Layout 2013 Repeatedly Crashes -- Is My File Size Too Big?

fcborik · 11 Feb 2014, 00:27

Hello,

I'm working on some drawings for a home remodeling project, and I'm trying to put in a few changes that the plans checker "recommended" (e.g., mandatory changes). However, I've been noticing that this particular layout file keeps crashing. I'm saving a lot, but can't figure out what's wrong. I'm thinking it might be the size (129 MB , pretty hefty), but I don't have a clue how to deal with it. I wonder if bigger projects separate their layout files into different categories (i.e., site preparation, architectural, electrical, plumbing, HVAC...). To me that would be a configuration nightmare, but I guess that is what one has to do. Still, this is a tiny project. Maybe I'm trying to cram too much into it.

Any help would be sincerely appreciated.

Thanks!

Frank Borik

Richard · 11 Feb 2014, 04:14

Mate I'd certainly look to break the file into chunks rather than one big file. I have found that multi page documents are often the ones to crash.

mac1 · 11 Feb 2014, 06:00

FYI http://www.youtube.com/playlist?annotation_id=annotation_91551%26amp;feature=iv%26amp;list=PL-bndkJaV8A41vyW2gJp93wOKznTCa0yC%26amp;src_vid=Z3xUOAicq-Y

ArCAD-UK · 11 Feb 2014, 17:57

Fire up Task Manager (ctrl / alt / Del) and look at the memory usage. I had 2Gb on my PC and it was crashing a lot. Upgraded to 4Gb and it was fine after that.

fcborik · 12 Feb 2014, 00:03

OK, I think I have this figured out. I was being lazy and copying and pasting my tables directly from Excel. This JUST DOESN'T WORK!! But.... I'm a slow learner! I was having real troubles copying and pasting from Excel to Word, then saving as .rtf because that didn't work any better than the copy and paste from Excel. So I re-read some old posts about this problem and finally figured out that I was not converting the table in Word to text. That took me a while to figure out too, but I finally did it, and the table went right into Layout with no crashing problems. The only down-side is I can't figure out how to get the borders to come out. The conversion to text obliterates the borders in Word. I gave up and just drew in some nice lines with the line tool, grouped the whole shebang, and called it good. At least I can get back to work and stop wasting time on recovering from crashes.

BTW,I have a graphics computer with 32GB RAM, so that was definitely not the problem.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

Frank

marcdurant · 13 Feb 2014, 00:22

Hi Frank-

I see your crash reports in our database, thanks for submitting them and for putting your email address on them. I'll see if we can figure out what's going on.

-Marc

fcborik · 13 Feb 2014, 01:10

Hi Marc,

Thanks for the reply. I have been told by numerous sketchup users that I really need to use the .rtf file format for text created in other software (i.e. MS Office). I'm a big fan of spreadsheets, and I thought I had the cut-and-paste working OK, but after a while, the Layout application started getting cranky and crashing. I notice the same type of crash with much more sensitivity when I attempt to cut and paste from Excel when I have merged cells. When I try to resize the window in Layout -- crash! Honestly, the .rtf solution is very workable (now that I know how to do it) and the results look good. So definitely not a deal breaker. But.. Excel is sooo versatile. It would be nice to have a seamless import or cut-and-paste in a future build.

Thanks again!!

mac1 · 13 Feb 2014, 05:35

The rtf ( rich text format ) is not really a text format. EXCEL has the option of export a CSV ( comma separated variable ) text files that may be better for you . Have you tried that?
I guess you have not looked at the link I took the time to post for you. Nick Sonder posted a number of videos answering some of your questions and probably worth a peak at least.
I do not know how layout materials and SU ones interact I do not use layout, free user here , but It has been my experience when file size grow like that many times it is related to photo texture materials being used. Try using monochrome rendering style to reduce load on the graphics processor and see if that helps. You can also save your materials as a collection which creates a skm file you can look at and give you an idea of possible areas to check for large texture files. That is a zip file format so if you want to actually extract and check the image file with an editor then you will have to unzip them or at least the large ones of possible interest.
BTW Nick Sonder makes a specific comment about using raster vs vector rendering in layout to help with file size.
BTW 2; Given you have 32 memory implies you have a 64 bit machine. However, SU runs as a 32 bit application and such it can only address 4 Gb of that , the kernel can use more than 4 depending some what on your MB and what can be set in the BIOS. Unlike x86 machines where in the kernel and application split the memory ( so each only can use 2 Gb of the max 4Gb addressable on 32 bit machines)
One of the first steps is to purge the skp file to remove all unused items.