3D Data disappearing

[7SEG]

Hi, I am having some very serious trouble modeling a line in 2D/3D.

All the 3D data of some of my objects just suddenly disappear when saving. When the saving is finished, I get a crash at the end.

This is causing a big headache since i've several times lost a lot of work since I cannot rebuild the 3D data again (it seems to be deleted, even when checking 3D data from the class library).

I've seen the same problem on the forum earlier but I'm not entirely sure how to reproduce it. It only happens sometimes when modeling in 3D and saving the model. I hope the screenshot helps to debug the problem.

[PeterKomarek]

Please report this to GTAC and try to provide them with as many data as possible so that hopefully someone will be able to reproduce and fix this. From a look at the crash stack, this look absolutely foreign to me.

Ideally add some information about what functions you frequently use or even better, (if you know, of course) what you did before such a crash (including what you did before you saved the model since that seemed to be the very last action).

Also, it might be interesting whether this was done while a simulation was running or not.

There might be more things interesting to know to approach the crash - these are just my best guesses.

[7SEG]

Hi, thank you for the response.

It hasn't crashed on me yet but I keep losing work as an undefined number of objects just lose their 3D data. It seems impossible for me to reproduce or diagnose  since it happens completely randomly, either while working, saving or just leaving the simulation running.

I managed to capture the strange behavior on video (attached) but I cannot reproduce it since as I mentioned earlier it seems completely random, and even worse is that there is no crash associated to it anymore. As you can see, the boxes on the conveyors just show up as wireframes. The workers are also wireframes. When clicking the mouse on them, the wireframe disappears. Opening each object from the class library visually has empty 3D data, but the graphics structure is intact.. I don't understand.

I am at my wits end as to what to do since I keep losing work and soon cannot afford to work on this model anymore. Is the model fundamentally corrupt in some way? Should I start over from scratch?

I have Plant Simulation set to autosave my model but the problem is it only autosaves to one extra version. If I don't notice the problem before it autosaves again, I've lost my backup. 

[PeterKomarek · Accepted solution]

The wireframe representation you can see in the video is already a sign that the data are lost.

More precisely: It is a sign that they could not be loaded from file which pretty much means the same.

Now about your model:

We added code to Plant Simulation 14.0.2 that intended to fix rare cases of incompletely saved model files. We could not pin down any case back then when this actually happened but added this merely in the hope that this be the last remaining glitch of data missing in a model file. The objects that were affected then were always objects that have not been visible in any open 3D window while the model was saved.

If your model actually fits that, this would mean that with using Plant Simulation 14.0.2, this problem should disappear (for data that has not already been lost). So I would suggest you install the maintenance pack for 14.0.2 (it should be available within few days) and recreate the objects for which the graphics disappeared after the update.

To update you model then, I suggest the following:

1. For each class in your model, open the class in a 3D window (Context menu of the class in the class library -> Open in 3D). If that command is not available, then this means that it will not be created in 3D at all - this is OK. If the class shows plausible graphics, then this is also OK. In both cases, skip the remaining steps and continue with the next class. Otherwise continue with step 2.
2. Depending on what you already did with you class, the best way to update differs.
   • If the class has no instances, open the "attribute and methods" dialog for your class. Double-click on the attribute "CreateIn3D" twice - the class will be stripped from its 3D part with the first double-click and it will get a fresh new one with the second double click.
   • If the class has instances, you can do the same. But in this case, it might be worth checking before whether there is an instance or a derived class that defines own graphics (you can find this out by checking the graphic inheritance - either on the graphics page of the 3D properties dialog or in the graphic structure dialog of the class). If that is not the case, just do the double double-click again. Otherwise, click on "Exchange graphics" in the 3D edit ribbon. There, you find a folder "Basic objects" in the application links. Select the file that matches your class (e.g. "SingleProc.s3d" if it is a SingleProc) and recreate your graphic that way.
3. After you recreated all your classes, save your model. I expect the file size to increase more or less significantly depending on the number of affected graphics.

I hope that starting with Plant Simulation 14.0.2, this issue finally vanishes. In case you experience something similar again, please reconsider filing a report to GTAC because that most certainly would mean that we still have not nailed down the actual problem.