Revit + Autocad = Computer Crash [Archive]

View Full Version : Revit + Autocad = Computer Crash

DanielleAnderson

2005-08-30, 11:43 PM

BWG

2005-08-30, 11:56 PM

Has anyone else noticed this? A few of us here have...if you have Revit open, then you open Autocad (say, to edit a base file or something), oftentimes Autocad will freeze up...
You'd think that since they are by the same software company, they might want to act friendly towards each other...

Do it all the time, but haven't had any problems. Video Card drivers seem to be the overwhelming problems with these programs.

iru69

2005-08-31, 12:46 AM

Actually, I've noticed that too... any chance you also use Outlook at the same time? It doesn't happen every time, but it happens enough that I'm wary of trying to run both at the same time (though it's pretty rare I boot AC at all these days). And my impression is that it doesn't have anything to do with graphics cards.

Wes Macaulay

2005-08-31, 04:31 AM

I have not ever in my whole life seen this happen. (Really. I mean it!)

Is this Revit Series by any chance? It's really odd that you can reproduce this on several computers...

iru69

2005-08-31, 05:36 AM

Is this Revit Series by any chance?
For me, no.

For me, it could be any number of programs that I always have running in XP - Outlook 2003, Windows Explorer, Firefox, and Revit... all of which are stable when run together (well as stable as windoz can be ;)). If I add AC2004 to the mix, things become slightly unstable. However, prior to using Revit, I used AC2004 with all the same apps (Revit excluded) - and everyone played nice.

I think it might be related to MS Office for two reasons. One, before upgrading from Office 97 to 2003, the crashes with Revit and AC2004 running at the same time were just about guaranteed. Two, when I try and recover using the Windows Task Manager, killing apps one at a time, it always seems that the system returns to a stable state after killing any Office apps (along with AC2004 of course which is completely frozen).

Windows XP has "Protected Memory" features which do a pretty good job of keeping one app from bringing down other apps and the OS itself. While I have enough RAM to be running all these apps at the same time, I guess it's possible that one of them has a memory leak that is exposed when running them side by side (I'm not sure - is that possible that a memory leak caused by one app would only be exposed while running another specific app?). Whenever it has happened, I've always been focused on not losing data - but next time I'll have to study the processes (RAM and CPU utilization) to see if I can determine which app might be to blame.

Of course, if I purposely add AC2004 to the mix, it will probably run without incident for a month. :)

Shaun v Rooyen

2005-08-31, 07:51 AM

I have not ever in my whole life seen this happen. (Really. I mean it!)

Is this Revit Series by any chance? It's really odd that you can reproduce this on several computers...

I am with Wes on this one!!! At any given point I have at least 7-10 apps open, and have never felt the "freeze", running Revit and Acad 2005 together 70% of the day.
We do however spend a fortune on Hardware. In most instances I point fingers at Incompatible hardware. One machine had an issue after opening too many Apps, changed RAM out and no more Issues(Often it's been a Graphics card, and the same model as everyone else is running but somewhere it's become incompatible). We have the strict policy of no generic **** in our machines.

IMHO I don't think the combination of Apps open has anything to do with it. lets say you were a bookkeeper, and had Excel,Quick books and Lotus open, you would probably blame that combination.

DanielleAnderson

2005-08-31, 05:11 PM

I have not ever in my whole life seen this happen. (Really. I mean it!)

Is this Revit Series by any chance? It's really odd that you can reproduce this on several computers...

I think it probably has something to do with the fact that FOR SOME REASON we are still running Autocad 2000i on our machines here. Wes--you can help convince the powers that be that this is not the best of ideas... :) And irusun, yes, I do tend to have Outlook open at the same time.

Wes Macaulay

2005-08-31, 05:25 PM

AutoCAD 2000i? Danielle, it's DEAD! Hopefully your office upgraded to a newer version of AutoCAD...? If not, then all those licenses are toast and you have to buy new ones.

DanielleAnderson

2005-08-31, 05:52 PM

AutoCAD 2000i? Danielle, it's DEAD! Hopefully your office upgraded to a newer version of AutoCAD...? If not, then all those licenses are toast and you have to buy new ones.

I kid you not...we have like ADT 2002 also but no one uses it. I did hear about one copy of Acad 2004 somewhere up in Vancouver, but I've never seen it.

Wes Macaulay

2005-08-31, 06:22 PM

BWG

2005-08-31, 06:30 PM

I kid you not...we have like ADT 2002 also but no one uses it. I did hear about one copy of Acad 2004 somewhere up in Vancouver, but I've never seen it.

hmmm...conspiracy! :mrgreen:

DanielleAnderson

2005-08-31, 06:40 PM

Well... I don't want to hijack this thread into an AutoCAD vs AutoCAD LT debate... but you must be running into problems with getting 2004 format files. If you don't use LISP routines and don't need 3D modeling, just get LT.

Well, to bring this full circle--are we making the assumption that the fact that we are using Revit 8 with Autocad 2000i could be causing the freezing problem? Or is it more likely a hardware issue?

cliff collins

2005-08-31, 06:59 PM

Hi Danielle,

How mauch RAM do the machines that lock up have? Probably need min. 1G--2G better.

cheers...

Wes Macaulay

2005-08-31, 07:09 PM

Well, to bring this full circle--are we making the assumption that the fact that we are using Revit 8 with Autocad 2000i could be causing the freezing problem? Or is it more likely a hardware issue?It's possible. They both access video resources in some fairly significant ways. Since Acad2000i is no longer supported, they wouldn't be testing it for compatibility with Revit.