Revit keeps freezing..UGH

[michaelf]

This is almost becoming a daily occurance for me. I'll go to click on something in my model and the software freezes up. My system should be rather capable of handling the software. I'm running an Intel Xeon Dual Core @ 2.33 GHz, with 4 GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA graphics card with Hardware Acceleration turned on. My operating system is XP with Service Pack 2, and only other programs I have running are Outlook and our timekeeping software with runs through Internet Explorer.

The particular file that froze was around 75 MB, is work shared, currently used locally and only accessed by me, and I had no other windows open. I went to click on my pull down menu when it froze. As I look at my Windows Task Manager, the file is using 601K of my memory, and has not changed for 15 minutes. I learned the hard way to set may save reminder at 15 mins, which is all the time I lost, however 15 minutes (twice a day sometimes) over a week can add up to some significant time. I also have had only had Revit open for an hour and a half. I do my best to check warnings frequently, audit, and control the Visibility/Graphics in my model, so as not to slow it or bogg it down.

If anyone can suggest something for me to do, or provide any reason for my computer keeps locking up, I would greatly appreciate it. I'm getting really frustrated and don't know what I can do.

Cheers

[dhurtubise]

Hard to tell without looking at the model but did you define a lot of relationnship in the project?

[michaelf]

Hard to tell without looking at the model but did you define a lot of relationnship in the project?

What do you mean by "define alot of relationship"? The model is a 300 unit multi-family housing project. 3 Buildings & two parking decks. I have my Units grouped, and repeating floors grouped and the parking deck linked. If that's what you mean. The model seems to move fairly quickly for the amount of content. It just froze, without giving me a warning or anything. Like I said, this happens on a daily basis.

[dhurtubise]

Does it freeze doing a specific command or picking a specific item.
Relationnship between elements using the lock icon

[michaelf]

Does it freeze doing a specific command or picking a specific item.
Relationnship between elements using the lock icon

No I don't have anything constained at the moment. It froze when I went to select "Tools" in the pull down menu.

[dhurtubise]

Do you have any 3rd party (plugin)?

[michaelf]

Do you have any 3rd party (plugin)?

Not that I know of.

[Andre Carvalho]

Have you looked at your Journal file to see what it says at the exactly moment Revit freezes?

Andre Carvalho

[michaelf]

Have you looked at your Journal file to see what it says at the exactly moment Revit freezes?

Andre Carvalho

Where do I go about finding that? Is that the History?

[Andre Carvalho]

You should go to the Journals folder where your Revit is installed (in my case C:\Program Files\Revit Architecture 2008\Journals) and look for the latest journal.txt file in there.

It will show you at the end important information about what was going on with your Revit and computer when it crashed.
You may want to forward the journal file to Autodesk support too.

Regards,

ANdre Carvalho

[Andre Carvalho]

Complementing my own post, you can also drag your latest journal file and drop it over the Revit icon. It will run the journal file (script) within Revit.

Andre Carvalho

[michaelf]

Complementing my own post, you can also drag your latest journal file and drop it over the Revit icon. It will run the journal file (script) within Revit.

Andre Carvalho

Thanks. I found the file, but don't know what any of it means. I'm sending it to my IT guys and hopefully they can decipher something from it.

[Andre Carvalho]

I know it looks complicated, but actually it serves like a history file saying what you were doing at the moment your file crached, and even what you have done since you began that session, including information about your available memory, etc.

Since this is a particular file and seems tricky to solve the problem by ourselves, I would file a support request with Autodesk and send the journal file to them along with your revit file, if possible. That's the best way they can track where the problem is and give you a solution and/or improve the next Revit releases to avoid it happening again.

Andre Carvalho

[DaveP]

It wouldn't hurt to have IT take a look at your Windows Event Log, too.
We've had some "hanging" issues, too and it turned out to be a video driver.
(IBM/Lenovo T60s)

[michaelf]

It wouldn't hurt to have IT take a look at your Windows Event Log, too.
We've had some "hanging" issues, too and it turned out to be a video driver.
(IBM/Lenovo T60s)

I've gotten 3 more hang ups in the past 2 days and 3 last week, after my original post last week. My IT suggests that I turn off my Open GL. I've tried that and the software crawls along. I have to submit Autodesk requests through them, which they are reluctant to do. What are your thoughts on turning off the Open GL. I DO NOT like running the software that way. It's counterproductive. Please Help!

[michaelf]

Complementing my own post, you can also drag your latest journal file and drop it over the Revit icon. It will run the journal file (script) within Revit.

Andre Carvalho

Every time I do that, I get this message: (See attached) What is the deal with this?

[dhurtubise]

Could be a lot of things. Is that a journal from a crashed session? Is the needed file at the same place? Is any needed folder accesible?

[michaelf]

Could be a lot of things. Is that a journal from a crashed session? Is the needed file at the same place? Is any needed folder accesible?

Yes that is the journal file from the crashed session. Im not sure what you mean by "needed" file, or it being "accessible"

[rmejia]

My IT suggests that I turn off my Open GL. I've tried that and the software crawls along. I have to submit Autodesk requests through them, which they are reluctant to do. What are your thoughts on turning off the Open GL.!

I have Open GL problems, and have to turn it off sometimes. It makes shadows painfully slow, but apart from shadows I do not notice any other difference. It can be turned off, just don't get into a view with shadows.

In my case, Open GL makes objects start disappearing, or it turns the screen black and closes the view... but Revit does not freeze.

[dhurtubise]

A Journal file is a recorded session of what you did. So when you run it again it will go an try to open (for example) a specific file, then mabe save it somewhere. If those are not accessible, it won't run

[michaelf]

A Journal file is a recorded session of what you did. So when you run it again it will go an try to open (for example) a specific file, then mabe save it somewhere. If those are not accessible, it won't run

I got it run for the file that crashed. The thing is I got that message too.

[mtogni]

I have the same problem too. Revit sometimes (but in last days often), even when in a idle state, freezes. I'm running Vista Business, 4Gb ram.