Vectorworks Application Has Stopped Working

[BG]

When I tried to open VW today a message popped up saying "Vectorworks application has stopped working" and the only option is to hit the 'close program' button. Anyone had this experience before?

Thanks

Brett

VW12.5.2

Vista Home Premium

Edited December 12, 2007 by BG

[Guest]

Brett -

Once restarting the computer, does the problem still occur?

[BG]

Hi Katie

Problem is still happening after restarting. VW does open though in 'safe mode'.

Am I going to have to re-install VW? If so do I have to uninstall VW first?

Thanks

Brett

[Guest]

If it's working with Safe Mode, then there's another program or driving causing the problem.

Are you using a dongle?

Have you contacted your local distributor about this issue?

It will probably be resolved faster if you go through them rather than the message board (mainly due to time differences)

Edited December 12, 2007 by Katie

[CMills]

Has a resolution for this been found? I am trying to fix it for the *third* time for my client C Mills. First it was a problem with the dongle driver, we resolved that. Next time VW needed to be run with Admin rights, we resolved that. Now the problem is back *again* a couple of months later.

Running VW Fundamentals Landmark 12.5 on Vista Home Premium and running it with Admin rights. VW stops responding at the initial splash screen the moment after the licensed product has been listed. Have tried to run in Safe Mode but it complains it cannot find the dongle.

VW was working OK yesterday morning and then suddenly, without any warning, started the old "Vectorworks Application has stopped working" situation again.

Any suggestions as to how to go about fixing this once and for all please?

Bob Fearnley, IT consultant for Cherry Mills.

[Guest Donne Martin]

By "admin rights", do you mean logged in as an admin or right clicking the application then running as an admin?

Are you logged in as an Administrator, Power User, or Limited User?

Try launching VW by right clicking the application icon and running as an admin.

If that doesn't work try to right click the application icon, go to the Compatibility tab, and run in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode.

[BG]

Right clicking the application icon & running as an admin did resolve the problem for me, however each time the program starts or if I double click a file with VW running a box pops up and I have to click "allow access....".

Is there an easy fix for this?

Brett

[CMills]

Donne Martin,

Thanks for your input. We are already using VW like this:

1) logged in to Vista as an Admin user.

2) the properties of VW have been set to always run as Admin.

3) running in XP SP2 compatability mode.

(Note: running VW 12.5.2)

We did all that a couple of months ago to get it sorted but the problem has suddenly returned. I've checked all the above settings and they are still in place. No new apps have been loaded on the machine so it wouldn't appear to be a conflict.

Starting VW directly by right clicking on the .exe and selecting 'Run as Administrator' does not work either.

Have also run System Restore to take the PC back 10 days in case the problem was caused by a Vista update - no change.

The user has a second PC with XP that runs VW perfectly with the same dongle. The problem is Vista - any other ideas other than installing XP on this laptop? Many thanks.

Bob Fearnley

Edited December 20, 2007 by CMills

[Ray Libby]

In Vista a user administrator is not a true administrator. Here are a couple of articles on accessing the true administrator account.

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=537806

http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/vista/vista_administrator_activate.htm

Keep in mind you are bypassing some of Vista's security features in using the administrator account.

[Guest Donne Martin]

Brett:

That sounds like the UAC feature of Vista. You can try running as a "true admin" as Ray mentioned above, or you can disable UAC by clicking the start menu, clicking your icon at the top right of the menu, then selecting "Turn User Account Control on or off". Note that Microsoft does not recommend turning off UAC.

Bob:

I think Ray's suggestion is worth a shot. You may also want to try the other items in the "Compatibility" tab. For instance, I had to disable visual themes in Visual Studio 2003 to prevent it from locking up when doing certain actions. Is UAC turned off? I think I remember reading that turning off UAC can sometimes block access to certain files some applications might rely on. If all else fails, perhaps a reinstall of VW might fix the problem.

Edited December 20, 2007 by Donne Martin (NNA)

[CMills]

Gentlemen, Have tried creating the Administrator user as described and tried using that account - problem is just the same.

I've also tried turning off UAC, Data Execution Protection (DEP) and other things as suggested on other support sites as being a cause of this problem, all to no avail.

I've also tried all the other options on the compatibility tab - no change.

The only thing I can think of is to remove and reinstall VM under the new Administrator user but I don't hold out much hope. I'll give that a try and report back.

Bob

[Guest Donne Martin]

Bob, please try the following. To help narrow down the possible root cause, after each step please launch VW and see if it fixed the problem.

1. Run VW in safe mode

-As the computer is booting press and hold your F8 Key

-See if VW runs in safe mode. If it does, continue with the following steps. Otherwise, skip to step 2

-Go to Start button then select Run

-Run the command msconfig

-Select the Startup tab

-Uncheck the first five items in the list

-Click Apply, then Close

-Restart the computer

-Launch VectorWorks

-If the problem continues, repeat the above steps but re-enable the items you unchecked earlier, then uncheck the next five items in the list

-Continue until you've cycled down the list of startup items

-With some luck, maybe you'll find an item in the Startup list that causing a conflict with VectorWorks.

2. Delete or rename your workspace folder

3. Delete or rename your plug-ins folder

These folders are in the main application directory.

4. Delete or rename SavedSettings.xml

5. Delete or rename SavedSettingsUser.xml

6. Delete or rename VectorWorks Preferences.xml

Note I found the last three xml files in the following location on my machine. You may need to make hidden folders visible.

C:\Users\dmartin\AppData\Roaming\Nemetschek\VectorWorks\2008\Settings

[CMills]

Right, feedback time.

Have uninstalled VM (funny way to do it by deleting the program folder - why no uninstall?) and then reinstalled while logged in to the new Adminstrator account and - lo - it's working again!

I wonder how long it will work this time?

Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen, let's hope I don't have to bother you again. May I wish everyone a happy Xmas.

However - in doing the above I learned something of great interest. Adding the Administrator user has above has proved to me that the problem is with Vista's Admin/User rights and/or application protection: This morning I was using my trusty registry cleaner on this troublesome laptop and it was working *perfectly*. Since I added the Administrator account and deleted the Vectorworks program folder my registry cleaner won't start and simply reports "Registry Mechanic Applictaion has stopped working" - now isn't that a coincidence!

I've tried removing and reinstalling it but it is just the same, it will not run. There is something very flakey in Vista!

[CMills]

please try the following. To help narrow down the possible root cause, after each step please launch VW and see if it fixed the problem.

1. Run VW in safe mode

-As the computer is booting press and hold your F8 Key

-See if VW runs in safe mode. If it does, continue with the following steps. Otherwise, skip to step 2

-Go to Start button then select Run

[big snip]

Donne,

I tried running in Safe Mode yesterday but VW just reports that it can't run in safe mode and aborts. If we get a return of this problem I'll certainly try the remainder of the suggestions.

Meantime my client is taking up this problem direct with the supplier. Whoever sells VW should be making purchasers aware of this problem running with Vista.

Thanks for your help,

Bob

[CMills]

Just to let everyone know - the fourth attempt (12 Dec, above) to fix this problem didn't last long either. Shortly after starting to use VW again it failed to start with "Vectorworks Application has stopped working".

If it cannot be made to work by installing it and running it as the System Administrator how can it be made to work? Searching on the Web shows that Autocad and other CAD packages have had exactly the same problem running under Vista but they have found the cause and issued patches to resolve it.

Why can't Vectorworks be fixed? It seems that nobody at Nemetschek or the UK distributor is really interested in resolving this issue.

Bob Fearnley

IT Consultant

[Guest]

Cmills,

Please contact tech support directly on this issue. They have a number of options to resolve the issue you are having.

Please contact your local support channel through Computers Unlimited.