Rob, My files are anywhere from 10 megs upto I think my largest was about 128 megs. not entirley sure about that.  But check this out. I import Jpgs daily, into draw and right before I wrote this I got this error.  I hope you can see it. Weird. Try using the import command to import a Jpeg and Corel tells me It doesnt want to . It says to try to open it Like a vector drawing..... Think iIm gonna crash so I'ld better save LOL.

Regards,

 Andy

Andy!  I'm reeling... 128 megs!  That image I sent you was 200k in vector.  I guess I'm living a sheltered life.  I've had files that big in photo shop in the past, but I thought I could smell smoke coming from my tower when I was doing it .

This may be why your crashing.  There are some pretty high end tech wizards on this forum.  I'm wondering if one of them could suggest a memory management solution for this.  I know there are ways to reconfigure how Corel uses memory.  Maybe this is something that would help.

Might be worth starting a new thread entitled "128 megs crashes draw" or something like that and see if one of those wizards has a solution.

Rob

I grew up on Corel 1.0 and Windows 386 on 4 Mb of RAM. You were lucky if you could run that for 60 seconds without a crash. 10-15 crashes an hour was a good score.

Despite specific issue with X4, all of which were reported in detail, I've had virually zero crashes. Or so few I can't remember them specifially.

What I do is SaveAs. Usually by the end of a project I'll have tipically 30 old versions of the file.

You're using a computer, you have to work so a crash is meaningless to productivity no matter what application you are using. If you want to reduce crashes there are ways to acheive this.

• Delete temp files daily
• Run disk scans
• Do memory checks
• Keep the OS uptodate
• SaveAs whole versions of work
  
• Report all errors that can be reproduced here and they will be confirmed and added to the list
• Avoid any known issues that cause a crash
• Regularly test output the file to PDF for proofreading
• Avoid bitmaps that are too big for an intended use
• Don't leave a lot of crap hanging about in a file. Delete was is not used.
• Render out complex objects as bitmaps

Anyway SaveAS seems to be the big one. Do that enough and there is little that can ever be lost.

 Rob,

128mb isn`t the end of the world. Did a box layout  and the file (bitmaps, transparencies, vector and text) was over 325MB with files saved as .cdr and .ai. in both RGB and CYMK versions and converted to .jpg clip mask segments from the .cdr file to the client for viewing. My biggest "nuisance" (but a God sent necessity) was the Auto Backup every 20 minutes. More than once did I think the program had locked up untill I saw the Progress Bar moving. Had one "crash" in X3 but none so far in X4 while using thst file.

My worst problem (in X3....hasn't happened in X4) was, when having multiple 14mb (12-16 images) camera images on the screen at the same time, resaving the multi image document because about 10% of the time I had one of the bitmaps mysteriously changed to a .eps file format. I got the "Error when saving" window and would have to click on all the bitmaps to find the bum one and convert it back to a bitmap. Never found out why that happened.

I've had problems, like everyone else, and the program has shut down ( only once with X4 so far...when my answering machine came on during an auto backup of that 325mb file) But I've never experienced ( 4 computers, Win 95 to XP, corel V4,6,9,10 -short lived-,11,X3,X4) but never anything like the problems that Andy has described. 

BTW: Andy.......Are you running Corel from separate installs on each the office computers or from a common (network server) source ? Installs from disc or download ?

Ted

 Rob,

128mb isn`t the end of the world. Did a box layout  and the file (bitmaps, transparencies, vector and text) was over 325MB with files saved as .cdr and .ai. in both RGB and CYMK versions and converted to .jpg clip mask segments from the .cdr file to the client for viewing. My biggest "nuisance" (but a God sent necessity) was the Auto Backup every 20 minutes. More than once did I think the program had locked up untill I saw the Progress Bar moving. Had one "crash" in X3 but none so far in X4 while using thst file.

My worst problem (in X3....hasn't happened in X4) was, when having multiple 14mb (12-16 images) camera images on the screen at the same time, resaving the multi image document because about 10% of the time I had one of the bitmaps mysteriously changed to a .eps file format. I got the "Error when saving" window and would have to click on all the bitmaps to find the bum one and convert it back to a bitmap. Never found out why that happened.

I've had problems, like everyone else, and the program has shut down ( only once with X4 so far...when my answering machine came on during an auto backup of that 325mb file) But I've never experienced ( 4 computers, Win 95 to XP, corel V4,6,9,10 -short lived-,11,X3,X4) but never anything like the problems that Andy has described. 

BTW: Andy.......Are you running Corel from separate installs on each the office computers or from a common (network server) source ? Installs from disc or download ?

 

Ted

---

Edward Thurston
web:
http://groups.msn.com/HSMPHOTOSportsPhotography

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http://coreldraw.com/forums/p/6214/22514.aspx#22514

Thank you all For suggestions. I will take a look at up dating drivers for video card but our IT dept stays up on that pretty good as well as keeping windows current.

Yani, I do all of the things you suggested in the bullet points. Only I dont always clean up the file space (drawing desktop) as I frequently have to come back and revise using elements that are tough to duplicate. Converting things to bmp IMOP is the best thing to do espesially lenses and bitmaps with lenses applied. Most of the crashes I experience do not seem to be file size related. There is no prejudice when crashing. I have on many many occasions had files that just would not save, at all, no matter what. I would go through the drawing endlessly deleting objects and groups of objects looking for the offending item until finally through fits of futility I would ctrl A and delete everything. Even then the file would not save. Hmmmmm. Well I have started multiple save as attempts and that IS the only way.

Perhaps a good thing for the next version would be, as Autodesk does with Max, is to include a lil plus button next to the save as dialog. Pressing adds an increment number onto the file name so you dont have to futz around with renaming the files. Very convenient and everyone loves pressing buttons.

Well here I go on another day of fun. I will ask IT to look at all my drivers and make sure Im up to date.

Thanx all

 Andy

Windows XP 32-bit will support up to 3.5 gigabytes of RAM.  Anything less than that in a graphics system is just not reasonable.  Especially considering the price of memory these days.

Vista, IIRC, supports at least 8 gigs, in either 32- or 64-bit flavors.

Well guys,

Obviously, I'm a light weight user !  I guess I've been looking at Draw from my own narrow point of view.  I had no idea many of you run that size of file.

That's what's great about this forum... you learn so much!  I'll just sit back on this and read the messages.  Looking forward to learning more.

Rob 

This has been an interesting post to catch up on! You don't work under some high tension electrical wires do you?!

Obviously not a perfect world... I've had my taste of frustration too, but have to echo that I've not experienced anything close to this. I just finished reading a ZDNet tech article about drivers and Vista. It's true, plenty of headaches (especially in the early days) are caused by the combination of hardware choices; however, many manufacturers have finally written mature drivers. I'm always suspicious and one of the first places I look are drivers if I'm having issues. Second is the video card, it seems to really affect performance and stability. With the size of your files I would also look at whether the ram size and if your virtual memory settings are appropriate. Next, does your company run digital management software (e.g. Canto Cumulus), this could have a bearing.

I spent the past 6 months researching font management software. I can't tell you how many times I found bad comments about the competition and glowing comments about Font Naviagtor (from other than a Corel site). I do believe that Font Navigator lacks many features (creating a pdf font catalog would be a great addition) and needs a huge infusion of "pick-me-up." But I can't remember ever having it cause a crash (although I have an annoying message that pops up everytime I close the program, that the font group doesn't contain any fonts, started after I deleted a group). Anyway, I digress. Are the fonts shared across a network? This might be causing some issues. If so, perhaps you can load the fonts as a library on your drive and then only install/remove what you need for each project.

Finally, I have to credit Foster in his great newsletter for this source. Go to http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/index.htm and take a look at Genetica for creating textures. I think this is something you would really use, especially since you are working in an RGB world.

 I have no idea of what to tell you except that I just closed a map file that had two images in it for a total of over 700 megabytes and several vector and text objects.  Not a typical file but surely not the largest I've worked on.

As a support technician myself I would recommend an environmental/work habit study.

I agree with David here. I think you are experiencing virtual memory and available disk space issues. That would be my guess. I've had vector illustrations with over 3000 objects/layers open for weeks without any problems. I've had a gigs big raster files open in DRAW... Worked fine.

Why are you importing jpeg files anyway? Is it a place holder for a bigger, cleaner file?

It is your machine and file saving structure that is causing your problems... I guarantee it. CorelDRAW is and always has been super stable for me. Sorry.

I think what you are experiencing is I don't know what.

All I can say is when trouble shooting start at the base and work your way up.

1. Hardware

Memory and disk checks

2. OS

Are updates loading?

Are the issues with DLLs not being registered?

Registry full of BS?

3. Application

Did it load correctly in the first instance?

Rebuild the workspace? (F8)

If you can reproduce crashes on multiple machines doing the same thing then look at what makes those machines the same and change that thing in one machine and see what happens.

If you have 5 machines you can afford to take one off line and muck with it. Start by changing the video card to a Matrox card. That is pretty much the gold standard for reliable.

At least some issues should be resolved in the X4 service pack. But there has never been a big lot of screeming during the beta process and beyond about application crashes. There were just little things and issues with new features.

I can make Draw crash if I do stupid things. Like load bitmaps that are way too big. But I'm running it on a P3 933 with only 640mb of ram and a very ordinary graphics card with better stability than any previous version.

Andy, I think we all understand your frustration, I have glitches but I too have almost no crashes and my graphic/video card is on the motherboard not a separate entity. I have only 1.5 gb RAM and I just completed a project that was 173 mb (finished size) full of hi-res photos and text in columns. The finished size was 24" x 18". I was afraid I would crash and lose it so I worked on it as separate files, i.e. text one file and some photos in one and other photos in another, then when the project was totally completed I imported each section as a separate layer and saved after each import as a separate file. It worked out fine. It truly seems like a system problem and not a CorelDraw problem since your office seems to be experiencing problems that we are not.

You may have other software that is competing for memory, try finding out what programs are running in the background on start-up. Also, although I have had many people tell me it doesn't matter, before I install any software I close all 'start-up' software using run / msconfig. Additionally, somewhere I read that before installing CorelDraw X3 remove all of the MS Office temporary files (if you look at Disk Cleanup under / Accessories / System Tools then remove 'Office Setup Files' before re-installing, plus run / '%temp%' (without the ') then delete all files. Have you checked CorelDraw Options / memory / to see what the 'Memory Usage' is?

You have probably already tried all of the above so don't get angry, I am only suggesting these because sometimes the simple things can be overlooked.