[kami]

Hi Jeremy

I got a problem with one of my computers. Rhino crashes every time you copy an object into the clipboard, even if it is just a point or a box... When I deactivate or uninstall the maxwell plugin it works fine. But when I reinstall it, it is crashing again, so I think the plugin might be causing it.

The LogViewer shows these two lines, after that rhino becomes unresponsive.

Code: Select all

* line 22: WritePartialDocument, Writing (partial) document.
* line 23: WritePartialDocument, Done writing (partial) document.

Any idea what is causing it? What can I do against it?

Thanks,
Christoph

PS: I just found out, that it also crashes when you try to open the database manager.

[kami]

It started to happen on a different computer too, which makes me think that the latest rhino release (2013-10-22) may be causing this.
Both of the computers have it installed ... But on the other hand - not every computer which has the latest update crashes.

[JDHill]

Hmm, that is strange. I am on the 9 Oct. build, and have been clicking the "not yet" (or whatever it says) button when Rhino's asked to install the most recent SR candidate (it was not yet convenient to do so), but now, it's no longer popping up the dialog, and the Properties > Updates page says my build is the most recent. So it seems they must have pulled the candidate, which makes it impossible for me to check your problem (I see no such behavior on the 9 Oct. build).

Fwiw, those are called "candidates" for a reason, and I might suggest reducing your update settings to "Service Release" rather than "Service Release Candidate" (assuming that's what you have it set to), on any machines that you use for production work. If some particular bug ends up being fixed in a certain candidate, and you don't want to wait for it to be tested and released as the next official SR, you can always manually download & install that candidate, after confirming that it doesn't cause you any new issues.

[kami]

Your suggestion makes sense, but I'm pretty sure I left the default settings there.

I did a fresh reinstall of rhino and the maxwell plugin.
For doing that, I downloaded the latest Rhino Build from http://www.rhino3d.com/download/rhino/5.0/latest
There it shows the Release 2013-10-22

If you are not able to reproduce it (because it does not occur on all our machines with the latest build) do you have any other idea for a fix other than installing an older rhino version?

[JDHill]

I don't know what the default settings are, so you should check Properties > Updates & Statistics to be sure. It seems like they must have some confusion over there, since you're right, the 22 Oct. build appears to be available from that URL. Clicking the "Check now" link in the Updates & Statistics page, though, it reports my version is "the newest available." I'm going to go with that, and not install this 22 Oct. build.

Looking through some posts on the Rhino forum, I do find this, posted 20h ago. They are referring there to XP, and 32-bit, but at least it seems to explain why Rhino's not asking me to update. It also mentions Rhino_DotNet, which is what this plugin uses, so perhaps the repair mentioned there can help in your case.

That is about the only idea I have at the moment, besides reinstalling the 9 Oct. build -- you may be able to find a copy of that still sitting in a subdirectory of your C:\ProgramData\McNeel\McNeelUpdate\DownloadCache folder.

[kami]

Jeremy, sorry to bother you again.
This thing is really weird and I have to fix it somehow ...
So I uninstalled Rhino5 and the Maxwell Plugin, run the CCcleaner, rebooted and then reinstalled Rhino 5.0 from scratch (the first released version).
I then installed the maxwell plugin again, and now it is still crashing ...
What else could I do to get it working again?
It crashes only when the Maxwell Plugin is loaded, and it crashes if you copy something to the clipboard or if you open the database manager.

PS: I did the steps that were explained in the link you sent and nothing changes (except that I have to reenter my Rhino License the first time I start it)

[kami]

It also crashes when you save or export a file btw ...

And I have the latest version of rhino installed on some other computers and they work fine. So somehow I'm not sure if this is the cause.

[kami]

Sorry for the spamming ... as I am still searching and finding out new things.
I was wrong about the crashing. It does not crash, it just freezes for a few minutes and then continues. The next time you copy something to the clipboard it is fast again.

This made me think that the network path in the Plugin options would cause this, but even if I delete the path and disabled the "Perform Path Checking" there is still this freeze of a few minutes

[JDHill]

Sorry, but I don't yet see what I could do to help -- there has not been a new update to the plugin, so the code you are running has not changed. The question would be: what has? Updates to the OS, Rhino, other plugins, etc? You should find it to be related to something like this, if it does not come down to actual corruption of the plugin's physical files, which should be impossible, as you have already uninstalled/reinstalled the plugin. You indicate that it only affects certain machines -- what do those ones have in common, that the unaffected machines do not?

Ah, I see you have posted again. So it is again with the periodic freezing. As before, what you describe only (as far as I've thought of so far) fits the description of waking up a sleeping network drive: it is asleep one time, and then awake the next; some minutes later, it must be awoken again. You mention it seems related to the db manager; do I perhaps recall correctly your having customized the location of this (by putting a "db_redirect.txt" file in AppData\Roaming\MaxwellDotNET\SDK\Config) at some point in the past? That would have the potential of slowing things down, especially in the case that it pointed to some invalid location.

[kami]

I don't really understand the processes the plugin does. But when I copy something to the clipboard it does not make much sense that he will try to connect to a network drive. Or if I save something to the local disk neither. ... I can try again tomorrow and disconnect all network drives, even disconnect the network cable and remove all network path I can find in the settings, but I don't think this will help ...
I don't have customized anything in the file system. How does a customized db_redirect work? Are there any other options I could try/change?
Or is there any way to reset all the plugin settings to the default values?

[JDHill]

db_redirect.txt is a file that can be used to customize where the plugin looks for the files that hold what you store/see in the database manager. There is data in memory, and things need to be resolved when you save; if your db manager data is on a network drive, that is how it could happen that the drive would be accessed when you save. And when you copy something to the clipboard, Rhino saves a temporary 3DM, and asks the plugin to write its data. Not that you need to know these things, but I just want to let you know why it does indeed make sense.

There are other ways too (a texture or other path refers to the location), and unplugging your network will not help -- it should only make it worse, since the slow part is asking Windows whether a location exists, and waiting for it to decide that it doesn't, and is not just taking a long time to wake up. Just open an Explorer window, type \\bogus into the address bar and hit Enter, and see how long you wait before Windows finally gives up. How does that timeout compare to the one you're referring to here?

If you would like to reset all the plugin settings, you can do that by renaming (you could delete it, but maybe you don't want to do that) the AppData\Roaming\MaxwellDotNET folder.

[kami]

Ok, so Windows takes around 10 seconds before he spits out an error message for a non existing network path. The freeze took around 2-3 minutes.
But the good news is: I reinstalled the Plugin and renamed the folder you told me and now it is working fine again. Thank you very much, working is fun again

[JDHill]

Could you please send me the UserPrefs files from MaxwellDotNET\Plugins\Rhino\Defaults, so that I can find out the reason for this?

[kami]

Okay, I'll do that tomorrow!