crash moving items

[Alston P.]

Hi all,

I keep experiencing a crash when I try to move a large selection of tiles with the keyboard.  This happens to me on LV2009 (full development suite) in Windows 7 Enterprise and LV2010 Student Edition on Win7 Home Premium.  The tiles will move a few clicks with no problem, but if I try to move then a substantial distance, LabVIEW crashes with the an error in drawmgr.cpp line 2970.

The LV2009 machine is a Toshiba Portege with integrated graphics.  The other machine is self-built running an NVidia GeForce GTX260.  Both should have the latest WHQL drivers installed.

I've attached the error log for reference.

Thanks for the help.

EDIT: I might add that this occurs moving the tiles in the block diagram.

[EMotts]

If the same VI crashes on two different computers with different versions of LV, maybe you should post the VI for people to look at.  It would be useful to see if it happens on other computers.  Does this happen on more than one VI?

And by "tiles," I guess you mean functions and nodes on the Block Diagram?  So this ONLY happens on the BD, not on the Front Panel?  What you say a "large selection," what do you mean?  More than one, more than a dozen, more than a hundred?  I've never run into a limit on moving a block of code, but I'd be interested to know if there is a limit.

And just a thought--I've sometimes found than the "latest" drivers are not the best for your particular system.  Sometimes going back a version or two may give you a more stable system--that was true with my last nVidia system.

I know I haven't answered your question.  I've just tried to clarify a few points that someone else might find helpful.

Ed

[Alston P.]

It's not any specific VI, and I'm not doing anything special (I saw other posts about custom icons causing problems, etc).

The problem tends to occur moving sets of maybe 5 or more -- I really haven't wanted to crash LV just so that I can count how many functions I can move without crashing, at least in a non-beta -- functions in the block diagram with a continuous press on the arrow keys.  It's also usually over a longer distance, say moving a section of code instead of just lining things up so they look nicer.

[johnsold]

A guess: How large is your block diagram?  If the size of the diagram exceeds about 16000 pixels many strange things may happen, including crashes.

The style guides and good practice suggest keeping the size of the diagram to the size of one screen.

Lynn

[Cory_K]

---

@johnsold wrote:

A guess: How large is your block diagram?  If the size of the diagram exceeds about 16000 pixels many strange things may happen, including crashes.

The style guides and good practice suggest keeping the size of the diagram to the size of one screen.

Lynn

---

This can (and should) be done for multiple reasons. The easiest way to achieve this is by use of subVI's.

This helps make the code easier to read and modify later on as well.

[Justin__D]

Lynn and Cory are definitely right that a large block diagram could be the problem.  There is a limit to the size of the front panel and block diagram, so moving objects a large distance could exceed this limit.  Adding Sub VI's is definitely the best way to reduce the amount of code on a single block diagram.  The link below explains a little more about this limit. 

Maximum Size for Front Panel and Block Diagram

Justin D

[Alston P.]

I was actually trying to contain my diagram within a 1680*1050 space (or 1280*1024, depending on the computer).  I was hoping to have one of my problematic VI's in my dropbox so I could post it.

[Cory_K]

---

@Alston P. wrote:

I was actually trying to contain my diagram within a 1680*1050 space (or 1280*1024, depending on the computer).  I was hoping to have one of my problematic VI's in my dropbox so I could post it.

---

It would be easier to just upload the VI directly, rather than posting in on a 3rd party site.

[Alston P.]

I had planned on posting directly...  I meant that I didn't have it on hand to post at all.  It's saved to the hard drive on my desktop at home.

One of the problematic VIs is similar to the one I've attached.  I have a couple of versions where I am experimenting with different routines trying to work out how I want to do the program, so there is a lot of extra white space in the code right now.  The other VI that failed on me was a lot smaller in scope and was something I was building to use as a sub VI.

---

...and the computer is out to make me look like a liar this morning.  I haven't been able to reproduce the error I have been getting.  The error log on the laptop more or less mirrors the log I attached in the 1st post.  GDI calls failing, bad color depth, unable to create 24 pen.

[RavensFan]

Was the navigation window open or closed when you were doing the moves and LV crashed?  It is open or closed now when it is working?

Not that it should cause a crash, but I know that when the Navigation Window is open, moves can take a bit longer or be slower because LV needs to calculate the graphics to show in the Navigation Window as well.  Just thinking that it might be what is putting your LV over the edge and causing the crash to happen.