Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

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jpain3
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Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

Hello, I just installed Vensim PLE on the recommendation of a System Dynamics textbook I am reading, but am having difficulty getting it to actually run properly.

Whenever I attempt to add an equation to an element, I am presented with a dialog box asking me to change the font for some reason. No matter what I click on that box, I receive a stop error saying I "need to cancel all open dialogs and try again". After this point, the equation editor is totally inaccessible, either by clicking on the Equation button and an element, or by right-clicking on an element and selecting equation. Nothing happens.

At this point, if I attempt to close the program or save, I am presented with a rapid series of stop errors stating that all the various elements of the simulation (including variables like "Time" "Initial Time" "Final Time" "Time Step" "Savper" "," ",Control") are "not valid variable names" and then I get a full "Vensim family of products has stopped working" message.

I have totally uninstalled and reinstalled as an administrator, and run the executable as an administrator with no success. I would really like to actually try this simulation software, as it looks perfect for the System Dynamics work I'm trying to learn, but am running into these program-ending errors.

I'm running Vensim PLE 7.2 on an Windows 10 machine, if that helps!

Any ideas? I've attached some images of the various errors and of the seemingly random font selection window that pops up the first time I try to add an equation. Thank you for your time!
Attachments
Vensim Non-Equation Editor.PNG
Vensim Non-Equation Editor.PNG (45.43 KiB) Viewed 8001 times
Vensim Stop Error.PNG
Vensim Stop Error.PNG (8.99 KiB) Viewed 8001 times
Vensim full stop.PNG
Vensim full stop.PNG (37.98 KiB) Viewed 8001 times
tomfid
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by tomfid »

Are you on a system with managed account security, e.g. in a corp environment? We've seen this at a few companies that really lock down security, and we have a change in the works to get around it.

There's also a fairly simple workaround, but I'll have to consult my notes about how to implement it.
jpain3
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Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 9:09 pm
Vensim version: DSS

Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

No, this is on my personal machine with the admin account.

I've managed to narrow down where the error is coming from and create different circumstances where it pops up or is (semi)resolved:

My Windows 10 laptop spends most of its life in a dock, hooked up to an external monitor, running with a dual monitor setup (the external monitor is the primary and the laptop screen is the extension when docked). If I set "Compressed Small Fonts" under 'Options' to a value of 3pts or smaller (so, unreadable) before doing anything else, then the program loads the equation editor just fine, but it's unreadable/unusable.

If I fully undock my machine, open Vensim, set the Compressed Small Fonts to a readable level (like 8pts), then I can use it on my undocked laptop. If I then re-dock my laptop, and drag the VenSim windows to my external display, everything looks and works fine! That is, until I close and reopen the equation editor... then the problem starts all over again with a warning "Screen Size Too Small", leading to a full program crash.

Vensim is clearly able to operate on my monitor just fine (from the undocking, starting, redocking, and dragging experiment), but for some reason has decided that my monitor is 'too small' and won't load any 'compressed small fonts' above a size of 3pts when docked.

The resolution of my external monitor is 1440 x 900, and the resolution of my laptop screen is 2160 x 1400, if that helps things.

I found a post from just over 10 years ago with the 'Screen Too Small' bug addressed: http://www.ventanasystems.co.uk/forum/v ... php?t=3383
The solution there was to uninstall/reinstall. I've done that at least 4 times now.

I also found a recent post about the equation editor window not loading properly: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6844
But that seems to not really be my situation (the font size looks fine and the window is opening), and seems to only apply to Mac setups.
Administrator
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by Administrator »

I'll experiment here with this.

Vensim checks to see if it can fit the equation editor on a screen before it displays (if the font is too large for example, it switches to the smallest font to guarantee it shows). In this case, I think the check is successful on the 2160 x 1400 display, but when moving to the lower res one, things fail (and possibly even fail with the small font).

I'll have to replicate the display setup here and see if I can reproduce things.
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Administrator
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by Administrator »

I'm not experiencing any problems here on a 1440x900 display.

Can you upload your venple.ini file, you can find it in %appdata%\vensim on your machine.
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jpain3
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

Attached! I couldn't upload a .ini or .txt file here, so I zipped the .ini file and attached it.

Also two quick notes:
1. Thank you for your incredibly rapid responses!
2. I just noticed that I misspelled 'attempting' in the subject of the topic... that is embarassing
Attachments
venple.zip
(501 Bytes) Downloaded 176 times
Administrator
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by Administrator »

I'm still not seeing any issues with this ini file.

Can you try closing Vensim, renaming it (venplebackup.ini) and restarting Vensim. See if the error persists?
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jpain3
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

Renamed the venple.ini file, restarted Vensim (which recreated the venple.ini file). Problem is still present.

I need to set the 'Compressed Small Fonts' size value to 5 or smaller in order for the equation editor to open. Anything larger will eventually lead to a full program crash. I'm trying to figure out a screen recorder so I can record the actions I'm taking to create the error.
jpain3
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Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 9:09 pm
Vensim version: DSS

Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

Tried to upload a video here, but the file is too large even after compressing.

So I placed it on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/347t9F3r5CY

This shows the steps I need to recreate the error, which in summary is triggered by having the 'Compressed Small Fonts' size setting to anything larger than 5pts and then trying to open the Equation Editor more than once.
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by Administrator »

What happens if you change the equation editor font to 8 (instead of 10)?
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jpain3
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

Same thing. The font window pops up, with a default suggestion of 7pts. Clicking ok with either 7 or 8pts (really any font bigger than 5pts) leads to the crash.
jpain3
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Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Jan 22, 2018 9:09 pm
Vensim version: DSS

Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by jpain3 »

I've switched to a totally different monitor setup, using a Samsung LCD TV with HDMI input as my primary. The resolution on this monitor is 1920x1080. I'm still getting the exact same issue. The only difference is I can now set the Compressed Small Font size to 6pts without the crash. I've also tried setting my monitor configuration to 'duplicate', and to only showing on my laptop or on the external monitor. Same issues.

Essentially, trying to increase the 'compressed small font' size to anything readable causes an eventual program crash, as seen in the YouTube video I posted earlier.

However, on this new monitor, a font size of 6 is just readable, so I'm considering this a work-around solution for now. I'm going to just save every time I do anything, with multiple revision numbers, under the assumption that the program will crash again unexpectantly.
Administrator
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Re: Equation / Parameter Editor will not load - Full program crash after atempting

Post by Administrator »

I cannot reproduce this behaviour here. No matter what resolutions I use, things still work fine.

I'll locate an older machine and see if that produces the error.
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