VW14 is this an improvement?

[Jim Smith]

VW 14 is a mess.

It takes 2x's as long as VW 2011 just to boot and after the 2nd service pack intall it still has annoying little glitches (like the extra key stroke in the align/distribute function)

2D Drafting is OK, but I have just spent a very frustrating week full of crashes and frustration in 3D & 3D Rendering.

- A 5mg file crashes every time a image prop is used in Open GL

- Edited copies of Textures cause the file to crash in Open GL

- After 30 minutes, nothing happens in Final Quality Renderworks

- Sending the file to be rendered on the Service Select Cloud results in Wireframe Files & PDFs

I recognize that this may be a corrupted file, so I have referenced the basic information into a new container, twice and still have the same issues. I've exported the files to VW 2011, & after 10 minutes I can see the Render progress bar moving and the image is chugging along.

While I have a smattering of projects started in VW2012, VW2013, many of my projects were stated in VW2011. Now that I've started projects in VW2014 the rendering outside of Open GL is making me question why I bother upgrading.

[VincentCuclair]

Post the file and we'll have a look.....

[Kevin McAllister]

VW2014 with SP1 or SP2 is very unstable. In the first day of using SP2 I had a multitude of crashes, including one that brought down my entire system. I've had OpenGL out of memory errors, failures to render even in the design layers and one time where the entire VW window went dark blue. There is something definitely not right. And its gotten worse from SP1 to SP2. It doesn't seem to be file specific. Same geometry renders quickly and easily in C4D and ironically the beta version of Rhino for the Mac.

Frankly this is all very disappointing.

Kevin

[jamesmise]

Guess I'm lucky. I've experienced none of these issues and I've been doing some pretty heavy rendering. Graphic card compatibility issues maybe? Post a file and I'll be glad to play with it on my machine.

Edited November 29, 2013 by jamesmise

[Jim Smith]

Here's a file sample:

Edited November 29, 2013 by Jim Smith

[Kevin McAllister]

Something is definitely different with SP2. I've had out of memory errors when trying to save but now they're occurring while working in the design layers. I've never had that happen before. Its only ever been a problem after rendering sheet layer viewports.

Kevin

[bjoerka]

nice sample.

pre rendering for so long that i stopped the task with the esc key.

went back to your design layer worked there some numb things and in the activity window the cinerender process is still working by 750% .-)

killed the process and the teapot animation is till running...

weird...

Edited December 3, 2013 by bjoerka

[PVA - Admin]

Testing this sample now.

Overall speeds should NOT be slower -especially when rendering- in 2014 compared to 2011.

[PVA - Admin]

In testing- (Hardware used was the iMac in my signature)

CustomRW, all set to Very High, no indirect lighting, no AA: 40 seconds

CustomRW, all set to Very High, no indirect lighting, AA on: 7 minutes 28 seconds

I have not seen AA (Anti Aliasing) slow things down that significantly before, but I will check and see if this is abnormal or if the problem lies elsewhere.

In the meantime, do you happen to have this file or its source in the 2011 format as well that I could test with? Also, please send tech@vectorworks.net the following from the machine that rendered faster in 2011 than 2014:

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/627/DirectX+Diagnostics+and+System+Profiler

Edited December 3, 2013 by JimW

[Jim Smith]

Thanks Jim, I shall send these later today

[Jim Smith]

Thanks bjoerka,

[Tom Klaber]

I too have noticed the "Out of memory" failure after SP2. It was not so much of a problem before. It did not occur to me until reading this thread that it was related to the update, but now that you say it....

[Bruce Kieffer]

I also have had a lot of memory errors. I have 24GB of RAM, so I highly doubt that's the problem. I have noticed more out of memory errors if Photoshop is open, and if for that matter any Adobe program is open, but I'm not prepared to say that is the cause. It didn't happen with SP1.

[PVA - Admin]

That error almost never actually indicates that your physical RAM has been used up, it normally means that Vectorworks itself (which is limited to 2.4~3.6GB of RAM currently) has hit its limit.

I have had some success with some users uninstalling completely if they had patched to SP1 or SP2, then re-installing the already-patched versions of Vectorworks that include SP 1 and SP2 from the start.

However in other cases, users simply resetting preferences has worked, as well as some users just uninstalling, then re applying SP1 and then SP2 directly without opening the software until they were both complete has worked as well.

The difficulty I've come across so far is that after resets and reinstalls, immediately there are no problems, so we can't confirm whether the problem was resolved until a few days of use have gone by.

[grant_PD]

Is it common for a program to be limited to such a small amount of RAM? I don't experience out of memory errors as much as I do experience VW "giving up" on doing a batch publish involving a lot of renders. I have largely abandoned batch publish and individually update sheet layers, then publish.

Can we Wish List VW to support a LOT more RAM?

[Kevin McAllister]

I agree with Grant. Honestly I can't remember having an "out of memory error" or even an "OpenGL out of memory error" in any other piece of software ever. VW may be special, but not in a good way.

Kevin

[PVA - Admin]

Its a combination of things, half of these problems will either disappear or be significantly mitigated once we move to 64bit. (soon!) Most other applications that use as much RAM as Vectorworks does have already or are in the process of moving to 64bit as well for the same reasons.

The other half are issues that we need to isolate one by one that simply send memory usage spiraling out of control regardless of how much RAM a machine has or Vectorworks supports. Those issues are not always related to eachother and are the main focus of my troubleshooting currently because of problems users are now coming across in threads like this one.

Edited December 12, 2013 by JimW

[Bruce Kieffer]

re-installing the already-patched versions of Vectorworks that include SP 1 and SP2 from the start.

Jim,

Where do I find the already patched versions? Are they updated in Service Select?

[Kevin McAllister]

Bruce,

That's a very good question. I wondered that myself. Service Select doesn't always seem to be as current as it should be.

Kevin

[J. Wallace]

I re-installed VW 2014 the other day via the service select website. After you log in, go to downloads and all available versions are displayed (for me I see 2011 up to 2014) and seem to have updated sp. I downloaded 2014 again and it had sp2 as part of the download.

[PVA - Admin]

Jim,

Where do I find the already patched versions? Are they updated in Service Select?

The Service Select Portal is SUPPOSED to always list the most up to date version. If you ever happen to see that it isn't please let me know. (As we streamline the process of getting new updates/content into the VSS this problem should go away.)

However, in tech support we also have the most up to date download links available, if you call or email us or message me here we can get you the correct version directly.

Edited December 16, 2013 by JimW