GearHeads Corner

I'm new to Gearotic so it could be my error but with a new install of 2.3015 on a 64 bit Windows 10 surface book the Autotrain dialog box opens then hangs Gearotic if I try to select anything in the dialog box.

Dfuess;

I believe the first time and only the first time you open the Autotrain dialog, it generates look up tables inside Gearotic to optimize calculation speeds in future, however this can take awhile to complete? The progress bar on top right will show status of look up tables being created, once it's done, then you can use the autotrain dialog and it will operate at much faster speeds.
Hope this helps..

Cheers
Bob
:) 

Hi:

Just to jump in, Bob quite right. The first time Autotrain is run, it creates tables way too large to distribute, so it may take several; minutes
depending on  the machine to make them. This is why gear trains are computed so fast, the ratio tables aid in finding the correct tooth counts.

  If this isnt the trouble, yell, Ill make up some sort of diagnostic for you to see what the tables arent being made.

Thx
Art

Well, I installed the latest development version hoping that a newer version would resolve the problem. I ran Gearotic as Administrator just in case there were permissions issues. And I let it run for over 20 minutes while watching the System Monitor. Gearotic monopolized the CPU (between 95 and 98 percent) the whole time but I did not observe any I/O traffic (at least not enough to register on the monitor). The i7 is a very fast processor so I could not imagine based on your comments that the table generation should take more than a few minutes at most. I'm running it on a Microsoft Surface Book i7 with over 500GB of available disk space.

Any suggestions?

Hi:

  Sorry for the trouble. I hadn't realized it was ongoing there.

When you run the module the first time, it may take up to
30 seconds or so, but shouldn't ever take more than that.

You should have three files created as a result.

gprimes1.bin gprimes2.bin and gprimes3.bin . These are prime number multiplication tables
I use to compute the best ratios without taking hours to do so.  Can you check to see if any of them are made?
The first is only 4kb, the second 519kb, but the third is 14 megabytes.
(This is why they aren't included in the download.)


  If they are there, what size are they?

If necessary Ill make up a better diagnostic on the process for next weeks release
so we can figure out why you cant create these tables..

  They are included here for unzipping to the gearotic folder, if found the program should
not try to make new ones..

Thx, sorry for the bug 
Art

Hey Dfeuss:

One last question, did your progress meter move during the churning, it should have been sliding as it
created the files.?

Thx
Art

The three files were in the Gearotic home folder (C:\Gearotic Motion\) and were the proper size. Just in case they might be corrupted I replaced them with the ones you attached. Opened the gear train calculator, saw no progress bar. Tried to change the input turns to 10 and the dialog hung (after a few seconds the title bar indicated that "Gearotic is not responding").

For another reference point, on my i5-5299U laptop that apparently has never done an autotrain, it takes under 15 seconds to create the tables.  1:10 and 10:1 both are effectively instantaneous.

This is V3.0 on W10 64b, insider build 14946 (the latest).  Could it be something with V2.3015 that's been resolved since then?

Kirk

Hi:

Hmm, doesnt sound like the tables, sounds more like its locking up on something..

Have you tried a general reset, ... start the program, kill it with the task manager of
windows. Restart and it will ask if youd like to reset the settings. Say yes. Any change?

Art

I have restarted the program and answered both yes and to the reset question. No difference in the hang behavior either way. The Windows log shows:

The program Gearotic.exe version 3.0.0.1 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
Process ID: bb8
Start Time: 01d227dbb402ef17
Termination Time: 21
Application Path: C:\Gearotic Motion\Gearotic.exe
Report Id: 249e04fd-93cf-11e6-a2c9-985fd34914a8
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

There was nothing I could find in "Security and Maintenance"

I have noticed that ANY attempt to interact with the auto train dialog causes a hang. Even selecting an entry in the Presets drop down menu.

dfuess:

  Ive looked into the code, nothing is actually done until one hits the search button. Selections and such shouldn't lock up,
they don't actually do anything until later. 
I'm thinking it may be some graphics issue. I cant yet find anywhere that's suspicious. Is it the only module that seems
to lock you up?

Art

I can't say that I've used every dialog but I have designed a number of trains using all gear types and most of the escapements and this is the only glitch I've encountered so far. Is there perhaps some control that's unique to this dialog or perhaps a memory overrun from the dropdown control (it does have quite a long list of perhaps dynamically loaded elements)? It could also be a library update if my library versions are different. Have noticed a couple of things though, I'll post screenshots as I encounter them again: http://www.fuess.net/images/Screenshots/Screenshot2.png

Hi Dfeuss:

  I see a strange refocus to the search button on init, so Ive removed it and tested. I , of course, see no change,
but this DOES look like some graphic issue, and I have seen it happen before in terms of seeing certain labels refuse
to refresh on some system reports. Gearotic uses an architecture that was kinda crossover at the time. The ribbon
bars are created by me manually for example, and not in a bar designer as one would do it now in the newer compilers. This can cause a message loop of some sort.. though hard to say where or how at this point. I have few reports of issues, yours seems the worst, while a couple others do have the missing labels at times. ( And even I have seen that happen, though when I look for it, its gone. On my systems at least, this bug is ephemeral.  I hate that.. so...

  Since I hope to do a release within a week to 2 week time frame, ( I have one more tool to add and a few smaller
bugs to trace before I do so.. ), I will take some time and refresh the calculators code to see if I can tighten up
anything I see that's a bit nonstandard. The Calculator is actually pretty simple GUI wise, I'm not seeing any of the
stranger controls I do use , like the numerical sliders and such. 

  As your not getting an actual error, Im assuming at this point its a control focus issue, where a control starts
a wait-on-event sequence and it never happens. (These can be a bugger to find if I cant repeat them, so cleaning is
often the only way to find them.).

  If, on the next release, the calculator still fails to run, contact me again, and I will make a special version
for your machine with debug messages that may help us track it down and kill it once and for all.

Thx
Art

between MooseLake, living just south of Houghton Michigan and Dfuess in Rock Michigan
id have to think you guys are hiding out, LOL
I have spent a few weeks at what we called "Camp Rock", a river cabin right on the Escanaba River and then also at Michigan Tech University several times.
Very nice country but damn you guys get the snow.
Good to see fellow Michiganders.
;D

Heh, the snow's not that bad and we know how to handle it so it rarely impacts life up here. If you love forests and raw nature with sparse population the UP is as close to perfect as you can get.