how to read Maya crash log '.dmp' files?

[jwlove]

Please forgive me if this is a very easy question/answer... I've tried looking for it, but I may just not be stating it correctly in google and forum searches.

I'm working with PyQt5 (through pySide2) to create a ui tool, and I've been having an issue that after a certain repeatable pattern of use, Maya encounters a fatal error and crashes.

I have found the maya crash log '.dmp' files, but I have no idea how to open them and actually read through it to try and determine the cause of the crash.  Opening with a text editor just produces a huge mess of non-readable-for-humans text and symbols.

So, how do I go about looking at one of these files to diagnose the issue?

[djonesuk · Accepted solution]

These are user-mode Windows Crash Dump files. You can open them with WinDBG and get the exception details and a stack trace, but it's not really for the faint hearted. You can find WinDBG here.

[jwlove]

Thanks! Do you say it's not for the faint hearted because it's extremely hard to read and understand (lots of obscure looking commands or something)? It may be a bit over my head if so, heh. I ended up finding a different solution around my problem that was causing the crash and didn't take a look at the dmp file; however, this is really good to know if I run into another situation and decide to be brave, haha.