weatherbug or similiar apps)
Do you have email or internet browser open while working in Alibre?
If so, what is your IRQ list / sharing?
Hard drives including any partitioning.
Location of temp folder.
Has you computer's temp files been cleared lately? Defrag lately?
What virus scanner do you use?

--Scott

 

[p_hanson]

Dell Dimenson 8400
Video card - NVidia GeForce 6800 - Driver V8.1.9.5
Sound - SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio - Driver V5.12.1.5246 (no available updates that I could find)
NIC - Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller - Driver V7.73.0.0
Animations - Yahoo Internet Radio (have experienced problems with this on and off)
Email - Microsoft Outlook part of Office 2000
I don't understand what you meant by "If so, what is your IRQ list / sharing?" Please explain, or point me in the direction to find this information for you.
Hard drive - Intel 82801FR SATA AHCI Controller - no partitions
Temp Folder - C:\\temp
Temp folder is cleared weekly using CleanUP software. Defrag is performed monthly automatically.
Virus scanner - Symantec Antivirus Client
Also running programs:Logitech mouse, NoAds pop-up stopper, Microsoft Anti-Spyware.
I have shut each of these programs off individually and any combination of these programs running and not running with no improvements.

 

[swertel]

I had a problem running Netscape and Alibre at the same time. I found out that my NIC was sharing an IRQ with my graphics card (an nVidia GeForce 5700LE). I would only crash Alibre when I had Netscape open at the same time. So, if you keep Outlook or IE open at the same time as Alibre, and they both want to ping the internet at the same time, you could have a conflict that causes crashing.

To check your IRQ, use the device manager.
Right click on My Computer and select Manage.
Click on Device Manager.
From the View menu, select Resources by connection.
Expand the IRQ branch.
Make sure your graphics card is not sharing an IRQ with your NIC. If it is, open the case and move your NIC to a different slot. If it is a built in network, you can manually assign IRQs. You'll have to research that one.

I'm not familiar with NoAds or the anti-spyware softwares you mentioned. Any way to limit their activity when dealing with Alibre internet activity? For test's sake, does Alibre crash when working in offline mode?

Norton (Symantec) has been known to cause performance issues, but I haven't heard anything about instability with Alibre specifically. Have you turned off scanning the Alibre .exe, .dll, and model/draft files?

--Scott

 

[jwknecht]

Just curious, are you mainly running the Drawing when Alibre acts up (or is mainly with a Part or Assy)? Are you doing any certain operations when it happens? For example, I have found that exploding symbols (dxf text for example) can be CPU and memory intensive. So, yes, I have experienced some issues but not so much when doing normal part and assy models.

 

[MikeHenry]

It might also be a good idea to run a memory checker and make sure that you don't have problems in that area, especially if your use of Alibre exercises your PC a lot more than the other apps that you use.

Mike

 

[p_hanson]

First I would like to thank everyone for your support.

I have turned off the individual software packages (i.e. NoAds, Spyware, etc.) and had no improvements. But I did check and found that my video card and NIC are sharing the same IRQ. I will find a way to reassign my NIC and get back to the forum.
I notice the problem when doing 2D then 3D modeling, but have experienced more and more problems when doing 3D assemblies.

Also, just curious, is anyone experiencing very slow operations when doing 2D drawings with assemblies. My assemblies have approximately 20 pieces. I use the BOM, exploded view and sectional views of my assembled parts. I was just curious if this could be aided if more RAM was installed.

Again, thank you all for responding.

P. Hanson

 

[p_hanson]

I could not find a way to reassign the IRQ for my onboard NIC, so I installed another one in an open PCI slot and it was assigned a different IRQ. I then dissabled my onboard NIC. This was just done and I haven't done much in the software this morning, but have already experienced another problem.
This time it gave me a message about an internal error and asked if I wanted a copy sent to Alibre. I clicked the yes button, does anyone know if these emails are reviewed by Alibre staff? FYI, I was trying to delete a sectional view in a assembly model. I had to save the drawing and completely exit out of AD before I could make any further modifications.

 

[swertel]

Re:

This time it gave me a message about an internal error and asked if I wanted a copy sent to Alibre. I clicked the yes button, does anyone know if these emails are reviewed by Alibre staff?

Define "reviewed." Yes, these emails are collected by Alibre staff. I don't know the specific process but I believe they are captured into some sort of database to track the frequency of a specific error and therefore the trend of what causes it. When enough data has been collected to determine the root cause of the problem, a fix is implemented.

In other words, sending in one file won't result in an immediate fix; but not sending in any files guarantees it.

--Scott

 

[Tazman3]

Also, just curious, is anyone experiencing very slow operations when doing 2D drawings with assemblies. My assemblies have approximately 20 pieces. I use the BOM, exploded view and sectional views of my assembled parts. I was just curious if this could be aided if more RAM was installed.

Doubtful. I've had major problems with the 2d drawing package. Extreme slowdowns, etc. I started using a computer with twice the RAM(1gb to 2bg) and saw no improvement whatsoever.

Sorry.

Taz

 

[danbrinkman89]

Alibre Problems on Computer

I have had many instances where Alibre just shuts down, for what I like to say/think as no reason. So today I used alibre all day , but today I used it offline, and had no problems. As stated before I think that Outlook and Alibre both requested the use of the internet at once and that is what causes the shutdowns. Not sure if anyone else said to use it offline, but that is going to be my philosphy until it proves me wrong or I need to ask an AA for help.

 

[jemmej]

That's an interesting theory. At the risk of continuing a theory with no factual investigation on my part...I would say that my recollection of Alibre performance/crashing matches your thoughts on offline vs. on-line.

Jim

 

[swertel]

Have you compared working with Alibre online with no other internet-capable applications running?

--Scott

 

[SJX426]

YES I have and continue to have problems with shutting down with in a variety of ways. It appears to be totally random, assemblies, drawing, individual parts creation, modifying parts etc.

I too am very frustrated. V7 was much more stable in general.

 

[mrehmus]

There is a body of thought that suggests that the computer you use for making your money should not, in general, be used for other applications and especially not connected to the Internet. Certainly the more programs you load on your 'make-money' computer, the slower it runs and the greater the chance of interactions causing problems.

It may be time for a complete reset of your system including formatting the C drive and reloading just those applciations required to get your CAD job done.

While my system isn't quite that svelte anymore, AD doesn't normally crash.

 

[p_hanson]

I haven't had any improvements with the AD software crashing no matter what other programs I am running. But like someone mentioned before it only occurs when operating the software "online." I have reassigned the IRQ for my NIC and still have the same problems.

Unfortunately I cannot have a seperate computer for the CAD software because I wear many "hats" for my employer and this is a central computer for all the job's necessities.

Although I would love to just run the software offline and get through the problems, that to me isn't the best solution. I would prefer to keep running the software online and everytime it fails send the report to Alibre in the hopes that with enough failure reports it will be repaired in the next release.

 

[mrehmus]

You or your IT department can set your computer up to run a very limited set of programs when you want to run AD. Then you just restart your computer to select 'normal' or 'CAD'

 

[indesign]

There was an issue in a cadcam program I use (BobCad) with McAfee. It was noted over several systems in the Bobcad forum that when it was removed the crashing stopped.

Maybe if others having trouble listed some things like that to see if there is a pattern. List of hardware and a list of background software like McAfee or other antivirus software would be a start. Even if Antivirus software is dissabled it will still effect the system while installed.

I run Norton and do not have the trouble other than performance issues so I usually run it dissabled while doing cad work.(except for email scanning in outlook)

So does anyone else out there run Norton antivirus software and having crashing issues? Is it enabled or dissabled while working in Alibre?

 

[MikeHenry]

I'm running Norton IS 2005 and having no regular problems with Alibre.

Mike