Survey: How often does Solidworks crash on you? 10

[cmm]

SW2005-SP1.1 crashes 2 to 3 times per day on my computer and on my coworker's computer. Every time it crashes it gives the "unhandled error" message. We have the exact same setup, which is:

Athlon 64 3400+
1.5 GB RAM
Quadro FX700 with the latest SW-certified driver
WinXP Pro with all updates

I've used Solidworks every work day for the last 3.5 years, and though it has crashed many times I've never experienced a crash frequency quite this high.


Chris Montgomery
Mechanical Engineer

 

[meintsi]

I'll echo the reg/software settings and their impact on system stability.

Our new Dell workstations are running WinXP Pro SP2 with 2005, Office 2003, MS VISIO, MS Project, Adobe Acrobat, and Symantec AV in additional to the company bussiness modules, all are fully updated and were installed correctly. (not as simple as many seen to think !!!)

Since last October, only our newest, most inexperienced SW user out of 6 people who use it daily, has had a single, lone crash.

Kinda DOES make one wonder..



Remember...
"If you don't use your head,
your going to have to use your feet."

 

[MadMango]

I've been testing SW05 sp1.1 and DWGeditor for a week now. I'm running W2k sp4, dual 1.7ghz Xeons, 1gb memory, nVidia Quadro2 Pro 64mb.

I have to rewrite my registry files each time I switch between SW03 sp3.1 (production) and SW05 sp1.1 (testing). I've opened and worked on assemblies with 982 parts (all prismatic), multiple configs, E-size drawings with 4 sheets, same work flow I've been doing for a long time.

Zero crashes to date.

About the only trouble I have is with a 42" long, double start, .50" pitch ballscrew. When I rebuild this, I take a walk for coffee. I'm sure if I had a better graphics card (128mb or 256mb) this would go away.

I read all these instability issues that other people have, things I never encounter, and I really start to question if my workflow is so different than everyone elses, or is it something else?

I had a friend complaining that he wasted money on PhotoShop CS because it wasn't doing what he needed (he was a PaintShop Pro guy). I sat down with him one weekend and pointed a few things out for him, had him change his workflow. Now I can't stop him praising CS.

[green]"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."[/green]
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[aamoroso]

Amazing, simply amazing. I guess it is more complicated than it seems. Most crashes that are not hardware related are related to one of the following things:

User input - Clicking away like a madman does not speed up the process of design and causes crashes. The software is compiling an amazing amount of data everytime you rebuild and to not give it the few seconds it takes is greed.

Configurations - Configs are nice, but I have noticed it is more common to crash a file with 360 configs and hundreds of dimensions and mates in the design table.

Sloppy Directory Structure - Files scattered all about the servers, some on multiple servers or drives cause a headache, mostly when you do the routine save and all files are updated. It is important to have a clean directory structure.

Temp Files - empty the darn things, get rid of them. After every crash (as I said earlier a coworker of mine crashes several times a day) I make the guys run a search for the ~ and $ files on the server and delete them before opening the files again, this brings back the stability.

Add-ins - The more that are running the more likely your CPU will become your POOP?

These are basic computer tasks related to any intense software applications, I used to run gear analysis software and have problems when I didn't follow the basic rules. Solidworks is intense software the amount of calculations that are happening each time you click are enormous but it seems that many people have no problems at all, so how could it be the software. Try and do the same work you do now in Acad. The other option is to spend more money on software and more money on hardware for a better option, I bet the boss and IT guys would jump right on board for that.

 

[ctopher]

Scott, MM, Cor, aam & others are correct.
To use SolidWorks daily, all day, and still have several crashes a day ... those users are not following the advice of the users mentioned very well. Follow the top users advice in this forum exactly, you will not have those crashes.
I use SW everyday, almost every add-on, for approx 9 hrs/day. I do have crashes, but are mostly due to legacy dwgs. All new stuff I create I never have crashes. The more I follow the users advice mentioned above, the less problems & crashes I have.
If you still have a lot of crashes after their advice, then it is a non-SolidWorks issue. There are other forums for those issues. Just my .02.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[aamoroso]

Bravo, well said Ctopher.

 

[EdDanzer]

As a user of SolidWorks since 1996 the most common cause of crashing is getting too many mouse clicks ahead of what you are doing. Some years ago, we were using the first Dec Alpha running Windows NT in Washington State, on a large assembly. The system would crash if a certain group of key strokes were made too fast. After some testing, this crash, would happen in Excel and Word also. These key strokes, are not normally used in other programs so it would not show up. We documented the steps and sent them to SolidWorks, only to find out it was a Windows DLL file conflict. It took several month for a patch to become available.
As to machine type, it seems Athlon based systems are less stable running the same files.
The more older files in an assembly or drawing the less stability. The more configurations of parts, and, or assemblies in a large assembly, the less stability.

It does seem 2005 runs slower than 2004.

 

[alexsasdad]

I have reduced my crashes to once a day when I am working on a large assembly.

 

[cadman1997]

Alexsasdad, I would be very interested in seeing what you
have done to increase the stability.

I would like to apply some of your ideas to our SolidWorks
setup.

I have suggested what I have learned in this Forum. I'm
always looking at ways to help the Designers and myself to
do our job better.



Regards,

Ralph Wright, C.E.T.

 

[ctopher]

I believe SBaugh, MadMango, aamoroso, Theophilus, and others have excellent suggestions for fixes. Funny how the post isn't read thru, only the last few entries, seems to me. I'm done here.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site