Catia v5r18 Runtime Exception error

[cduvall5460]

Ladies and gentlemen;

I installed Catia v5 onto a new workstation and have successfully installed the new licenses. When I attempt to start Catia I get the "runtime exception" error message. I have done some checking and several postings have said to change the graphics card, and I have tried a geforce 6200 w/ 256MB, a geforce 7600 w/ 512 MB and finally a radeon x1650 w/ 512MB all of these bounce with the same error at the same place.

The system is an AMD @ 2.16ghz, 2GB ram, XP SP3 32bit, 250GB HDD, and the 512MB Radeon card.

I'm at a total loss, any suggestions would be appreciated!!!

Chris

 

[itsmyjob]

I guess that why we all use DS certified computers...

Eric N.
indocti discant et ament meminisse periti ​

 

[catiajim]

The graphics cards you list are all Gaming Cards and do not support the graphics calls that CATIA uses. You need a professional CAD card that supports OpenGL. Try the nVidia Quadra or the Radeon FireGL cards.

 

[cduvall5460]

job: your reply was really useless, but thanks.

jim: the system that catia is installed on (and working) that we're migrating away from is an IBM with 2 Xeon @ 700mhz, and this is using a geforce 4, and Catia is working fine on that system. My supervisor is using Catia v5 on his station with a radeon x1650 pro graphics card too. This leads me to believe something else lying below the surface.

Any other suggestions??

 

[m1mason]

Jim is correct in his suggestion. You have to use certified hardware. This will make troubleshooting easier. Yes I've seen cases where CATIA will run on "non-certified" stations but once you start running into trouble you can't put you finger on the problem. That's why we shell out the money for the expensive Video cards because they are designed for the job (it is the biggest bottleneck for a CAD system). Sometimes, you don't even need to pay a lot. I recently got a proper Dell precision workstation off-lease for less than $500. it really is worth the effort to research and find the optimum hardware for the job.

MTM

http://mtm-cadtutorials.blogspot.com/

 

[catiajim]

The reason that DS certifies workstations is that those are the configurations that they will provide fixes and supports for. Yes, CATIA will occasionally run on non-certified hardware, but you will eventually run into problems, and you will not find anyone that will be able to support and DS will not provide fixes for.

CATIA (and most other 3-D CAD Systems) uses OpenGL for its graphic calls. The Quadra and FireGL graphics cards have built in hardware support for this protocol. The Gaming Cards do not - they require the CPU to interpret the calls, and convert them to DirectX so that the Graphics Cards can interpret them. This adds additional load to the CPU, and provides an additional path for error and bugs.

As It's My Job stated, most of us use Certified Hardware to run CATIA, even for the smaller jobs and lower end users.

 

[cduvall5460]

Mason: where did you find your off-lease workstation? or would an appropriate card fix the problem (as far as you can tell?)

Our company does not use Catia for its primary CAD software we use Visi (it's English). We are required to have an install of Catia to be able to do work for some of our customers so I'm trying to avoid sinking a load of money into a system that sits around 95% of the time and from what i've seen, the quadro and firegl cards are costly.

 

[m1mason]

Well, I live in Toronto, Canada. There's a local company that sells off-lease Dell workstation. I can talk to my guy if you're interested. They sell them like hot cakes and I've jumped on the deal as soon as I saw it. Let me know. The only thing is that shipping will probably be costly as the stations are a bit heavy.

http://mtm-cadtutorials.blogspot.com/

 

[mapolat22]

The notion that you need a "workstation card" that uses Quadro or FireGL graphics chips is nonsense. Nvidia and and ATI have a unified driver set that support full Open GL 2.1, and yes, even on "gaming cards"

I would suspect you have mainboard or memory issues.

I have run Catia on home built machine that AMD Athlon64, Athlon64 x2 and Phenom processors no problem.

 

[Azrael]

Usually the gaming cards support a subset of the full OpenGL. I have tried with gaming cards and some work just fine for easy work. But I have also experienced many problems with game cards, freezes, program crash, bsod, and my favourite the "GPU reboot". Looks it depends on the GPU used on the game cards how well it will behave

Can you try a friends card that you know works??

Otherwise go certified

 

[m1mason]

To support the views of most guys here. check out this article in CATIA Community. I think you need an account to read the whole thing though.

http://www.catiacommunity.com/feature_full.php?cpfeatureid=32630

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