So you have been working on drawing all morning, and it’s due at the local zoning meeting at 1 PM. You are in the “design zone” – you know, when you start designing so furiously that you forget everything, including the save button. That’s typically when the inevitable fatal error wakes up and your day just got a lot worse. So you decide to log a support request to see if you can get some assistance with what happened. But you are so frustrated that all you can remember is the error that you received: Fatal Error, Unhandled Exception at <insert hexadecimal memory address here> So you send that in, and immediately receive an email asking for more information. At this point, you get frustrated - “I said I got a fatal error, what more is needed?” The tech is frustrated too, because he has very little information to go on when troubleshooting. So how can we work together to get you the most speedy resolution possible?
Just like the rest of the human race, we here in Product Support are focused on one thing – REPRODUCTION! No, not that kind – get your mind out of the gutters! We have to be able to reproduce the issue that you are experiencing in order to be able to troubleshoot it. Almost all of the time, being able to reproduce an issue requires a series of step-by-step instructions about what you were doing when you experienced the issue. “My drawing crashed” isn’t a good step by step way to reproduce a problem.
So what are some things that you can ask yourself and include in the SR submittal to save time?
- Can I reproduce this issue? We’ve covered that one pretty well already, I think.
- Does this issue happen on all drawings or just this drawing? This is a pretty important question, actually. If the same task produces the same unexpected results in totally different drawings (not just a backup of the same drawing) then we can tend to think that it may be program related and not drawing related.
- Does this issue happen on all of my machines or just this machine? This one is pretty significant as well. If you can take the same drawing and perform the same task on another machine without reproducing this issue, then it might be a problem with your program installation. Of course, we realize that there are some shops out there with only one machine, so testing on multiple machines isn’t always possible.
- Is my issue with this drawing or perhaps a referenced drawing? With today’s widespread use of referenced drawings, corruption could be coming from outside the drawing that you are working in. I have encountered an issue recently that was only reproducible with the referenced files attached. Try stripping out any references and see if the issue persists.
- Am I using the latest version of the product? This goes for any program, really. Program updates are released to address customer issues, and your particular issue may be one that is addressed in one of these updates. Make sure you have the most updated version of the program that you are running.
- Is my computer really up to par? As software capabilities grow, so do the requirements of the computers running software. If your computer is slow and you crash every time you perform a 3D orbit for example (a very intensive task), then you might want to make sure your video card is up to the task. If you can work with small datasets but tend to have problems with large datasets, then do you have enough system memory? A good rule of thumb is to realize that if you purchase a computer based on the minimum system requirements, then you are going to get the minimum level of performance from the program. 2 GB of RAM on a Pentium IV chip and integrated graphics isn’t going to do a great job if you try to model the surface of the entire state of Texas. Include your system specs in your SR so that the tech can rule that question out pretty quickly.
- Does my issue persist if I try this task in a different way? As my grandmother frequently said, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. That tends to hold true with working in Civil 3D as well – there’s often more than one way to approach a task. Trying to model a 24 mile road with feature lines and inserting intermediate grade break points and your program crashes? How about trying that task using a corridor? If there is an alternative way of performing your task, try that and see if it works for you.
- Would an Audit or Recover fix this issue? Hey, that’s the first thing I’m going to try. Sometimes errors creep into drawings and can be removed with an Audit or Recover. I see some users who open every drawing with the recover command, and I have to admit – I like the idea. It’s never a bad idea.
- Am I using the correct workflow? This one is tough sometimes, because different workflows work for different firms. I can tell you, however, that if you try to put a 10,000 acre master-planned community that spans a project life of 10+ years (I’ve seen them) into one drawing, you’ll likely be logging a support request. That one is almost as much of a given as death and taxes. Think about spreading that wealth around to multiple drawings – use xreferences and decide which one works better for your firm – Vault or data shortcuts?
- Could my problem be fixed in a newer version of the program? I realize that not every firm uses the latest and greatest version of the software. However, if you log a case with an issue in Civil 3D 2007, the first thing I’m going to do is try to reproduce the error in a later version. If I can’t reproduce it in a newer version and I know that you’re on the latest service pack of your current software, then there’s not very much that I can do. It’s not the best answer, but sometimes it’s the only answer that is available.
- I’ll send this drawing to Autodesk, they have some super-secret way of recovering this drawing that is not available to me. You know, that’s what I used to think as well. The reality is that it’s just not the case. I have many programs available to me, and many instances of the same program. For example, I might have a virtual machine (clean) running Civil 3D 2009 V.1, another running Civil 3D 2009 V.2, and yet a third running Civil 3D 2009 V.3. But that’s really it – you have pretty much the same tools available to you. Every technician on our team comes from an industry background, as Justin said – we’re all users just like you.
- Is there something that I can do to help expedite this process? Sure! Be descriptive. Use Justin’s suggestion (Jing absolutely rocks.) Information overload is much more preferable to “guesstimation.” Send data. Send instructions. Send a movie. Whatever you can do to help us understand the issue better helps us to resolve it quicker.
I hope this helps to pull back the curtain a little bit and see what goes on when you log a service request. Have a great weekend!
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