Crash Error Report (CER) FAQ

[keqingsong]

1. What is a Crash Error Report?
   1. A Crash Error Report (CER), also known as a Customer Error Report, is generated when Fusion or any Autodesk application encounters an error and cannot continue running.  This is often called a crash. The report contains important information about Fusion and what the customer was doing when Fusion crashed.

2. What kind of information is captured?
   1. Several kinds of log files, such as the application log itself, installation logs, and available operating system logs. Also, the user can enter comments about what they were doing, which can be detailed steps, or more general information like “creating a sketch”.
   2. It is important to note that while a Customer Error Report (CER) captures various logs and operational data related to the error, it does not capture any design data or files created by the user. This ensures that your personal or professional designs remain private and are not transmitted as part of the report. The CER focuses strictly on identifying technical issues to help improve the functionality and stability of the application.
   3. The most important information is called a “call stack”, or “stack trace”. It is the list of operations running at the time of the crash. This information used to separate the crashes into “buckets” when they are submitted. The reports in each bucket have the same call stack, which is how we sort them. This sorting is how we prioritize crashes. 

3. Should you always submit a CER?
   1. Yes. Each report is analyzed by the QA team, quantitively as well as qualitatively. To be clear: if you have experienced a crash 10 times but have only sent 1 report out of the 10 times, it’ll appear to us that you’ve only had 1 crash. If the user submitted a CER after each crash, it would immediately be apparent to us that something repeatable is happening, enabling us to prioritize your issue more efficiently.
   2. In addition, Crash reports help when you call customer support. They can also analyze the crashes and more quickly see how to help you.

4. What happens when you send in a CER?
   1. The report is sorted by the call stack and put with similar reports into a bucket.
   2. Automatic systems analyze the crashes and put the information into dashboards for engineers to examine. The call stack determines how it’s sorted, and engineers find it in the dashboard for their team.
   3. If a solution is already available for the crash, a solution will be offered in the crash dialog box and also sent in an email.

5. What is the benefit to you (the user) by submitting a CER?
   1. The top benefit is that the crash will be fixed sooner if we get more reports about it.
   2. Helping the community by helping get a crash fixed.
   3. Getting the solution, if available.

6. How will you know when an issue is fixed?
   1. We could improve here. One method is to list the fixed crashes in release notes. Otherwise, you might receive a solution via the crash dialog or email, as described above. This will advise updating Fusion to receive the fixed code.