This is not good, brushes make the program crash....

[RAM]

Hi,

I am running the downloaded, but paid for and unlocked version of Xara X while I await my CD to arrive.

I was SO excited to see that you folks have created so many nice brushes to use with the program. It's too bad that they overload the program and make it crash, at least from what I surmise. I have been reading through the "crash" posts and most of them seem to be the exact same thing I am experiencing. I add brushes to the program and all of a sudden it is slowed to a crawl, loads really slow and then I try to use the "Freehand" option and boom "Serious Error: Access violation exception at offset 0x0003DDBC pops up and then the program, work unsaved, shuts down.

Now before anyone starts in on what they think is wrong with MY setup. I am running Windows2000 with the service pack II, I have upgraded the drivers for my NVIDIA TNT II just an hour ago, it's wonderful by the way, WOO HOO [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] and I went in and reset my swap files to 770 and I have 525 MB's of RAM on board. I have a fairly new system with a Pentium III processor and all my DLL's, at least most, are signed by Microsoft. So my system is as good and optimal as it gets!!

One thing I have observed is that the default brushes are between 12 and 24 points and are on 2 .xar files. These new brushes are HUGE in size and I think that may be one of the things that is causing what's going on here. I know everyone wants to show off their stuff, but I think, and I'm no tech, that it overstuffs the program with too much stuff to load on start up and also slows down the program. Then when you want to use the "Freehand" option and that little viewer comes up, I think it's already overloaded and the program takes a dump. Maybe I'm wrong, but I took the "Fur Brush" called "catfur.xar" and 1) reduced the page size, (most of those brushes are created on WAY to large a sized paper (A4) and that is just to large a space for what you are trying to accomplish here), I resized it down to 303 X 404 and it's nice, (I did that with most of the other brushes), then I reduced the points size down from 72 points to 48 points and then I inserted it onto the default brush page, Natural Media (created a copy of it, just in case) and restarted XaraX and it didn't crash. I then tried it with another "Fur Brush" and it didn't work out, so at least I tried. And at least I can use the Catfur.xar brush with no complaints.

I think that all you wonderful brush creators out there might consider re-doing your brushes and limiting them to the default size, between 12 and 24 points. They may not look like much but I think the sige, thickness, fluffiness and all that will be handled by the other dialog called "Strokes and Shapes" next to it. I don't know what else to suggest.

I was SO pleased to have found XaraX and such a great group of people that are excited about it to create such wonderful add ons, but I think that guidlines need to be established, at least for now, untill Xara, Ltd. can fix this glitch. There shouldn't be limitations but obviously there needs to be for now. I don't think it's necessarily it's any one persons setup, I think it's a glitch in the program more than anything else. ATTENTION XARA LTD. Please fix this!!!

So has ANYONE found a way to make them work besides suggesting that everyone that wrote them re-do them and re-post them???? We shouldn't be limited to using the defaults, I think these brushes are WONDERFUL!! And SHOULD be able to be implimented with out all this crashing stuff!!

Thanks for hearing me, I hope there is some sort of a solution, it would be a shame to NOT be able to use these wonderful creations after all.

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 06, 2001 at 16:31.]

[RAM]

Hi,

I am running the downloaded, but paid for and unlocked version of Xara X while I await my CD to arrive.

I was SO excited to see that you folks have created so many nice brushes to use with the program. It's too bad that they overload the program and make it crash, at least from what I surmise. I have been reading through the "crash" posts and most of them seem to be the exact same thing I am experiencing. I add brushes to the program and all of a sudden it is slowed to a crawl, loads really slow and then I try to use the "Freehand" option and boom "Serious Error: Access violation exception at offset 0x0003DDBC pops up and then the program, work unsaved, shuts down.

Now before anyone starts in on what they think is wrong with MY setup. I am running Windows2000 with the service pack II, I have upgraded the drivers for my NVIDIA TNT II just an hour ago, it's wonderful by the way, WOO HOO [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] and I went in and reset my swap files to 770 and I have 525 MB's of RAM on board. I have a fairly new system with a Pentium III processor and all my DLL's, at least most, are signed by Microsoft. So my system is as good and optimal as it gets!!

One thing I have observed is that the default brushes are between 12 and 24 points and are on 2 .xar files. These new brushes are HUGE in size and I think that may be one of the things that is causing what's going on here. I know everyone wants to show off their stuff, but I think, and I'm no tech, that it overstuffs the program with too much stuff to load on start up and also slows down the program. Then when you want to use the "Freehand" option and that little viewer comes up, I think it's already overloaded and the program takes a dump. Maybe I'm wrong, but I took the "Fur Brush" called "catfur.xar" and 1) reduced the page size, (most of those brushes are created on WAY to large a sized paper (A4) and that is just to large a space for what you are trying to accomplish here), I resized it down to 303 X 404 and it's nice, (I did that with most of the other brushes), then I reduced the points size down from 72 points to 48 points and then I inserted it onto the default brush page, Natural Media (created a copy of it, just in case) and restarted XaraX and it didn't crash. I then tried it with another "Fur Brush" and it didn't work out, so at least I tried. And at least I can use the Catfur.xar brush with no complaints.

I think that all you wonderful brush creators out there might consider re-doing your brushes and limiting them to the default size, between 12 and 24 points. They may not look like much but I think the sige, thickness, fluffiness and all that will be handled by the other dialog called "Strokes and Shapes" next to it. I don't know what else to suggest.

I was SO pleased to have found XaraX and such a great group of people that are excited about it to create such wonderful add ons, but I think that guidlines need to be established, at least for now, untill Xara, Ltd. can fix this glitch. There shouldn't be limitations but obviously there needs to be for now. I don't think it's necessarily it's any one persons setup, I think it's a glitch in the program more than anything else. ATTENTION XARA LTD. Please fix this!!!

So has ANYONE found a way to make them work besides suggesting that everyone that wrote them re-do them and re-post them???? We shouldn't be limited to using the defaults, I think these brushes are WONDERFUL!! And SHOULD be able to be implimented with out all this crashing stuff!!

Thanks for hearing me, I hope there is some sort of a solution, it would be a shame to NOT be able to use these wonderful creations after all.

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 06, 2001 at 16:31.]

[gwpriester]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> 525 MB's of RAM on board <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You are the RAM Wolf :-)

I have had many complaints about several of my brushes causing these crashes.

What I have observed is the closer the spacing, the more likely the brush is to cause a crash. And point size as well. Complex brushes at very small point sizes take forever to render. I have an older Pentium II with a mere 128MB RAM (RAM Miser?).

Here is something you might try.

Draw a simple path and set the point size to some very large amount, 72 points, for example. Then apply the brush and see if that works.

Then edit the brush and increase the spacing.

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

<a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~garypriester">
Be it ever so humble...</a>

http://www.thuntek.net/gwp/flag.png

[RAM]

HI GARY,

I was hoping it was you that answered this, seems that most either read it and said "way to long a post" but I have seen graphics in here that beat me out space wise, any day!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Any way, I do not know about what you mean by:

""Draw a simple path and set the point size to some very large amount, 72 points, for example. Then apply the brush and see if that works.

Then edit the brush and increase the spacing.""

All I did was attempt to decrease the size of the "paper" and then to decrease the points of the brush, and it only worked for the Catfur brush. It is weird, some of the other brushes are fine to load.

It seems that ALL the fur type brushes, and those are the ones I really want to put to use: catfur, eider, fox, franquin_set, icebear, kodiak, vison, wcaterp, yorkshir. There are some other ones besides fur but I am into furry visions, you might say [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] and it gauls me that I can't use them, it figures!! But I have hope that we will get this brush issue resolved.

One thing I noticed and maybe this also plays into it, is that the brushes I was able to impliment...I did a (in the Xara X/Templates/Brushes folder) 'select all/properties' and it totalled 557 KB. I then went to the folder that I have all the Fur Brushes stored in, did the same thing and that folder contains 1.41 MB of files.

Do you think that if Xara Ltd, somehow increased the cashe size in the program it would help? or how about an import feature for the brushes. Instead of just putting them in the brushes folder, have a way for the program to intergrate them in more properly??

I looked around last night on the web to see if there were any other programs that have this capability and I think, if I remember correctly, that one of Uleads programs has this brush function, of course it's called something else. But there are NO other programs that I could find that have this capability. So Xara is on the leading edge [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I think it is a quick way of adding so much more to our work, vector or BMP, and the bugs need to be worked out some how.

So, back to your suggestion....OK, draw a simple line and then apply the brush, but if the program won't even let me load the brush in the first place........??? Then there is the question of editing the brush and then the spacing, HUH???

I don't get it.

OK, I just tried to post the examples and I can't figure out how to do that, could ya help with that one too??

Thanks Gary

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 07, 2001 at 11:35.]

[Erik Heyninck]

When you click on "Post a reply", you see when you scroll down "Options", and then "Post attachment".
Choose this and see that you have your JPG, GIF or PNG image on your HDD ready.
If possible not wider than some 600pixels, if possible even less, and the leaner, the better.

Before I do something heavy on my PC -which resembles yours- I always reboot to clean the RAM. This is sometimes necessary because Windows uses the RAM in a very chaotic way.

[RAM]

I have added some more of the brushes: bubble, Lace_Ecrue_White, lanterne, Soft_Lemon and Verdoie. They are all fine. But glassbeads_brushes crashed the program. So it's not just the furry type brushes that do this. It's got to be something that I can't figure out on my own. Why some are fine and others are just too much for the program to handle.

HELP!!

OK, here are the JPEG's I HOPE!!!

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 07, 2001 at 12:48.]

[RAM]

Then there are more to view...

This may not be important to some, but I am trying to solve this as much as possible. And it would be great if some others would jump in and evaluate why this is happening. Guide lines or something needs to be created for the brushes. Why does the program allow some and crash when others are added??? This is one, catfur, that crashes it, I have tried various things to no avail to get it to "take".

RAMWolff

[RAM]

Then there are 2 more......

below is catfur_paper size 300X300_cropped at 48 points in size.

[RAM]

catfur_paper size 400X400_48 points in size.

That's all I will put you all through. Now maybe someone can help out here, so we ALL can benifit. Gary?? Anyone else???

Thanks Guys and Gals

RAMWolff [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

[RAM]

The first jpeg is the most likely candidate to get it to 'take' in the program.

I learned how to "crop" thanks to Gary and Wolfgang, works like a charm, THANKS GUYS!!

It is cropped down to a much smaller line size, but the original points size are re-applied and then saved as a new .xar file and it STILL crashed XaraX!!

RAMWolff