[mtripoli]

When applying textures to an object. If I have multiple bodies in a part, when I select a group of them (shift-select) SW crashes.

[JDHill]

Hi Mike,

Is this repeatable? If so, is it a hard crash, or is there an error dialog from the plugin? If not, is there a file on your desktop named mw4sw_log.txt after the crash? If so, it may not be a log of the crashed session - please try deleting the log file, crashing the app again, and checking for a new log file - if one is produced, please email it to me.

That said, object-selection has been completely re-written for the new plugin, and I can't produce anything like this with the current code. But I'd still like to try to find the cause of your crash if I can.

Thanks,

JD

[purCAB]

For reference, I tested this scenario under SW2007-SP5 and SW2008-SP3 and was not able to duplicate the crash. By "applying textures to an object", I assume that what was meant was the application of a Maxwell Material to multiple solid-bodies at the same time. The part that I tested with had 4 bodies, so it may be that with a large number of bodies this could still be a problem, but the number of bodies was not specified.

Ken

[JDHill]

Thanks for the report, Ken.

I will say, it's not that I haven't experienced any crashes while selecting objects, but more that I have never been able to trace any of them to any specific thing the plugin is doing. That is to say, it was apparently the result of something the plugin asked SW to do, and not of any actual plugin code - when it has happened, a selection was attempted, this caused some code to run, and shortly after, SW just choked with no error raised in the plugin. No matter though, it's my opinion that during object-selection in the original release, the plugin is just trying to do way too much work, with the pseudo-selection-filters that it provides...the next version feels much 'lighter', as it just lets any regular SW selection filters you may currently have enabled do the work. That means there will no longer be any 'component' or 'feature' selection filters - but I've created a couple of new ways of getting from one object selection to another, and really I much prefer them to the way that I had it working in the original release.

If you're curious, what has replaced the plugin's selection filters are these two things:

- a button in the Object Properties toolbar whose function is: Select this Entity's Parent. Clicking this will select whatever is next up in the hierarchy
- a hyperlink in the 'material source: x' message where 'x' is the entity providing the material for the currently-selected entity. Clicking the link will select the material-source entity

Here's how this looks:



So, when you select an entity (or entities), depending on whether the selected entities have a common parent, or a common material-source, you can get to either with one click. If you select a face, you can walk up from there to the parent feature, then body, then component, and then any parent component using the 'select parent' function repeatedly. This is really alot better than constantly switching between plugin-enforced selection filters to select different levels of the hierarchy in an attempt to determine what is assigned where.

Material assignment has also been reworked a bit. Now it defaults to applying at the body level during a drag-drop if there is no current selection, otherwise the material is assigned to the selected entities. When assigning to faces, the parent bodies will automatically have the multi-material flag enabled instead of refusing the assignment.

JD

[mtripoli]

Thanks for the follow-up JD...
Sorry for the size of the images, I wanted them to be clear...

Here's the object and the steps. Unfortunatly, it's repeatable:
The object: 27mm speaker
http://crankybears.com/hidden/speaker/
Steps:
1.) Open part

2.) The back of the part and the four offending fillets (*5-8*): solder pads
If these are selected (select Fillet5 and Shift-select down to *8*) without the Maxwell windows open it does not crash


3.) Open Object Properties and Database Manager (Select bodies): Select Fillet5

4.) Shift select down to Fillet8: crash


JD: You mentioned a log file being created. I had one on my desktop but it was old... where should I find the new one?

Also - SW2007 - SP3

Thanks for your help...

[mtripoli]

Any word on this... has anyone else checked the part...?

[JDHill]

Sorry Mike, I didn't see that you had posted this at all, I'll take a look. Btw...I definitely consider it fortunate when things are repeatable.

JD

[JDHill]

Firstly, the error box you got there, it's not from the plugin - there will be no error log for you to find from this occurrence. Next, with this file I can do a few things:

1. with the plugin running (newer code than your plugin), shift-select as you specify with no problem
2. cause SW to hang predictably using various shift-selections
3. without the plugin installed, cause SW to hang predictably using various shift-selections

Now, I'm on SW2008/Vista, so I don't know if this exact procedure will repeat on SW2007, but for instance, with the plugin completely uninstalled, I can:

1. start SW, open this part
2. hold down shift
3. select the Solid Bodies(6) node
4. select the Cut-Extrude-Thin2 node
5. click the Cut-Extrude-Thin2 node again
6. SW hangs indefinitely with 50% CPU-usage, need to kill the process

Because of things like this, it's quite difficult to tell what causes specific errors. As in the other thread, I have to reinstall the old plugin, and get the old code up in the debugger before I can see if this is something that the plugin is actively causing or not. By this I mean that, while you have shown that it only occurs when you've opened the Object Properties window, that doesn't mean the plugin is doing anything technically wrong - it may just be doing things that can cause these problems - or it very well may be doing something wrong.

[JDHill]

Following up - using the old plugin, I can reproduce your exact sequence, though it is necessary to have the plugin's 'Select Bodies' filter enabled (as it is in your example) to do so. It appears that with this filter enabled, a recursive loop is created in the selection-handling code when multiple bodies are selected in the tree. Based on this I have two recommendations:

1. disable the 'Select Bodies' filter when you need to make this selection
2. switch to the updated plugin as soon as it's released, as this issue will no longer exist

I would like to thank you for your precise report on this issue.

JD

[mtripoli]

Thanks JD! I'm looking forward to the new plugin... on that subject, I have no intention to upgrade to SW2008. Will future plugins be backwards compatible?

[JDHill]

The next version will be SW2007-compatible. after that, I have to move on and try to address some basic limitations imposed by restricting to that version.

[mtripoli]

I understand...