John Paul Chacha's Lab

Is the Viewer necessary? - It always crashes.

Started by Bill Kingsbury (druthers) on Sat, 22^nd Feb 2014 at 19:04:56.

2 Comments so far.

Hi,

I installed Chasys Draw IES 4.20.01 a few days ago, but each time I attempted to run it, the Viewer program crashed.

My computer is running Widows 7 x64 Ultimate, sp1, etc.

I find four Windows Event Reports, each named - Report.wer - located as such:

C:\Users\12\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_Viewer.exe_2bb2717b5314c115ce2a4e78a00a9fb21bc6d7_000e32ee

FriendlyEventName=Stopped working
ConsentKey=APPCRASH
AppName=Chasys Draw IES Viewer
AppPath=C:\Program Files (x86)\John Paul Chacha's Lab\Chasys Draw IES\Viewer.exe

___

Also, without any 'obvious' warning, the Chasys Draw IES Viewer program changed all of my image-file associations... This caused my long-installed and until-then, properly functioning viewer to stop working -- although I still need to use it about 100 times a day, meaning that its previous functioning must remain unchanged.

After the Chasys Draw IES Viewer crashed, at least four (4) times, with an identical failure mode, I reinstalled my previous viewer, which corrected the file associations.

However, now when the Chasys Draw IES Viewer opens (which it does without crashing, now), there's no way to use it?

There's apparently no 'File Open' command or dialog, that I can find... And (in any case) I never use 'drag and drop' with my preferred file manager (that's non-negotiable), so please don't suggest using drag and drop.

Should I just uninstall Chasys Draw IES, and forget about it?

Thank you.

Comments:

John Paul Chacha (jpcha2) on Tue, 25^th Feb 2014 at 07:36:08

Hi Bill,

Let me start with the associations question because it's easier to answer: you can choose which files you want to associate with the Viewer application both at install and after installation. During installation, Setup brings up a dialog-box titled "File Associations" where you can customize the file associations. You can change these at any time via:
(a) The "Configure" menu in Chasys Draw IES Artist, under "File Associations",
(b) The Start Menu; just go to the "Chasys Draw IES" group, then "Settings" and select "File Associations".

Now, about the crash: this is the first time I'm hearing of such a case; sorry about the frustration you've been experiencing. Under what circumstances do the crashes occur? Do they happen immediately you launch Viewer by clicking the file in your file manager, or afterwards? Which file manager are you using? Does the crash occur if you use Windows 7's file manager? What type of file (JPEG, PNG, etc) were you trying to view when the crash occurred? How big was the file?

As for the absence of a "File Open" menu -- the Viewer was intended to integrate with and navigate the shell the same way Windows Photo Viewer does, hence the absence of that option. You'll that the Windows Viewer doesn't have it either, and can only be launched through the shell. If I understood you correctly, you'd like to open the Viewer first then use an "Open File" dialog to navigate to the location of the file you'd like to view -- why? Kindly elaborate; I'm not opposed to the idea of adding it but I'd like to understand the use-case first.

Hoping to hear from you soon. Thanks.

Bill Kingsbury (druthers) on Wed, 26^th Feb 2014 at 14:28:22

Hi John,

Thanks for your reply.

OK, I missed the Chasys Draw IES file-association settings when I installed. (So, I've restored my old settings by reinstalling my old viewer.)

I see the "Configure - File Associations" dialog in Chasys Draw IES Artist... And there, I see a file-type not currently assigned to my old viewer, ie: .tiff... Now when I try opening a .tiff file from my file manage, it opens OK in your Viewer! ... I have no idea why doing the same "file opening" (prior to restoring the other file associations) always crashed the Chasys Draw IES Viewer.

...... Note: My file manager is ZTreeWin x64. (I've been using this 'family' of DOS/Windows file managers since 1986; almost 28 years). And my image viewer program is 'PGV' (links below), which is works well with ZTree (but doesn't require ZTree); however development of PGV has apparently ended.

--- you wrote: ...
Under what circumstances do the crashes occur?
Do they happen immediately you launch Viewer by clicking the file in your file manager, or afterwards?
Which file manager are you using?
Does the crash occur if you use Windows 7's file manager?
What type of file (JPEG, PNG, etc) were you trying to view when the crash occurred?
How big was the file?
---

The "crashes" were occurring in the Chasys Draw IES Viewer immediately, when I attempted a "normal" Open command on various image files from within ZTree. (I didn't try using the Windws 7 file manager.)

Give me a few days, and I'll reinstall Chasys Draw IES to look for answers to your questions...

--- you wrote: ...
As for the absence of a "File Open" menu -- the Viewer was intended to integrate with and navigate the shell the same way Windows Photo Viewer does, hence the absence of that option. You'll that the Windows Viewer doesn't have it either, and can only be launched through the shell. ...
If I understood you correctly, you'd like to open the Viewer first then use an "Open File" dialog to navigate to the location of the file you'd like to view -- why? ...
Kindly elaborate; I'm not opposed to the idea of adding it but I'd like to understand the use-case first.
...

I'll admit that I don't know anything about the Windows Photo Viewer, because my PGV viewer has worked for nearly all image file types, for the past 15 years. (Windows Photo Viewer is not set as a default viewer for anything in my Control Panel settings.)

Anyway, I was asking about an "Open File" dialog, because I was wondering how to evaluate your Artist program with the Viewer program constantly crashing... Basically I was "lost in a new program" at that point.

In any case, the PGV viewer that I use has a complete "Alt-" command menu (like most Windows programs do), and I find it very helpful at times, to access various commands from within the PGV viewer. (Note that an Alt- command menu can be "hidden", and revealed only when the Alt key is pressed, for example.)

I was glad to see that after I opened that .tiff file in your Viewer, then an Up-arrow or Down-arrow key advanced the view to an "adjacent" image file in the same folder (like it does in PGV)... But can the "sort-by file name" be switched to "sort-by file date" (and back)? It could be helpful to have a command (both key-command and a menu-command, as a reminder) for quickly switching between those two "sort options". And, are there more configuration settings for the Viewer; if so, how to access the settings dialog? ... Those are some of the things I'd look for in a Viewer command menu.

Bill

Ref:

ZTreeWin - http://www.ztree.com/ />
PGV - http://www.deleeuw.com.au/ />

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