my VW 2015 keeps locking up & loosing what has been saved

[Dubman]

It seems VectorWorks on a PC is not the way to go. I keep have problems with the program locking up & have to force it to close & then loosing everything I have drawn. Its not even in the back up folder. I would really like a computer designed just for VectorWorks that works like it is suppose to. I keep working with Tech support but since they are not using my computer there is now way for them to produce the same locking up problems. How about have a tech support person come to my office & sit next to me to see what really is happening & how I use the program. Guess that would be just a fantasy. I give up on sending then a DirectX diagnostic report that never resolves the constant locking up.

[PVA - Admin]

Well, you will have to make sure to follow any troubleshooting steps regardless of how useful they seem.

They can often remote in to your machine so that you can demonstrate the issue, they will be able to view your screen remotely, as long as the issues are replicate-able and not random, they should be able to track them down.

Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to make firm visits.

[jnr]

Dubman:

You're not alone. Same problem on a mac.

[Dubman]

Thank you very much for stating this, I was just starting to research switching to a mac to reduce this problem. My problem with switching is re-purchasing all of my other software & devices for the mac.

Thanks again, its good to know its not just my computer doing it.

[James Russell]

If it's any indicator I work on a Hardcore PC at home and a MacBook Pro / 27'iMac at the offices equally.

An average day drafting (6ish hours) will involve at least 5 crashes. If I'm coding it'll be closer to 10-15.

The biggest/most important thing for me is my AutoSave timer is set to 5 minutes, no dialog, writing to one backup folder on a separate drive, keeping the last 10 backups.

I personally push the limits all the time and expect crashes for doing so, I would hope that my rate is higher than the norm but it would be interesting to see.

J

Edited June 24, 2015 by James Russell

[Dubman]

Hey James, thanks for letting me know its not just me having these problems. I'm a set designer for a tv production Under The Dome working 10 to 11 hours a day 5 & 6 days a week. I do mainly 2d drafting of the sets at a very fast pace. Some days I sometimes have up to 4 lock ups in one day, sometimes loosing work that had been previously saved. I have auto save & back up set to 15 minutes, but I even loose some work save there too. It seems to freeze/lock up more when going in & out of view ports fast. So I am now drawing everything on the design layer with annotation & then using view ports on sheet layers to add the title blocks. So far this seems to help with only one lock up in 3 days. Even with just 2d drafting, I have to split my file into two separate files to keep it from slowing down. In a set of D size sheets, 10 sheets is when I split to another file to keep from slowing VW down. I've done 3d drawings with 2d view ports of my own projects, buts it slows down my computer to much for the speed I need for set design. I thought I had a powerful custom built computer, but this program can really use up all of its power. I've use VW scince the first pc version, MiniCad 7 which crashed every 5 minutes or so.

Its good for me to know that someone else that using this software for work has more crashing problems that me.

Thanks again for posting!

[jnr]

Like I keep saying, I'll take stability over bling anytime, but that's not what the powers at be want to hear. The bottom line only improves with growth which they think only happens with expanding technologies at the insane pace pushed by the mother ship in germany. Problem is, you start to also lose users when you can't sell something that doesn't break all the time.

Again, its not just the PC environment. I've never completed a single project that did not crash at least five times. Might be time to look at other software. I would like NNA to pay me about $10,000 in lost revenue for all the time I've lost diagnosing unstable software....Maybe they should just give us the latest release since it seems to be in a perpetual state of beta anyway....

Ugh and I feel your pain....

[PVA - Admin]

I and the majority of my users do not experience these issues. it isnt necessarily that you are doing anything wrong, but often the culprit is something in the file, especially files that came from many versions ago, or in the case of the machine, one that has had the same user account for a long period of time. Please make sure you've gotten in touch with Tech and they've done all they can.

Even in the rated "unstable" test builds I've been using for the past few weeks, I have not experienced a single crash and I have been doing heavy OpenGL and rendering work. I am not saying you're crazy or that Vectorworks Doesn't Crash (I'm not nuts), just that your experience is not in the majority, which is why it may seem like we do not hear you.

If we can't isolate and reproduce the issue (which is harder when it isn't being experienced by the majority) then its very difficult, if not impossible to correct, but we will keep trying.

[Dubman]

Well if Jim has never had a crash or lock up I will be building my next pc computer just like his, because every computer I've had since MiniCad 7 crashed all the time.