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Hi all,
With the most recent update, 2017.0.1 (21.0.1), we are having stability problems when we run one of our scripts in Illustrator. Quick overview... the script in question is 2000 lines of code long, loads in and closes files multiple times, reads info from a .csv file, and runs any number of functions/processes along the way, and we've never had a problem with it till we updated, and we've been using it for over a year and a half.
Currently, it will run 2-3 files and then Illustrator crashes. I will put in alerts to try and narrow the problem down and it will run perfectly. Take out the alerts and it crashes again. When I think I've gotten the problem figured out by commenting out different functions, the problems moves to a new area.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this lately? And if so, what did you do to remedy it? It almost feels like Illustrator is getting overwhelmed trying to process things before it's done doing others, but like I mentioned above, we've never had this problem before.
Thanks.
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Do you get any details in a crash dialog, or can you better describe exactly how the crash occurs?
The alerts affecting the crashing suggests to me that the cause of the crash might have something to do with document or palette window redrawing after a scripted change in the document, or perhaps with some sensitive timing of operations. An alert gives idle time on the main thread, which might affect how some race condition produces a crash or doesn't.
I would suggest using a function which appends a message to a log file, rather than using an alert, to try to narrow the problem down further. A log file can help you track down a smaller range of lines that might explain the problem, and would not change much about window drawing compared to an alert.
It might also be worth a try to run your script with as many palette windows closed as possible.
Glenn
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From which version did you upgrade to 2017? What were you using before you upgraded?
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Here's a log appender I have used on Windows to assist with debugging and execution time performance optimizations. As provided here, it will add a line to a log file that rolls over once a day, with a file name like "LogFileBaseName-2017-01-13-log.txt" in the folder "c:\someClient\\someProject". The line will read something like "01/13/2017 13:21:12 + 0029 ms: Test message".
Hope this helps.
Glenn
=====
#targetengine miscellaneous;
function const_workFolder() { return "c:\\someClient\\someProject\\"; }
//Use double backslashes for folder separators, because of the way strings work in ExtendScript
function const_logPrefix() { return "LogFileBaseName-";}
function logAppend(theMessage) {
var dater = new Date();
var logFileName = const_workFolder() + const_logPrefix() + dater.getFullYear() + "-" +
("0" + (dater.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2) + "-" +
("0" + dater.getDate()).slice(-2) + "-log.txt";
//Year-month-day all with two digits, because that sorts most meaningfully alphabetically in a folder
var write_file = File(logFileName);
var out;
if (!write_file.exists) {
// if the file does not exist create it
write_file = new File(logFileName);
out = write_file.open('w', undefined, undefined);
} else {
//Open it up for appending
out = write_file.open('a', undefined, undefined);
}
write_file.encoding = "UTF-8";
write_file.lineFeed = "Windows";
write_file.writeln(dateString(dater) + ": " + theMessage);
write_file.close();
}
function dateString(dater) {
return ("0" + (dater.getMonth() + 1)).slice(-2) + "/"
+ ("0" + dater.getDate()).slice(-2) + "/"
+ dater.getFullYear()
+ " " + ("0" + dater.getHours() ).slice(-2)
+ ":" + ("0" + dater.getMinutes()).slice(-2)
+ ":" + ("0" + dater.getSeconds()).slice(-2)
+ " + " + ("000" + dater.getMilliseconds()).slice(-4) + " ms";
}
//Use the logging function
logAppend("Test message");
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I notice that a 2017.0.2 release is now available for updating from the Creative Cloud application. This purports to fix some stability issues -- perhaps yours. Give it a try and report back here?
Glenn
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I have just installed the update 2017.0.02 and previously never had a crash problem.
Now Illustrator will not even start up with a normal start. Tried the diagnostics and I had to restart it 24 times in a row and still it crashed.
Having had no problems before, I am now extremely angry, the update was to fix the crashing and other problems with the previous version and now I have a version that does not start at all and constantly crashes.
As a Technical Author/Illustrator for a major global company, my work has now started to backup with no solution in sight.
I really hope Adobe actually do something about this without waiting for months, or for someone in the community, other than themselves, finds an answer to the problem.
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The best immediate solution is to uninstall 2017 and install a previous version (personally i'm still on 2014 because there have been similar issues every single time a new version is released and i don't have time to mess with it. The new features aren't nearly worth the headache).
You may also want to run the cleaner tool before installing illustrator again.
In case there's someone out there who doesn't know how to grab previous versions, i'll spell it out. I'm not trying to insult anyone's intelligence here.
Open Creative Cloud App, login and click on the "Apps" tab. Scroll down where you'll find the "Installed" section. Select Adobe Illustrator from the list, click the "settings" gear on the right hand side, and click "Uninstall" from the dropdown list.
After the uninstall is complete, follow the instructions on this page to run the cleaner tool and hopefully clear out any lingering issues that may be contributing to stability issues.
Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems
When the cleaner tool is finished, open the Creative Cloud app again, and scroll down to the "Find Additional Apps" section. On the right hand side of the section title, (it likely says "All Apps"), click that and select "View Previous Versions" from the bottom of the dropdown list:
Then scroll to find Illustrator in the list, and click "Install" which will open a dropdown list with all of the available versions. Select your desired previous version and the installation will begin.
I hope this helps somebody. Good luck!
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Thank you for your very extensive help.
Why did I not think of that 🙂