Method to Produce A Fast Crash

[T3sl4co1l]

Having a bad day, just want to end it? Give this a try!

File / New / PCB

Place a few tracks.  Select some and set Solder Mask Expansion Mode: From Rule.

Go to Design Rules, add new Solder Mask Expansion rule.  Custom query: "IsTrack AND SolderMaskExpansion". Set expansion to a negative value.

Hit OK.

You have now set the bomb.  To detonate it, select an affected trace.  It will attempt to refresh the trace's properties, and fail for some reason.  Enjoy your hard crash.

(Seems to work in AD16.0, anyway.)

Workaround: use query "IsTrack AND (SolderMaskExpansionMode  = 'From Rule')" instead.

Tim

[voltsandjolts]

Whoaa there - if your not careful you'll start a competition to find the fastest way of crashing AD after a fresh startup 

[T3sl4co1l]

Hmm, what's that do?  Just select a whole bunch of shit?

I'd also discovered a bug that didn't cause a crash, but did lock up the router for arbitrary periods of time.  Something about routing close to a curved board outline.  In a trivial design it might hang for a minute (at 100% (single core) CPU usage), in a medium design I'd left it for 10 minutes before giving up.

Tim

[tszaboo]

You can always replace the 0603 resistor with a TQFP144, press "Update PCB with current footprint" and receive this:

[T3sl4co1l]

It's sad that few kids these days will get to experience the joy that is Internet Explorer crash screens.

Tim

[tszaboo]

It's sad that few kids these days will get to experience the joy that is Internet Explorer crash screens.

Tim

The real thing is when you could draw on the screen with he error message, like in W 95. Sure, it crashed, and you lost that one page you had open, but the endless joy it gave...

[Fgrir]

File / New / PCB

Place a few tracks.  Select some and set Solder Mask Expansion Mode: From Rule.

Go to Design Rules, add new Solder Mask Expansion rule.  Custom query: "IsTrack AND SolderMaskExpansion". Set expansion to a negative value.

Hit OK.

You have now set the bomb.  To detonate it, select an affected trace.  It will attempt to refresh the trace's properties, and fail for some reason.  Enjoy your hard crash.

(Seems to work in AD16.0, anyway.)

I get no crash on 17.1.9, just an error message.  This is so disappointing as I have read that Altium never fixes anything in their bug-ridden software 

It does seem strange that there was an error message and yet it appears to have taken the rule and applied it to the traces 

[aandrew]

You can always replace the 0603 resistor with a TQFP144, press "Update PCB with current footprint" and receive this:

I can't quite put my finger on it, but that image immediately conjured up that scene from I, Robot where you had hundreds of those androids surrounding Will Smith and apologizing.