frequent freezing on OSX

[d_hg]

I've been regularly experiencing "freezes" of the application on OSX 10.9. This can happen during any number of operations, such as creating joints, stopping a sketch, and extruding a hole.

When the app freezes, the CPU gets pinned to 100% and all UI goes unresponsive. I've waited as long as a few minutes to see if the program would simply wrap up whatever its doing, but it never has. I'll then force-quit the app and restart it. After restarting, trying to perform the action again typically happens very fast so I'm not just performing a computationally expensive action.

This will happen maybe once every 20 minutes of continuous usage, and causes a minimum 3 minute disruption of my workflow.

Is this a known problem, or have other people run into it?

[Phil.E]

Thanks for posting.

Yes this is known and we are looking for ways to solve it. It's not a general problem, only some users have reported it. This is seen in our system as "force quit" CER reports.

I did notice that every crash you have had this month, on the new update, is not marked with comments like "force quit", but your previous crashes commented about it. Are the recent reports you sent also force quits? I'm really sorry to ask for more, but can you please note "force quit" in your reports? It really helps us work more quickly to solve these things.

Also, I need to see your logs. In this case, we need your Fusion 360 Diagnostic Log Files, as well as OSX reports found with Console.

and here, inside Console.

These will help us see if something in the background is hanging Fusion, which is what your symptoms sound like.

Thanks for reporting this and helping to fix it. 

Regards,

[d_hg]

Thanks Phil -

Yes, I stopped adding notes to the reports but it all seems to be the same behavior from a user perspective. I'm happy to start adding notes again, and next time it happens I'll send you some logs.

Interesting that it's not a general problem, but it's still more than just me. Makes me wonder if it has something to do with the file I'm editing, because in the past there were indications that it has some kind of corruption. (see http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document-answer/cannot-cut-into-a-linked-assembly/m-p/... - Jeff Strater has the file)

best,

Devon

[Phil.E]

@d_hg

Thanks, I remember that post.

Please do let us know if you find it only in this file, or if you see it in relatively simple or new files. That would describe the "envelope" we are looking for. Either very broad (all files and complexity) for somewhat narrow (only your one design).

And please do add notes to those CER. I have figured out some really complex crashes from the aggregate of user comments in a family of reports. 

@jeff_strater

Let's work with his design to see if there are any performance snags. If you can invite me to it, or just email me, I'll check later this week.

Thanks,

[d_hg]

FYI I tried exporting and re-importing the file, and am still observing crashes. I'll send you the additional log files you requested.

best,
Devon

[Anonymous]

Poping into this thread as I still have the same issue (I already have created a thread about it and Phil is helping me via email -- stellar customer service btw!). Will watch for updates!

[Phil.E]

Thanks all.

There is this thread also:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/design-validate-document/crashes-making-the-package-unusable/td-p/6263...

I take it you all are on Mac OS?

[d_hg]

OSX 10.9.5

For me, F360 never actually "crashes" - it freezes into a 'Not Responding' state with CPU at 100% and I force quit with the Activity Monitor.

I don't believe I've seen indications of a memory leak, but I'll keep an eye out.

[Anonymous]

Exact same behaviour. And if you check the allocated memory, it grows increasingly until OSX starts to cough.

I'm on OS X 10.11.4.

I have created another user on my Mac, 100% allocated to Fusion, maybe it's an app that I'm using that's messing with Fusion, I'll keep you posted on wether the issue still happens.

[Phil.E]

Good to know, sorta. I'm going to add this thread to the bug I logged yesterday related to that other thread. It's all Mac related.

The model I got from that user has some interesting features. Those of you with these freezes, can you confirm any of these factors?

* Hundreds of bodies in any single component. The design is mostly xref components (about 10) and has hundreds of bodies in both the root and a couple of subcomponents. Open the text commands, ensure you have TXT option checked, and use component.count command. It will show you a list of objects in your design.

* Hundreds of move commands. The bodies are made "out of position" and moved into position with body moves. (this is particularly bad when each body has to compute a different transform against the component origin). If you scroll the timeline, do you see (at times) mostly little black crosses that are body move commands?

* The design itself is 38MB when downloaded. I've tested much larger files that had better performance and no memory/cpu issues. But in this case, size could matter when considering the two points above.

If any of this rings a bell, please chime in. I'm not trying to lecture you about good modeling habits, just looking for things that we need to improve to allow any style of modeling in Fusion.

Thanks,

[d_hg]

Are 'linked files' the same as 'x-refs'?

• I generally try to keep my components to just one or two bodies. I do have hundreds of linked components (a small library of mcmaster and other 3rd party parts).

Component.Counts With Overrides: LeafOccurrences 213: Bodies 247: VisibleLeafOccurrences 101: VisibleBodies 121: LeafOccurrencesWithVisualMaterialOverrides 36: OccurrencesWithTransformOverides 35

• Move commands - almost none. I do have a fair number of "position" commands (made using Align) followed by as-built joints.
• My downloaded f3z archive is 25MB (including all linked files). Unzipping the f3z, the "root" f3d file is just 2.5MB.

FYI, really appreciate your efforts here. Software is hard - good luck tracking down these issues!

[Phil.E]

Yes linked = xref.

It's kind of funny, but xref is an AutoCAD term, which is perfectly descriptive of this and often used. Looking in Fusion designs the files have chain link icons, and you can Break Link, hence the term "linked", but if you look at the data panel it refers to Parent and Child designs and "inserting". The terminology is hard to nail down, especially for a really wide audience like this. 🙂

Semantics aside, it sounds like your observation discredits the "unique" aspects of the other user's designs. You have nearly 1:1 body to component ratio, and your timeline is far different. The file size is similar and I think the only relevant connection.

All that being said, I believe I have already submitted a strong case file that the engineers can use to debug this issue. Performance is always a priority and thanks for your patience as we work on ever expanding capacity for Fusion models.

Regards,

[d_hg]

I can confirm @Anonymous's observation that during a freeze "if you check the allocated memory, it grows increasingly until OSX starts to cough". Looks like it grows at approx. 50MB/s.

[Anonymous]

Another crash right now when editing a constraint... Has the dev team a clue of what's wrong? What can we do to help? It's seriously impacting my workflow.

[Phil.E]

Hi,

I can see from your crash reports this looks data specific and is not a crash we have analyzed before with your data.

I still have access to your account so if you could let me know which design and sketch to work with I'll try to reproduce this today. If you like you can just email me.

Sorry for the trouble.

Thanks,

[Anonymous]

Hey Phil -- you can go ahead, you still have access to the design I'm working on (Kello).

It's not repeatable and it does not happen in specific sketches. It happens from time to time in all sketches.

Let me know if I can activate some sort of trace or debug mode so you can see what triggers the issue.

It definitely has something to do with the "editing value" box that appears when you want to change a constraint (whether it's a sketch constraint, or a joint). It always freezes right before the box is supposed to show up (double click on the constraint or create a new one, position the label, and click to finish placing the label and start editing the value).

Thanks

[Phil.E]

@Anonymous This is the same problem I referenced above. Your design shows the same issue with growing RAM. Can you confirm that your RAM use is high when these freeze events occur?

This is currently being investigated as very high priority. For now you will have to watch your RAM usage as you edit the model and restart Fusion from time to time to clear it up.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I think my RAM use is pretty high all of the time.

I just restarted my computer and will try to keep RAM usage low for the next couple of days. I'll keep you posted.

[d_hg]

Note: in my case, the ram doesn't start climbing until the application has frozen. Prior to freezing, my memory pressure is low, plenty is available, and Fusion is using a constant and reasonable amount.

[Anonymous]

Hey d_hg, have you found a solution to your freezing problem?