26 Crashing when updating references

[Mickey]

My first project with 2026 and so far it's been a total disaster.

I have a file which I call master.

It references several other files. A venue in 3D, a venue in 2D, and departments, lights, sound, video

Each of those file references the master.

It worked for awhile but today while doing some work in the master I went to update the department references and crash.

At first it was just the audio file. I could update lights, and video, but audio would crash the program.

I tried different things like deleting the layer with the reference, and creating a new layer, and a new reference

crash

I renamed the audio file, created new layers and new references, and that got it to work

Then the lighting reference started crashing the master.

WTF is going on?

I've been working this way for years. Maybe ever since references were created.

Now in 2026 it's a crash fest.

So sad. 

I'm so happy Nemetchek is raising their prices. I feel I get so much for my money.

Anyone else seen issues with crashing and references?

I have submitted a support ticket. Hoping they have some answers.

I'm kind of dead in the water right now.

 

 

 

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hello,

There could be any number of factors here relating to your particular frustrating situation but there's always a reason. Possibly something might be corrupt or odd in one or more of the source files? That could be anything whether it be imported geometry from another program, far away objects - large bounding box, corrupt fonts etc. 

 

I would run the new Tools>Check File Health Command (assuming you have an annual subscription) on each of the source files to see if there are any obvious errant factors. It could be a display issue so ensure that your GPU driver is up to date with the very latest driver. Are the file paths long and/or are there any non alphanumeric characters in the path? Also ensure that you are on update 3.1 

 

Hopefully some pointers while your local support get to you.

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

[Problum]

Hi,

 

Here the same problems did a downgrade again to many crashes at the moment with the update 3.1

[Mickey]

19 hours ago, Peter Neufeld. said:

Hello,

There could be any number of factors here relating to your particular frustrating situation but there's always a reason. Possibly something might be corrupt or odd in one or more of the source files? That could be anything whether it be imported geometry from another program, far away objects - large bounding box, corrupt fonts etc. 

 

I would run the new Tools>Check File Health Command (assuming you have an annual subscription) on each of the source files to see if there are any obvious errant factors. It could be a display issue so ensure that your GPU driver is up to date with the very latest driver. Are the file paths long and/or are there any non alphanumeric characters in the path? Also ensure that you are on update 3.1 

 

Hopefully some pointers while your local support get to you.

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

Check file health command is a new option.

I'll explore that.

But otherwise the answer makes little sense.

The department files were started as new, and reference the master file to get venue, and event layout layers.

The master file references the department files to bring in lights sound video.

As of now only the lighting file is crashing VW.

And by that I mean when I update the lighting reference in the master file.

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hi Mickey,

I'm happy to look at the lighting (only) file if you DM it to me, to see if I can spot anything.

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Fergy]

This is also my workflow and have had random crashes as well.

[Mickey]

Peter I sent you a dropbox link.

I tried theck check file health.

The only error it returned was high polygon counts or something in the chain motor hook, and GT truss both native VWX symbols

Rad that native symbols cause a health error.

But nothing out of place otherwise that would cause sure catastrophic failure.

Note that these files can be opened on a Mac and updated with no issues

 

 

 

[Peter Neufeld.]

Hi Mickey,

I think it'll be a memory issue rather than a Mac/PC thing.

 

I rebuilt the file using layer import that prohibits any design layer viewports (DLVP) from coming across. It made the file 45MB compared to 137MB and when reffed into a new blank document it was instantaneous. Therefore the DLVP on the Master Ref layer is the culprit. 

 

 

 

 

 

If you make invisible the the Venue 3D ref layer save the master file and re-reference it back into the lighting file it'll be instantaneous too.

 

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

 

 

[Mickey]

On 3/3/2026 at 8:54 PM, Peter Neufeld. said:

Hi Mickey,

I think it'll be a memory issue rather than a Mac/PC thing.

 

I rebuilt the file using layer import that prohibits any design layer viewports (DLVP) from coming across. It made the file 45MB compared to 137MB and when reffed into a new blank document it was instantaneous. Therefore the DLVP on the Master Ref layer is the culprit. 

 

If you make invisible the the Venue 3D ref layer save the master file and re-reference it back into the lighting file it'll be instantaneous too.

 

 

Cheers,

Peter

 

 

 

 

Steven Shorter has been helping me with this as well and we came to the same conclusion.

Can you explain why DLVP is doing this?

I can't do Layer import as that brings the data into the file.

One of the points of doing a reference is the venue files are not available to the public.

I need to keep those on a local drive, and not the dropbox.

Viewports protect the IP.

If it's layer import, and you delete the reference the geometry is imported into the working file.

To make this better a friend suggested trying to export everything to 2025

Low and behold that works fine so we've moved all vendors, and users to 2025 for this project.

Why does it work correctly in 2025 but not in 2026?

 

Same project different issue all of a sudden nobody on Mac's could open files I recently edited.

I sent files to several people to test, and the Mac's could not open, but PC's could.

 

VWX26 is not a good product.