How Do You Know When Surveyor About To Bomb Out?

[sterrett]

Working hard on my fictitious layout this morning, after about 3 hours I suddenly get the "Fatal Error" box on the screen and the "Continue" or "Terminate" options. It wasn't a problem today, as I have now got in the habit of saving my work regularly and keeping two or three backups as well!

I had hoped, once I'd got my Athlon 2800 with 2Gb RAM, this might become a thing of the past but obviously Terrain sculpting still uses a terrific amount
of system resources.

Is there any way of refreshing the memory on a regular basis or are there any tell tale signs in advance that you can look out for before Surveyor crashes?

 

[Ferngren]

Trainz version ??

 

[sterrett]

Sorry TRS2006 SP1 - same as you!

 

[Zwabberaar]

In CMP you can set the auto-save option. I have set it to 30 minutes and it works like a charm.

 

[Lacker]

Don't think it matters,how sooper-dooper,your PC is.Trainz will still find a way of tripping over itself,throwing a wobbly,and keeling over.
Zwabberaar is right,use Autosave.That way you only lose whatever you have done since it last saved.

Regards Bruce

 

[Tokkyu40]

You know it's about to crash when you see your desktop.
Usually, when it happens to me it's because something I downloaded doesn't work the way I'm trying to use it and causes a fatal error. I delete those items and move on.
If you place an item twice and it crashes both times it's the item rather than your system. Even an item that works perfectly for other people can conflict with your computer.

Claude

 

[Ferngren]

I never had any warnings when Surveyor is about to crash but I can tell you a few things that certainly can make it short out.

-frequent use of "undo" when laying track.

-placing faulty assets in the layout, especially with faulty scripts. Even those that checks out ok in CMP may cause trouble.

-CPU running to hot.

-loose or faulty RAM module.

-GPU running to hot.

Then the usual; disc+registry cleaning, disc defrag, shut down apps not needed etc.
Nothing really puts so much strain on your machine as Surveyor, not even Driver. As already said, activate the "auto-save" it's well worth. There are some memory optimizers out there, memmax springs to mind, shareware but free trial. Help is on the way, the new 45nm CPU will run cooler and if you ever get into Vista you can boost the memory with a fast enough USB-stick, but RAM is cheap these days and next generation DDR3 will probably cost even less. What I really am hoping for is that solid-state discs will evovle to have enough erasurecycles and size to replace todays HD, then things will be even faster.

 

[sterrett]

Thanks for your help. As I suspected, there is no advance warning! As Tokkyu40 said
" You know it's about to crash when you see your desktop."

By then it's too late!

With the MSTS Route or Activity Editors, the screen starts to flicker occasionally a few minutes before crashing. If you're quick, you get a chance to save your work and exit before the dreadful thing happens!

I'll take your comments on board Ferngren - I knew that Surveyor was demanding on resources, but I suppose, like most users with pc applications, you don't really think much about what's going on under the hood!

The last few times it has crashed, I have been doing a lot of "Undo" commands with track and spline laying, so I'll need to keep a weather eye on it in future. I do try to limit how much time I spend in Surveyor, but once you get in the swing of it, it's so hard to stop!

 

[lewisner]

"Sterret" as "Zwabberrar" said, the MOST important thing to do is use Autosave.Open CMP and (top left) click File>Settings>Miscellaneous and set Autosave to every 10 minutes.Then, even if you have a Fatal Error, the most work you can lose is 10 minutes.I save my Route and Session as a CDP every day to an External Hard Drive, and keep 3 days worth.The Undo button can be deadly: twice my route has been totally wiped out, and it seems like that was the cause.Finally, on my old PC I was transferring movies from VHS tape to DVD.I kept some of the better ones in Windows Media Player library and I found that if I had several hours of Video in Library it had a very bad effect on Trainz performance! If I deleted them from Library and put hem back in My Movies , performance improved markedly.It seems as if when they are in Library they kind of eat into your RAM? Hope this helps....

 

[widowmaker]

Another cause of a crash is deleting any additional baseboards. Usually, this happens to me after about the 8th or 9th.:hehe:

 

[lewisner]

I think the baseboard problem may be related to the specs of your PC.On my old PC I could only manage 2 or 3 deletions then I had to save.However on my new higher spec PC I recently had to delete a large number of boards and found I could delete any number without any trouble.

 

[PerRock]

the only warnings i've ever gotten is when I've discovered that using a certian object will cause it to crash.... and then the warning is "Oh [censored] I'm not supposed to use that.!"

peter

 

[sterrett]

.... and then the warning is "Oh [censored] I'm not supposed to use that.!"

Sounds Familiar!

 

[Euphod]

Have you cleaned up all your assets? Contrary to what you were told earlier, Uncle Rob of Auran claimed that items repaired under 2006 should be error free, and even suitable for use in Classics. I took the time to do so, and have not had a crash at all since, even when deleting baseboards, using objects as they were not intended to be used, or undoing frequently.
Ed

 

[LieLestoSbrat]

I can't echo those comments enough. Repair any faulty assets then the chances of crashing is considerable reduced. I actually went through repairing all the assets that where faulty in my trs2004 install and the stability of the game dramatically increased.

Rob

 

[Euphod]

I actually went through repairing all the assets that where faulty in my trs2004 install and the stability of the game dramatically increased.

Rob

You know Rob, I'm glad you mentioned that, because I always suspected it would be so. 2004 was terrible for me, and crashed frequently for no apparent reason. Everyone else claims 2004 is solid, and I find 2006 to be more so. I should move my corrected content back to 2004 and see if it's still wobbly....
Ed

 

[switchdoc]

Q:
Is there any way of refreshing the memory on a regular basis or are there any tell tale signs in advance that you can look out for before Surveyor crashes?

A:
Yes there is. It's your watch. At least for me. Whenever I worked for more than two hours in Surveyor heavily editing my route, I am sure to have a crash.

(No, kidding, but that's how you feel if it gets to you. This autosave is a godsend)

Norbert

 

[sterrett]

Thank you for the help and advice! Please keep the tips coming if you have more to offer!

I didn't know about the "Autosave" option - bet half the Surveyor Users out thee don't either!

I'm going to do a bit of housekeeping - see if I can fix all the faulty assets CMP finds or delete 'em! Then "Delete Missing Assets" from the layout. (Mind you, this can cause fun and games and abrupt stops if the deleted assets are track related like bridges or tunnels!)

......I'm going to start timing myself. Like you, Norbert, 2 hours seems about the longest! (Mind you, the Health and Safety guys say you shouldn't be in front of a screen for more than two hours anyway!)

 

[backyard]

...................every ten minutes.............

8) ...the auto-save option, can be found in the TRS2006 start box under Options.

It can also be found in CMP under Settings.

Mine, shall always be set for 10 minutes, and you can tell when it's in effect, everything stops, for about ten seconds...it makes me smile, however, for if a crash does occur, I'm covered!