crashes

[aczeller]

hello all... new to the forum, no stranger to AutoDesk products... however, i am a beginner at MEP. taught myself everything up to this point by using the tutorials and web-casts that i have seen so far.

quick question for all of you though... why does this thing keep crashing? back in october, i took this new job with a mechanical contractor. we draw every system in 3D and then use the 3D drawings to create fabrication prints for the guys in the shop... basically try to minimize in-field welding. anyway, we used to run AutoCAD (latest version due to the subscription we had) with an add-on called QuickPen Pipe Designer 3D... long story short, a waste of time and money. it caused us a lot of problems, especially with training time involved, the computers kept crashing, and if for some silly reason we weren't perfect the first time, it took us forever to change the system(s) and fix our mistakes. so, i did some research and within 5 minutes, talked my bosses into letting us get MEP. after talking with an engineer on one of our jobs, he said their office was using Revit... told us about the crashing issues, but they had worked on it and got everything figured out. longer story made short, we went from a significant laptop (dual-core 2.8 GHz processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a NVidia Quadro FX vidio card with 256/512 MB of memory (dedicated/Virtual respectively)... and we upgraded to the beast we have now (please see my profile). for the amount of money we have put into this, there is no reason to be having these issues, but we still are.

after calling autodesk, i was given the usual run-around of "install this, uninstall this, re-install the entire software bundle" and to no avail. it worked fine for the first week or so, then strated crashing on a more regular basis. these files are not that large in my opinion. i think the largest is still well below 10 MB. not sure if it matters, but the only things that are drawn with MEP items (duct, pipe, etc) are the actual MEP systems... the fire was sub-contracted so that is drawn in autocad solids, the walls and steel are in solids, and the floor is as well. everything else is drawn with MEP items.

we are just at a loss as to what to do, and autodesk can't/won't tell us what is wrong with their software. this systems flies with anything/everything else we throw at it... but MEP is the most unstable software that i have ever used. i have yet to test Revit MEP, but i hear that it is a lot better at staying alive... anyone got any ideas?

any questions, feel free to ask.

Thanks!
Later,
Andy

[Hedgehog]

I assume you have the latest service-pack installed... I think it's version 3 at the moment.

[aczeller]

yep... installed it a while ago, after the first crash. we just got the system about a month ago now... not quite a month i guess.

[GolfBum]

Find a copy of 06 and use it......it still had its moments but was the most stable version......You can try

Try and run the 3DCONFIG command to update your video drivers?
You can try this as well

://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=10031804&linkID=9240617 9 ( just add the HTTP to this link I am forbidden to post links )

The 09 version has cost me well over 300 hrs in lost productivity do to trouble shooting and lost work... I went back to 08 which still has issues…….I personally plan to take my reseller to court over this i.e. I have logged more hrs on the phone with support and trying their fixes than I have actually drawing with the program…The program is boated with tools that don’t work for instance the new interference detection tool looks good on the surface but is a joke when you test it on an average size job...... It works good enough to make the sales presentation but that’s it...
What I am hoping is, now that are markets are correcting and these large companies are no longer going to reap large profit by selling in volume they will get back to selling quality goods and services….We are seeing this happen with the auto manufactures… Bottom line is, the program crashes when you push it…. I have no issues when I am setting testing it but, once I get into a project the software becomes unstable….Going back to 08 did not solve the issues just made them less painful…….
Good luck

[dumfatnhappy]

yep... installed it a while ago, after the first crash. we just got the system about a month ago now... not quite a month i guess.


I assume you are 64 bit? like I tell everyone, monitor your 'performance' through task manager. I had your same issues until I realized I was maxing out my RAM with 4 gig. (Vista is a hungry beast on it's own) I doubled it and now use 6-7 gig on average with no problems. Am going to upgrade to Vista Ultimate as I've learned that the home premium only recognizes 8 gig and I would like to expand that.

[aczeller]

yes, i am running the following:

Vista Business 64-Bit
(2) quad core processors @ 3.0 GHz (total of 8 processors)
(16) GB or RAM
the new NVidia 5800 video card with 4GB of memory. ( i think it is 2GB of dedicated GPU memory and 4 GB total)

i have finished a service ticket with autodesk within the past week and they seem to blame it on the GPU, since it is not a supported video card. their reason for this is because it was not released until this past november, and the 2010 release of MEP is alsmot here, so there is no "need" to go back and validate the 5800 video card for the 2009 release of MEP. i still think that autodesk just doesn't know what is causing the issues. i have run this same ticket before with a weaker computer, but with a supported card and they pretty much told me that they didn't know what was going on, after god only knows how many hours of troubleshooting and system/program modifications.

i HAVE noticed however, that when i am using smaller files, it seems to be more stable. the project that i am currently wokring on is less than 5 MB and i have yet to see anything bad from MEP, but as soon as i open the larger files, i have nothing but problems it seems like.

another thing that i have noticed is that my core temps are reltively high compared to other systems that i have used in the past. when running full-bore and actually making progress, my CPU's can get up to around 60 degrees C. i have our IT guys looking into cooling options, but i am skeptical that this is the root cause. i think that it's more of a coincidence than a cause. when the processors have ot deal with MEP's massive calculations, they obviously will heat up, making the system unstable. we are kind of hoping that if we can keep the processors cooler, that everything will work smoother... only time will tell.

Later,
Andy

[neekcotrack]

I have found out there are way to many problems with MEP 2009 but, after the last update everything for me is working now.