EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => Altium Designer => Topic started by: mrpackethead on May 25, 2014, 10:56:40 am
-
Hi,
I get random 'crashes' were Altium just stops.. Doesn't happen at the same place, or doing the same thing, but just randomly. Happens both on my native windows machine and my virtual machine on my macbook.
Got the latest build. Is this just normal and should i pout up with it. Its not like Altium is cheap?
-
Definitely not be happening with software like that. Contact Altium support, I'd say.
-
I get that randomly too. I'm sure it's gotten worse in more recent times even though I am not on subscription and therefore haven't updated for some time.
One thing I did suspect was the video card driver as it seemed to happen more when playing video content at the same time (on another monitor).
Mine rarely crashes completely. I usually get that progress bar and exception dialog. It happens on at least two of the machines I have it installed on.
Once it's done it once in a session, it tends to happen frequently after that so I tend to carefully save any files and restart Altium after the first error.
-
Hi,
I get random 'crashes' were Altium just stops.. Doesn't happen at the same place, or doing the same thing, but just randomly. Happens both on my native windows machine and my virtual machine on my macbook.
Got the latest build. Is this just normal and should i pout up with it. Its not like Altium is cheap?
I had similar problems with previous PC's and Altium versions.
Lots of Ram definitely helps.
-
I get random 'crashes' were Altium just stops
I have actually found Altium to be very stable - in fact I can't remember the last time it crashed on me.
Some important things to remember:
1/ Altium is very clear - the software is tested with Intel processors ONLY. Therefore you may run into problems when using AMD processors;
2/ Altium give no guarantees when running under virtual machine conditions (ie VMware);
3/ You should have a video card with 1GB (or more) of dedicated memory;
4/ You should have 3GB of usable RAM for Windows 32 bit installations;
5/ You should have 8GB of usable RAM for Windows 64 bit installations;
6/ Do not use Windows Vista as it is quite unstable within itself.
Follow these guidelines & you should find that Altium is one of the most stable programs available.
-
I get random 'crashes' were Altium just stops
I have actually found Altium to be very stable - in fact I can't remember the last time it crashed on me.
Some important things to remember:
1/ Altium is very clear - the software is tested with Intel processors ONLY. Therefore you may run into problems when using AMD processors;
2/ Altium give no guarantees when running under virtual machine conditions (ie VMware);
3/ You should have a video card with 1GB (or more) of dedicated memory;
4/ You should have 3GB of usable RAM for Windows 32 bit installations;
5/ You should have 8GB of usable RAM for Windows 64 bit installations;
6/ Do not use Windows Vista as it is quite unstable within itself.
Follow these guidelines & you should find that Altium is one of the most stable programs available.
+1 :-+
-
I Have also an annoying error with my Altium Designer 18. I can't reach Layer Stack Manager , when i click on Layer Stack Manager the program stops suddenly i cant click anywhere untill pressing esc on keyboard. It happened suddenly i was working perfectly. I tried also shortcut keys "d - k" but same problem apeared again. Please help me i will be crazzy :(
-
when i click on Layer Stack Manager the program stops suddenly i cant click anywhere untill pressing esc on keyboard.
I suspect the stack manager pop up screen is activating, but that it is minimised such that you can't see it. I suggest closing all other windows as I suspect one of these is "hiding" your stack manager pop up.
-
when i click on Layer Stack Manager the program stops suddenly i cant click anywhere untill pressing esc on keyboard.
I suspect the stack manager pop up screen is activating, but that it is minimised such that you can't see it. I suggest closing all other windows as I suspect one of these is "hiding" your stack manager pop up.
DerekG thank you for your suggestion, i tried to close everything , i closed all menus and windows in software but still i have the same problem , i tried to open the same project in version 15 and it runs perfectly, but in version 18 my Layer Stack Manager became a ghost :scared:
-
Everything freezing is a typical windows thing when you can't see a dialog box - so I'd try resetting workspace settings and then trying again. Maybe it's hidden somewhere.
-
If the dialog is hidden, after opening it try ALT+SPACE, M (Window menu, Move) and press arrow keys until it appears on screen. Or there's always this,
https://xkcd.com/1479/
Typical support advice is: save your settings to file, then go to Programs and Settings, uninstall Altium, select Reset (don't actually uninstall, or update or repair). This clears caches and settings. Start up again and see if it behaves.
Tim
-
Typical support advice is: save your settings to file, then go to Programs and Settings, uninstall Altium, select Reset (don't actually uninstall, or update or repair). This clears caches and settings. Start up again and see if it behaves.
One word of warning: YMMV, but as of sometime in AD17 I have had poor results attempting to save and recall settings (mainly when trying to make a consistent environment across different PCs, but also after reinstalls. Bear that in mind if you've got a lot of customization going on.
-
If the dialog is hidden, after opening it try ALT+SPACE, M (Window menu, Move) and press arrow keys until it appears on screen. Or there's always this,
https://xkcd.com/1479/
Typical support advice is: save your settings to file, then go to Programs and Settings, uninstall Altium, select Reset (don't actually uninstall, or update or repair). This clears caches and settings. Start up again and see if it behaves.
Tim
Finally the problem solved , thank you very much, i am very happy today :clap:
-
I get random 'crashes' were Altium just stops
I have actually found Altium to be very stable - in fact I can't remember the last time it crashed on me.
Some important things to remember:
1/ Altium is very clear - the software is tested with Intel processors ONLY. Therefore you may run into problems when using AMD processors;
2/ Altium give no guarantees when running under virtual machine conditions (ie VMware);
3/ You should have a video card with 1GB (or more) of dedicated memory;
4/ You should have 3GB of usable RAM for Windows 32 bit installations;
5/ You should have 8GB of usable RAM for Windows 64 bit installations;
6/ Do not use Windows Vista as it is quite unstable within itself.
Follow these guidelines & you should find that Altium is one of the most stable programs available.
Are we talking about AD18 specifically, or AD in general, including 16 and 17? Now, granted, I work on big boards (24x3", with maybe 3k components). But up until AD18, the program leaked memory so badly they literally have a built-in traffic light in the bottom right corner: green if clear sailing, yellow if memory is leaking badly and you should think about a restart soon, and red if you've already overstayed your welcome and you're designing on borrowed time before the whole thing crashes. Working on a project like that, I'd have only 10 restarts a day if I was lucky. On unlucky days, AD would crash upon opening the PCB file.
AD18 seems to have improved on that dramatically with the switch to 64bit, which I can only surmise involved a whole lot of memory management technical debt pay down. But then the routing engine appears to have become completely unusable, so I haven't had a lot of opportunity to exercise it.
-
If you see the orginal post was from 2014. It was quite a few versions..
I currnetly use version 17, on i7, with a k1200 video card, 64GB of Ram, and it is acceptably stable.