Equation editor hangs programme

[drees]

Last year I had problems with the equation editor freezing the programme and having to close down. That was with Vensim DSS 5.11 (PC version) running on a MAC using the parallels emulator. I only managed to solve it by restoring the machine to a point prior to the fault. I now have the same problem with the native MAC version. When I click on the equation editor the programme freezes and I have to do a 'force quit'.

I have done the usual re-install but no luck.

David

[Administrator]

This comes up regularly.

http://www.ventanasystems.co.uk/forum/v ... tor#p15550

But the instructions on the Mac are slightly different.
1. Close Vensim.
2. Start textedit, browse to your user directory and press CMD + SHIFT + . (the Apple key, shift and full stop) to show hidden files. There should be one called .vensim there.
3. Search the file for "EqedDim1" and "EqedDim2" in the INI file. Delete these two lines and save the file.
4. Start Vensim and the equation editor should appear again.

[Administrator]

I'll fire up my Mac and double check the location of the .vensim file. Give me ten mins.

Tony.

[Administrator]

My .vensim file is in /Users/tonykennedy.

Let me know how you get on.

Tony.

[drees]

Hi Tony

Thanks for your reply. However before I could test your solution I fired up vensim (native MAC version) and it works - i.e. the equation editor does not hang. I have done nothing that I am aware of. I also checked the PC version running on the emulator and that is working as well. While that is good news it would be good to get a handle on why this is occurring and seems to be a problem encountered by others.

Thanks again for your prompt replies

David

[Administrator]

Did the problem occur when you had two monitors connected?

[drees]

Yes. I generally have two monitors. My machine is a MacBook Air and I have screens set up at home and at my office which I generally connect to. However, to complicate matters it also 'fixed itself' when I had two screens running.

David

[Administrator]

It's definitely the two monitors causing the problem.

Vensim remembers where the equation editor was, so if it was on a 2nd monitor and then you run using a single monitor, the equation editor will appear off screen. It happens to a lot of software (Microsoft Groove/Sharepoint included).

Tony.

[drees]

Hi Tony

I understand that and know it happens sometimes. However, that does not explain why the software actually freezes. if I simply can't see the equation editor that's okay and easily fixed - I sometimes have the same problem with Powerpoint. My problem has been that it actually freezes the software and the only way out is to close everything down and start again. However, as I mentioned above everything is working fine now. If it does occur again I'll try and describe the problem in more detail and the configuration I have running when it freezes. In addition, when I reboot i'll reboot with no screen attached to see if in fact it still occurs with only the laptop screen.

Here's hoping I won't need to

Thanks

David

[Administrator]

Vensim should not have actually been "non-responding". As the equation editor is off screen and you have no way of moving it on screen, it appears hung. But hitting the escape key should dismiss the editor and bring you back to Vensim itself.

It will be fixed in the next release of Vensim as it has been causing problems.

[drees]

It has started again. When I click the equation editor the appropriate variables are highlighted. However when I click on them to input the equations Vensim freezes and I have to do a 'Force Quit'.

I'm not aware of any significant changes to my machine to prompt the problem. It first started when I did the upgrade to 5.10. I now have the latest version 5.11.

David

[tomfid]

Is there a particular model that offends, that you can post?

[drees]

No, as it happens with all models. However, I did notice yesterday vensim and venread error files, the date of which equates with the date that the problem started again. I tried to attach the file but received a message 'the extension err is not allowed' so I have put the files up on dropbox - link below

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8215154/venread.err
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8215154/vensim.err

Thanks for your help

David

[tomfid]

Not sure why this is happening. The error files are unfortunately uninformative (at least to me). What operating system version are you using?

One thing to try would be simply deleting (or renaming) the vensim.ini file mentioned in Tony's March 4 post (Vensim should recreate a fresh one on startup).

Wish I had a better answer.

Tom

[drees]

Thanks Tom

It is getting 'curiouser and curiouser'. It's working again. I have no problems with any other software and this is the second time the problem seems to have had a 'miracle cure'. The only idea I have is that it maybe related to the fact that I have Vensim DSS running on Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac and the MAC version running on the MAC OS 10.7.3. With the PC version not working I stared using the MAC version - which I generally avoid because of the scaling issue with PCs. After a few days I opened up the PC and it worked. I really can't think of anything I am doing that is causing the problem, although it did first appear when I upgraded to 5.10 and then 5.11.

Is it possible that running the two versions across the platforms is contributing to the problem?

David

[Administrator]

No, it is unrelated to the Parallels installation.

Do you use two monitors?

[drees]

Yes I often use two monitors. I have a setup at home and at the office where I connect the MAC to external monitors. I only tend to use the laptop screen on its own when I am travelling.

David

[Administrator]

What is happening is that when you use the two monitors, the equation editors screen position is stored in the vensim ini file (or .vensim on the Mac). When you then go back to using just the laptop, the equation editor appears off screen as the coordinates are on the (now missing) 2nd monitor.

If it happens, press the escape key to dismiss the equation editor, then follow these instructions.

1. Close Vensim.
2. Start textedit, browse to your user directory and press CMD + SHIFT + . (the Apple key, shift and full stop) to show hidden files. There should be one called .vensim there.
3. Search the file for "EqedDim1" and "EqedDim2" in the INI file. Delete these two lines and save the file.
4. Start Vensim and the equation editor should appear again.

[drees]

Thanks for that. I can now generate a fix on both the MAC and Parallels side of the machine. When do you expect the new version to come out with a more permanent fix.

Thanks again

David

[Administrator]

We are beta testing at the moment, so hopefully very soon.