Creo 3.0 M140 Crashing on Drawings

[Kevin76]

I currently have a problem working in some drawings, that a colleague with an identical machine does not have.  I open a drawing and can move text, move views, etc with no problems.  If I attempt to edit annotation or open the properties window of an annotation, I will crash with the fatal error message.  Like I said, I have asked a colleague to try, who has an identical computer as mine, and they can do whatever they want with the drawing and do not crash.  I am thinking this is a JAVA issue, but we even have alike JAVA Versions.  I have even tried a new workspace and gotten the same results.

Can anyone offer me some advice to troubleshoot this before I open a ticket with PTC?  I have read through some other likewise threads, and tried the graphics opengl and win32_gdi, with no change in issue resolution.

Kind Regards,

Kevin

[StephenW · Accepted solution]

My go to answer on this is (do each one separately):

1. re-download the files (in windchill, make a new workspace), make sure you don't have any of the files in on your startup directory

2. remove the config.pro completely and start creo and try again.

3. try opening the assemblies/parts first, before the drawing

[Kevin76]

Stephen,

Thanks for the suggestion.  As a general practice, I never store anything unnecessary in my startup directory and I always open the assemblies/parts before the drawing....old school practices I suppose. 

As for the fix, once I moved my config.pro to a location that the software wouldn't find it during startup (took 3 tries and putting it on a folder on another server), that seemed to be the fix.  This concerns me though, as being the System Admin, everyone else is using a copy of my config.pro (with their modifications of course, it's just a starting place for everyone), yet my colleague didn't have the issue that I did.  Well, when it starts happening for him, at least I will know where to start.

Regards,

Kevin

[StephenW]

So occasionally something can "sneak" in to the config that you didn't really mean to put in.

My normal troubleshooting for the config is to remove 1/2 of the config and then try again. If the problem is in that 1/2, you will see the failure. If not, try the other 1/2. I keep cutting it in 1/2 until I get down to just a few and then look for the most likely culprits. Usually goes fairly quickly if the problem is really in the config.

Another way is a line by line compare with another users "good" config. Sometimes it works quicker. there are some good line by line comparison programs for text files but I can't remember any names right off hand.

Good luck

[BenLoosli]

Wiki page on file comparison tools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_comparison_tools

I have used WinDiff as it is part of the system tools from Microsoft.

[VladimirN]

"WinDiff" utility can be found in WinXP support tools pack:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=18546

[Kevin76]

As respect for those who helped and those who want to know what my culprit was, I just wanted to add another reply exposing the culprit.

For some reason, my config "drawing_setup_file" got switched to a start part.  The other users all have it pointing to $PRO_DIRECTORY\text\prodetail.dtl.  For those who want even more information, $PRO_DIRECTORY appears to be the install location, "C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 3.0\M140\Common Files", not the launch location.  Once I figured all this out and pointed my config to the default location, all seems to be working wonderfully again.

Thanks for all that helped finding the problem child and those who offered advice on the file comparator.

[Kevin76]

I was just talking with my colleague about doing a line by line comparison tomorrow.  Before this started happening a couple days ago, I hadn't changed my config in probably a year or so.  I'm really hoping to find something that snuck in, like you said, otherwise I will used your other suggestion of cutting it in half until the culprit is exposed.

[BenLoosli]

What recent changes have you made to your config.pro?

Grab a copy from someone who is not having issues and compare the 2 files.

Do you use a 'standard' config.pro in the <loadpoint>\text folder?

This may eliminate some of the personal changes that re stored in the start-in folder of config.pro.

[Kevin76]

Haven't changed my config in a year or so, which is why I would've never anticipated that being the root cause.  We do use the standard config, but we also load personalized configs.  I will be doing a comparison with another user in the morning.  The only issue with that, is my config is the foundation for everyone else's configs, I typically don't have issues like this one....or I can usually figure out the solution.