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Animator Angst Again
3

Animator Angst Again

Animator Angst Again

(OP)
I've been fighting Animator again--quite some time for this last assembly.  Anyway, I've been saving iterations of this assembly I've been working on (SW 2007, SP 0), since the first one I did was corrupted and trashed by putting components into folders and rearranging things--hosed.

So, when I run into errors, I simply open the previous iteration of the assembly.  I seem to have a major problem this time.  The assembly crashed just as I told it to render the animation (LAST STEP!  I can't believe it!).  It was making a grab for more RAM and didn't make it (odd--I had plenty left--but 2007 has done this several times lately).

Anyway, I open the latest iteration again, and the Model and Animation tabs are missing from the bottom left of the viewport.  I open a new file, and they're where they belong.  So I open the previous iteration of the file, and the tabs are still missing.  WTF?  How am I going to render the animation I just created over the last 16 hours when it's all gone?

Anyone have any clever ideas?

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Animator Angst Again

I hate to say it, but it sounds to me like the file corrupted. Because if they are there with a new file but not there with the old one, then the issue is within the file. Contact you VAR first thing this morning and have them send them to SW. Corrupt files should take precedence unless you have a company completely down. But that type of issue would be listed as critical.

Sorry to here of you bad luck so far with Animator. Have you thought it might be your VC running out of ram instead of physical memory? Just a thought.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
www.scottjbaugh.com
FAQ731-376

RE: Animator Angst Again

Jeff ... If I remember correctly, you are running x64 versions of SW & XP aren't you? If you had the /3GB switch enabled, did you remember to remove it?

How many iterations did you keep? If you go back further do the tabs re-appear?

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: Animator Angst Again

Are you able to try SP1-EV? With any luck it may correct your problem.

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: Animator Angst Again

(OP)
Thanks, guys.

Actually, I'm not running the 64-bit stuff at this point (haven't yet needed it myself) since I'd rather not deal with the lack of drivers, etc.  However, I know people who do use it with success.  (I've got 2GB of RAM, so am not using the 3GB swtich.  It seems like my RAM is very "slow" on this machine--something I've contacted Xi Computer about in the past.  Perhaps I'll post a nonsense assembly online to get some benchmarks for how quickly everyone else can load into SolidWorks--that would be a good starting point.)  Anyway, Scott, I didn't think my video card was running out of RAM, but I guess it could be.  I'm using an FX-1400.

I sent my VAR the files overnight--haven't yet heard back.  I'll give them a call.  I think perhaps the file is corrupted (again).  Fortunately I have an iteration saved.  The perfected iteration was 50.  The next iteration without this problem takes me all the way down to 36--ug.  Strange how I was able to save progress all the way between 36 and 50 without ever losing my Animator tabs.

I've not signed up for the EV versions of the service packs--so I don't have access at this point.  I may tap my VAR on the shoulder with that issue, since I know other issues have been resolved with the upcoming SP 1.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Animator Angst Again

Jeff ... It should do no harm to enable the /3GB switch. By not using it you are limiting SW to 2GB (actually about 1.7GB), but if you enable it SW should be able to access about 2.6GB. It's definitely worth a try considering the cost. smile

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: Animator Angst Again

(OP)
Well, I've never needed more RAM until (apparently) now.  I've only got 2GB installed, since I wasn't planning on running the switch.  May need to reconsider if this ends up being a RAM issue more than a SW instability issue (SP 0).

My VAR just took a look at the assembly file that's missing the Animator/Model tabs at the bottom, and they appeared on his machine.  However, the animation I created was gone and replaced by the default starting point.

Bummer.  Still working on it.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Animator Angst Again

You don't need to add more RAM to make use of the /3GB switch. I have enabled it on machines with only 512MB RAM without any detrimental effect.

Quote (Wayne Tiffany):


Dell 360, 3.0Ghz, 2GB RAM, swap file set to 2046K min - 4092K max:
SW2003 3GB switch off 1.98GB
SW2003 3GB switch on 1.99GB
SW2004 3GB switch off 2.00GB
SW2004 3GB switch on 3.00GB

Dell 350, 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, swap file set to 3072K min - 3072K max:
SW2004 3GB switch off 1.71GB
SW2004 3GB switch on 2.79GB
SW2004 3GB switch on 2.81GB (Set the max swap file limit to 4098 just to see)

Dell 350, 2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, swap file set to 3072K min - 4098K max (a different 350 machine):

SW2004 3GB switch off 1.71GB
SW2004 3GB switch on 2.80GB
SW2004 3GB switch on 2.85GB (Upped the physical RAM to 2GB)

cheers
Helpful SW websites FAQ559-520
How to find answers ... FAQ559-1091

RE: Animator Angst Again

(OP)
Interesting--thanks.  If this ends up being a RAM issue (and if I need more as a result), that's my first choice to resolve the issue.  At this point, I'm seeing such buggy stuff happen so often while doing strange things in SW 2007, I'm guessing RAM is not the real issue (we'll see how it goes over the next week).

My VAR's forwarding my apparently corrupted file to SolidWorks (again).  If I had time, I'd love to participate a great deal more in the beta program.  As it was last time, I was working so much on production stuff, I didn't have a chance to root out all the bugs I'm finding now.  (I don't think most users will encounter all these problems I'm suddenly seeing, since I do lots of work in strange niches.)

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Animator Angst Again

The 3G switch is not a physical RAM thing.  Windows XP can only address 4G of memory (physical and virtual) total.  By default it allocates 2G to itself, leaving the other 2G everything else.  The 3G switch forces Windows to use 1G for itself and allow the other 3G for applications.

SW will crash if you use up the memory, and rendering animations seems like the fastest way to do it.  Crashing during rendering is why I've got the 3G switch...

-b

RE: Animator Angst Again

(OP)
bvanhiel, thanks for the reply.  Yeah, I watched the RAM start climbing sharply as soon as I hit the OK to render for the animation.  SW was using about 1GB at the time I did that--leaving nothing left if XP was swiping the other half.

Anything to beware of in kicking-in the switch?  I may need to do that before getting this rendering to work.

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

RE: Animator Angst Again

I was getting to 1.6 to 1.7G of memory usage for SW at crash before going to the 3G switch.  By default, Windows XP isn't using half of what you've got, it's using half of the 4G addressable maximum.

-b

RE: Animator Angst Again

(OP)
Just made the switch--gonna also get another 1GB of RAM.  This is all making sense now (why the file wasn't saving last night--couldn't write to RAM, therefore never wrote to the HDD, even though SW didn't kick me out, but stayed running).

Thanks!

Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all.  And awe trumps reason.

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