Peder Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I am having a lot of crashes with 8.01 and had similar issues with FZ 7. Random crashes where the main modelling window gets greyed out and no apparent logic to when the problems happen. This last time in the middle of a move copy of some lights. But it has happened when changing materials to a maxwell material and any number of other occasions. Also when restarting (new in 8.01) is that the palettes are gone and I have to reset workspace. Very frustrating and since I am not hearing about anyone else having issues I wonder if it could be some hardware issue with my computer. No other software display similar problems though... Sometimes windows throws up an error message saying FormZ Pro is not responding If you close the program you might lose information Close the program or Wait for the program to respond. Now and then a similar freeze occurs and FZ snaps out of it after a second or so. But that is rare. I always get a "feeling" that FZ is not somehow responding to some request from the OS and the OS thinks FZ has crashed when it may just be thinking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Hi Peder, Sorry you are having trouble. What version of OS X are you using, and what video card do you have? First I would probably check to see if there is an issue with your preferences. To do this, make sure formZ is not running, go to the Finder: Go Menu, hold down the Option key, choose Library: Preferences — and rename the autodessys folder (add a number to the end of the name). Then relaunch formZ. Does that solve the Palette issue you mention? Next, make sure that you have the latest version of formZ AND Maxwell Render. Use the formZ Help Menu: Check for Update command to update to v8.0.2, and download the current Maxwell Render Beta from their download portal. If you continue to have any trouble, when the problem occurs, go to the Applications: Utilities, run the Activity Monitor, and Sample the formZ Process. Save the Sample, and email it to support@formz.com so we can see what is happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peder Posted January 21, 2015 Author Share Posted January 21, 2015 Sorry for the confusion I am on Win 7 these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 Hi Peder, Ok, sorry, yes... It would still be good to know what video card you have and the date of its driver. RUN: dxdiag -- click Yes, and the Display(1) Tab. The Device Name will be in the upper left, and the Driver Date will be in the upper right. What are these? If the video driver is more than a few months old, you should download the latest from the manufacturer of the card (or laptop), and install that. Also make sure that formZ and Maxwell are up to date. And make sure that Windows Update has installed all Critical or Recommended updates (excluding hardware drivers). If you still have any trouble, try renaming the autodessys folder, which on Windows is located in USER: App Data: Roaming. Does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I'm having crashes too, very frustrating, been at this for two days now. I'm using the last available build for Form Z 7: Version 7.3.4, Build 8932. If the video driver is more than a few months old, you should download the latest from the manufacturer of the card (or laptop), and install that. Also make sure that formZ and Maxwell are up to date. And make sure that Windows Update has installed all Critical or Recommended updates (excluding hardware drivers). If you still have any trouble, try renaming the autodessys folder, which on Windows is located in USER: App Data: Roaming I have done all suggested here. I have also re-downloaded the installation file and re-installed. That didnt help. The crash is being triggered when I try to do anything in the Materials Palette. It might allow one or two steps but ultimately either makes the material parameters or the materials palette freeze or makes Form Z freeze until I have to force it to close. Last time I had this much trouble with Form Z was here: http://www.formz.com/forum/old/messages/16/72285.htmland I cant even remember how I fixed that one, but I hope Z tech won't suggest reinstallin Windows or anything like that because I'm not keen on going through that much trouble, I have a number of 3d apps installed working fine and I'm happy with the way Windows runs at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 what video card do you have and what is the date of its driver? And can you find a series of steps that -- if you repeat them, you repeat the problem? And if you try formZ Free, or the formZ 8 Trial, do you have the problem there too? And (oops, lots of ands) does this only happen in a specific file, or also in a new project? Try to isolate and reproduce the problem and that will help determine the cause and thus the solution... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 I'm using a laptop (Dell XPS i7, 6GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce GT 525M) with Intel HD Graphic Family video card which I just updated to be sure, though the driver date still says 26th March 2011. Once I bring up the materials parameter tab to change any materials settings, either the tab becomes non responsive, i.e. I can see it, but I can't select anything, in fact, the cursor seems to pass through it to select objects behind it in my scene. Either that or trying to assign a material from the materials palette makes Form Z to freeze. It's happeing in new files too. Form Z Free is downloading, will test with that and send back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Great, now Form Z Free insists on having Open Gl 3.2 or higher, meanwhile my Nvidia card supports Open Gl 4.4 and I've associated it with Form Z. Form Z who oh why are you leaving me in a lurch this way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Sounds like your driver is not working properly. RUN: Dxdiag, and post a capture of your System and Display tabs... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Phew! Hoping I've not spoken too soon, apparently Form Z Free was not correctly associated with the Nvidia Card, got that sorted and then it loaded okay and the materials palette / material editor tab gave absolutely no problems. So I fired up Form Z 7 and.....wait for it.....yes, it's not giving the problem anymore! I've been able to edit textures, reaplly textures, etc without the old issues. So does that mean there's something in the Form Z8 Free installation pack that irons out something else that had gone awry in my original Form Z 7 installation? Thanks Rob for the suggestions. And Z Tech, if you swing by here, maybe you could help with a clue on what the issue might have been. One other question though, something I had ignored for months since it didn't necessarily stop me from working, but a nuissance nonetheless. When working in Form Z 7, if I navigate from the Form Z window to check something in another window, when I return to Form Z, I would have to give it a few seconds, sometimes up to 30 seconds to wake up (almost like a system booting) before I can do anything. This happens every single time I switch windows. Any idea what to do about it? I'm running Windows 7. Back to winning ways! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Here are the screenshots Rob, hoping you'll spot something. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted March 21, 2015 Share Posted March 21, 2015 Are you SURE you downloaded and installed the latest driver from DELL's web site? It does NOT look like you did... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted March 23, 2015 Share Posted March 23, 2015 Hi Dada, Your computer should automatically switch the video to the discrete card when you are running formZ, and installing formZ Free shouldn’t have had any effect on this. As far as the delay “switching windows” — are you switching windows within formZ, or from formZ to another program? If it is to another program, perhaps your computer is also trying to switch the video — and there is something not quite right going on there that is causing the delay? Perhaps you should check Dell’s site for any Bios, Firmware, or other upgrades for your computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DADA_universe Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Thanks guys, I couldn't figure out the lag I complained about when returning to a Form Z window after visiting another window (for any other software), but Windows 10 has since happened to my computer and Form Z is not complaining so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Great. sounds like there was a problem with the old OS and upgrading to Windows 10 fixed that problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 21, 2016 Share Posted January 21, 2016 Hi Peder, We strongly recommend running the latest Maxwell Beta; it solves an issue with generating material previews on some systems. http://forums.formz.com/index.php?/topic/3042-new-maxwell-for-formz-early-build-3206/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peder Posted January 22, 2016 Author Share Posted January 22, 2016 Thanks for the tip. We are currently still on v. 3.0 of Maxwell. I did find updating the video drivers seems to have helped a lot with stability however. Components though seem a bit dodgy... But thats a topic for another thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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