Crashing Solidworks

[Scoobystu]

Recently moved to SW2003. Running a 1.4 Mhz processor with 512Mb ram and a 32 Mb Geforce graphics card.

Since we started using SW2003 whenever I suppress something in an assembly SW crashes and gives an error message saying it has processed an unhandled error. It also happens if I save something as a copy and then try and open it.

Anybody have any ideas?

 

[SBaugh]

Unhandled errors are very random.

Check out the KBA (Knowledge Base Article) at the SW website on Trouble shooting a crash prone system or

http://www.frontiernet.net/~mlombard/

Rules of Thumb and see the same thing there.

1) Try cleaning out your Temp directory
2) Defrag your HDD
3) Latest Drivers
4) This is the last option I use but I have seen it work more often than not faq559-507

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[EdDanzer]

After trying Scott’s suggestions.
If these are older SolidWorks files the best thing to do is open each file before opening the assembly, rebuild every configuration and save after each rebuild. If there are older subassemblies do the same rebuild and save process. Close all files and reboot SolidWorks, open the main assembly, rebuild and save each configuration before trying to work with the parts or subassemblies within.
If there is still crashing, you may just have to recreate the problem file. We have had this problem with older assemblies, finding the corrupt file is difficult and time consuming.
Currently I spend over 25% of my time fixing old files.

 

[SBaugh]

I just realized you have a GF card. If it's just a GF card they are not even listed by SW, but the GF2-4 is listed and all of them show a Pass with Limitation. You might be experiencing a Limitation with your GF card.

You may not have been having problems with crashes till SW03, but SW03 is more demanding on your Hardware. So your card could be the culprit.

It won't hurt to try the above recommendations first, just in case it isn't a Video card problem.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[rocheey]

Gotta ask, cause noone else did... are you running on a 9x/Millenium o/s?

 

[JNR]

From our experience in testing new hardware configs for SW003 it does indeed sound like it could be your graphics board.

BTW: NOW TAKE NOTE EVERYONE:

Information from the SW2004 beta testing group for what it's worth. If you are going to buy a new graphics board, probably better make it a QUADRO. Due to the great variability in Open GL compatibility of (even well known) graphics boards, apparently SW is baselining SW2004 new features on the NVIDA QUADRO chipset. Apparently studies of the market have shown it is the most popular and most stable. Note: I merely pass on the information as is - the only comment I will make is that we are using Quadro's with SW2003 and having great success.

3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......

 

[DetroitPickles]

Nvidia's are the best for SolidWorks, and others too. And you are correct in your assumption of SW loving the Nvidia Quadro chipset. They do OpenGL better than anyone it seems.

If you are buying a new card, make it a Nvidia Quadro 4 something. You'll be happier down the road...


Mr. Pickles

 

[Scoobystu]

Thanks for the help. Think I might have sorted it.

Removed SW2003 and then removed any traces of SW2001 and SW2003 from the registry. Then re-installed SW2003 and it seems to be working OK so far.

 

[SBaugh]

You should be able to run both on the same computer. I have 3 installations of SW...SW01+, SW03 & SW04 Beta and there are no problems here. Did you use the Default directory when you installed both SW01+ and SW03? Example C:\Program files\Solidworks If so that was probably your problem. IMO you should always customize the installation, if you only change the directory, its worth it in the end.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[Scoobystu]

I initially put the Solidworks 2003 installation into a solidworks 2003 folder leaving the old Solidworks folder in place so that I could keep templates etc.

The fourth time I installed SW2003 I moved the SW2001 folder to my desktop and then copied the relevant files back into the new SW2003 folder.

Main thing is that it is working again .... so far.....

 

[rocheey]

I has the same problem with a no-name gfx card running sw03/sp3.1 under XP... and it turned out to be the OEM DRIVERS. when I rolled back to the generic XP-installed drivers, the *crashing* dissapeared, anyway.