LACK of Tech Support

[andrew.robinson4HZXU]

Hey People,

Got a question to put out there. Okay, I've been at my current position for just over a year, and in that time I've had quite a few crashes with CAD, several Fatal Errors and what-have-you, and after each CAD sends a report to their tech department and gives me the opportunity to write some notes in the email. Okay, so far so good. Here's the fly in the ointment: In all that time, I have NEVER gotten a response from them!

What's up with that? I'm just curious, have any of you experienced that? I mean, overall, the company is pretty good, but why is it they never get back to me on this issue? I can understand them being busy, but come on, more than a YEAR and NO reply, not so much as an email?

Your thoughts?

[neilyj666]

I'd always assumed that this was done to make the user feel as if sending these reports made a difference whereas I now tend think they just end up in a Recycle Bin somewhere...;)

[spear_kevin_pe]

While I do not manage these emails, I am aware that they do act on those that appear in duplication. For instance, the app crashes doing the same thing and the email contains the same workflow to cause the crash. In fact, if there at least 3, then these used to be flagged for review.

I typically do not get a response to anything I send. Typically, I will see the issue addressed in a hotfix or other update that comes along.

Hope this helps!

[dgorsman]

If they did respond, it would typically be little more than "We don't have a solution for this right now".  That's not out of malice, or ignorance, but simply because they can't immediately tell from what's in the error report.   I don't think that would make you feel any better in any event, so it just gets logged.

The first step is always diagnosis.  There's a host of potential problems to be investigated, almost all of them local to the individuals computer, and they wouldn't be reflected in error reports.  Improperly installed graphics drivers, overly agressive UAC/anti-virus protecting the user from themselves, internal or third-party customizations improperly dealing with certain conditions can all cause problems but are out of the scope of what Autodesk could detect and fix.

Then you get into other issues - I see from the image you're running Civil3D.  That's very data heavy, with a lot of interactions going on.  It has a few more faults than vanilla AutoCAD, some of which can be minimized or worked around though work procedures.  I'd recommend posting specific, reproducible problems and see if someone can spot a potential fix you could implement.

[rl_jackson]

I would have to agree with @dgorsman. In most cases a lot of crashes can be resolved with simple workflow changes. For instance from your image I see a existing ground surface, alignment, pipe network (possibly) along with 2 storm ponds (not sure if those are gradings) and a subdivision layout (maybe parcels, native or xref). While this man not seem like a lot of info in a drawing, if it's not managed properly it can cause some serious headaches as you move forward through the project. Simply turning off the contours may stop your crashing or even a snapshot, but if the surface is native look into drefs of it, the alignment and network. Some great workflows and ideas for workflows exist here and most any here are glad to help.

[michael_robertson]

I have actually received a few replies back when they have fixed a problem I've submitted. That being said, that system is setup to let them know what problems are being encountered, not a service desk type process where they are expected to get back with you.

For persistent problems you are much better off going through regular help channels, depending on your contract type either your Reseller or Autodesk itself. 

[AllenJessup]

These are not requests for tech support. They are a way for Autodesk to log problems. They all go into a massive database that they use for analysis of errors. If there is a solution to the problem, say a Service Pack that could be installed, then you might get an automatic response telling you to install it. Official Support comes through a Subscription or Maintenance agreement. Do you have either of those? If you do have support you can reference the case# or your email and the assigned Tech can look at it.

[jeff_rivers]

I'll echo what Mr. Jessup said earlier: The purpose of these crash reports is not so that Autodesk can send you a personal reply, it's so Autodesk can build a database of crashes sorted and analyzed by frequency cross-referenced by what the user was doing just before the crash.  

If several reports come in for a very similar crash where the users were doing very similar things just prior to the crash, Autodesk knows that's something to focus their programmers on.  If only one crash report comes in for something obscure that has no other crash frequency and so is highly unlikely to happen, Autodesk won't focus their programmers on finding the root cause. 

Having said that, I got a personal response once from Autodesk after sending them a crash response to a pretty hilarious sequence of error messages (attached below).  Clicking the first dialog box caused the second dialog box to appear.  Neither one helped me solve the problem that occurred. After clicking the second, it crashed and the Error Report dialog appeared. 

.  

[dbinkney]

I have always assumed it was just an opportunity to vent! 🙂  I'm sure Tech Support has some of those comments printed out and posted up on their wall.