Windows 7 - Revit 2009

[eviele]

Hello fellow CAD Manglers. I have a question or two. Hopefully you can help us diagnose something.
We're rolling out Win 7 64bit machines and have included Revit 2009 for those folks still finishing projects on that version.

Our IT guy has hit a stumbling block.
One person in the office has gone through three rebuilt machines in a day. Each time that user goes to open the team's Revit file he gets an error that says Revit has suffered an unrecoverable error and will close.
Everyone else on the team can open and work on the file just fine.
All users are the same build (Revit I mean - build 1045).

The kicker was the third machine. The IT guy built it using our ghost software, tested it every step of the way including opening the team's central file, then he carries the machine over to the user, plugs it in and gets a blue screen of death. Starts the machine up again, crosses his fingers, and all seems well, until the user opens the team central file and crashes. So it worked during all of the testing and failed when brought over to the user. The only apparent difference is that the user is running two monitors and the IT person thinks that may have been the cause of the crash, but he's not sure why Revit won't open the team file now.

So three different computers upgraded with new RAM for each and they all fail.

This seems endemic to our Win 7 process. We had another user that the IT guy built three machines for with the third one finally working. Same kinda issue, the user couldn't open the central file of a revit project.

So far, about 15 machines have been built and of those about 5 have had weird problems and have been replaced.

What are the machines?
XI's. They were expensive, but reliable and fast and built for us by the folks over at XI. Now our IT guy is blowing away XP and doing a fresh install of Win 7 and adding RAM. Well, the ghost image was made from a fresh install. All machines we hand out are made from the ghost image.

Can you not create a ghost image of Revit?
Will installing Revit manually save us?
(sorry, that just occured to me - I'd ask the IT guy to test it, but he's done with this issue for the day)

The revit file is kinda big, 190MB, but it's manageable. I can open it here on my copy of Win 7 and the rest of the team can work with it so I don't think it's the file.

So what might it be?
Any ideas?

Thanks in advance...

[Anonymous]

Try starting the machine with 1 monitor only. Add the second monitor and
activate it after computer is already running. Check that you are using
the right video drivers for the installed card and Win 7 - 64. Verify
that the user is able to see the server and necessary directories. How
many people on the network? Which version of Win 7? What is network
configuration? Are you using a server version of windows or peer to
peer? All these things will make a huge difference.

eviele wrote:
> Hello fellow CAD Manglers. I have a question or two. Hopefully you can help us diagnose something.
> We're rolling out Win 7 64bit machines and have included Revit 2009 for those folks still finishing projects on that version.
>
> Our IT guy has hit a stumbling block.
> One person in the office has gone through three rebuilt machines in a day. Each time that user goes to open the team's Revit file he gets an error that says Revit has suffered an unrecoverable error and will close.
> Everyone else on the team can open and work on the file just fine.
> All users are the same build (Revit I mean - build 1045).
>
> The kicker was the third machine. The IT guy built it using our ghost software, tested it every step of the way including opening the team's central file, then he carries the machine over to the user, plugs it in and gets a blue screen of death. Starts the machine up again, crosses his fingers, and all seems well, until the user opens the team central file and crashes. So it worked during all of the testing and failed when brought over to the user. The only apparent difference is that the user is running two monitors and the IT person thinks that may have been the cause of the crash, but he's not sure why Revit won't open the team file now.
>
> So three different computers upgraded with new RAM for each and they all fail.
>
> This seems endemic to our Win 7 process. We had another user that the IT guy built three machines for with the third one finally working. Same kinda issue, the user couldn't open the central file of a revit project.
>
> So far, about 15 machines have been built and of those about 5 have had weird problems and have been replaced.
>
> What are the machines?
> XI's. They were expensive, but reliable and fast and built for us by the folks over at XI. Now our IT guy is blowing away XP and doing a fresh install of Win 7 and adding RAM. Well, the ghost image was made from a fresh install. All machines we hand out are made from the ghost image.
>
> Can you not create a ghost image of Revit?
> Will installing Revit manually save us?
> (sorry, that just occured to me - I'd ask the IT guy to test it, but he's done with this issue for the day)
>
> The revit file is kinda big, 190MB, but it's manageable. I can open it here on my copy of Win 7 and the rest of the team can work with it so I don't think it's the file.
>
> So what might it be?
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance...

[Anonymous]

I would check one of the 'bad" computers at a network connection for one of
the computers that is working then try one of the working computers at the
"bad" connection. That probably isn't the problem but its easy to try.

--
Lance W.

"eviele" wrote in message news:6329103@discussion.autodesk.com...
> Hello fellow CAD Manglers. I have a question or two. Hopefully you can
> help us diagnose something.
> We're rolling out Win 7 64bit machines and have included Revit 2009 for
> those folks still finishing projects on that version.
>
> Our IT guy has hit a stumbling block.
> One person in the office has gone through three rebuilt machines in a day.
> Each time that user goes to open the team's Revit file he gets an error
> that says Revit has suffered an unrecoverable error and will close.
> Everyone else on the team can open and work on the file just fine.
> All users are the same build (Revit I mean - build 1045).
>
> The kicker was the third machine. The IT guy built it using our ghost
> software, tested it every step of the way including opening the team's
> central file, then he carries the machine over to the user, plugs it in
> and gets a blue screen of death. Starts the machine up again, crosses his
> fingers, and all seems well, until the user opens the team central file
> and crashes. So it worked during all of the testing and failed when
> brought over to the user. The only apparent difference is that the user is
> running two monitors and the IT person thinks that may have been the cause
> of the crash, but he's not sure why Revit won't open the team file now.
>
> So three different computers upgraded with new RAM for each and they all
> fail.
>
> This seems endemic to our Win 7 process. We had another user that the IT
> guy built three machines for with the third one finally working. Same
> kinda issue, the user couldn't open the central file of a revit project.
>
> So far, about 15 machines have been built and of those about 5 have had
> weird problems and have been replaced.
>
> What are the machines?
> XI's. They were expensive, but reliable and fast and built for us by the
> folks over at XI. Now our IT guy is blowing away XP and doing a fresh
> install of Win 7 and adding RAM. Well, the ghost image was made from a
> fresh install. All machines we hand out are made from the ghost image.
>
> Can you not create a ghost image of Revit?
> Will installing Revit manually save us?
> (sorry, that just occured to me - I'd ask the IT guy to test it, but he's
> done with this issue for the day)
>
> The revit file is kinda big, 190MB, but it's manageable. I can open it
> here on my copy of Win 7 and the rest of the team can work with it so I
> don't think it's the file.
>
> So what might it be?
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance...

[Anonymous]

> I would check one of the 'bad" computers at a network connection for one of
> the computers that is working then try one of the working computers at the
> "bad" connection.

Gotta agree, sounds like a bad hub or bad hub coonnection to me.

[eviele]

Interesting.
We've been in our new office for four years and the wiring was installed then. So far no troubles with XP machines, but could Win 7 be more "sensitive" to network fluctuations than XP? Could our switch, or hub, or something be bad? Maybe even the short network cables? Hm...

I'll pass along the information gentleman, thank you.

P.S. "sensitive" is probably not a technical term. Sorry about that. I'm no IT guy obviously, more of a CAD mangler than anything. Much thanks for the diagnostic help.

[Anonymous]

Yep, Win7 can be more touchy about less than perfect wiring. Another thing
to check is that the IPv6 addressing is turned off on the Win7 computers.
That new protocol can step on some of the IPv4 stuff.

Mark Evinger

wrote in message news:6329577@discussion.autodesk.com...
Interesting.
We've been in our new office for four years and the wiring was installed
then. So far no troubles with XP machines, but could Win 7 be more
"sensitive" to network fluctuations than XP? Could our switch, or hub, or
something be bad? Maybe even the short network cables? Hm...

I'll pass along the information gentleman, thank you.

P.S. "sensitive" is probably not a technical term. Sorry about that. I'm no
IT guy obviously, more of a CAD mangler than anything. Much thanks for the
diagnostic help.

[Anonymous]

Thoughts...

Aero theme OFF?
Install .NET FRAMEWORK 4 BETA?
Overclocking Processor? If so, OFF?
Video as Direct3D?
All SP/Patches for Revit?


~Terry

eviele wrote:
> Hello fellow CAD Manglers. I have a question or two. Hopefully you can help us diagnose something.
> We're rolling out Win 7 64bit machines and have included Revit 2009 for those folks still finishing projects on that version.
>
> Our IT guy has hit a stumbling block.
> One person in the office has gone through three rebuilt machines in a day. Each time that user goes to open the team's Revit file he gets an error that says Revit has suffered an unrecoverable error and will close.
> Everyone else on the team can open and work on the file just fine.
> All users are the same build (Revit I mean - build 1045).
>
> The kicker was the third machine. The IT guy built it using our ghost software, tested it every step of the way including opening the team's central file, then he carries the machine over to the user, plugs it in and gets a blue screen of death. Starts the machine up again, crosses his fingers, and all seems well, until the user opens the team central file and crashes. So it worked during all of the testing and failed when brought over to the user. The only apparent difference is that the user is running two monitors and the IT person thinks that may have been the cause of the crash, but he's not sure why Revit won't open the team file now.
>
> So three different computers upgraded with new RAM for each and they all fail.
>
> This seems endemic to our Win 7 process. We had another user that the IT guy built three machines for with the third one finally working. Same kinda issue, the user couldn't open the central file of a revit project.
>
> So far, about 15 machines have been built and of those about 5 have had weird problems and have been replaced.
>
> What are the machines?
> XI's. They were expensive, but reliable and fast and built for us by the folks over at XI. Now our IT guy is blowing away XP and doing a fresh install of Win 7 and adding RAM. Well, the ghost image was made from a fresh install. All machines we hand out are made from the ghost image.
>
> Can you not create a ghost image of Revit?
> Will installing Revit manually save us?
> (sorry, that just occured to me - I'd ask the IT guy to test it, but he's done with this issue for the day)
>
> The revit file is kinda big, 190MB, but it's manageable. I can open it here on my copy of Win 7 and the rest of the team can work with it so I don't think it's the file.
>
> So what might it be?
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance...

[TravisNave]

Have you considered the fact that only the 2010 product line is supported on Windows 7? You might be able to install 2009 on Windows 7 if you install it and run it under XP Compatibility mode, but still Autodesk will not support the platform on this OS.

[eviele]

Considered, yes, but we're just finishing up a few projects in the 2009 format, so we want to make it work.
I'm not convinced the problem is Win 7 anyway.

Our IT department swapped monitors and says all is well. The user can now start Win 7, get no blue screen and can open and use the Revit central file.

I'm skeptical to say the least.
It seems to have worked, but this is the second user who has gone through three computer builds and we didn't replace the other persons monitor.

I don't have a lot of confidence moving forward that our underlying problems are resolved.
The connection to the server and other issues mentioned here seem more likely culprits than a monitor, but for now the IT folks no longer have a problem so all is well. Thanks for your help everyone.

[Anonymous]

I would agree with Lance and Randy. While reading your original post that's
the first thing that popped into my mind.
I've seen it before and it sounds like you're IT dept. has tested the
computer end of things leaving only connectivity issues as a possible cause.

--
J. Logan


wrote in message news:6332363@discussion.autodesk.com...
Considered, yes, but we're just finishing up a few projects in the 2009
format, so we want to make it work.
I'm not convinced the problem is Win 7 anyway.

Our IT department swapped monitors and says all is well. The user can now
start Win 7, get no blue screen and can open and use the Revit central file.

I'm skeptical to say the least.
It seems to have worked, but this is the second user who has gone through
three computer builds and we didn't replace the other persons monitor.

I don't have a lot of confidence moving forward that our underlying problems
are resolved.
The connection to the server and other issues mentioned here seem more
likely culprits than a monitor, but for now the IT folks no longer have a
problem so all is well. Thanks for your help everyone.