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SPACE GASS

Structural Engineering Software

 

Trouble?

Chances are you'll find the solution here!

This page applies primarily to operational problems that might occur after SPACE GASS has been successfully installed. For installation problems, please refer instead to Titan Troubleshooting (if you have a Titan softlock system) or Hardware Lock Troubleshooting (if you have a hardware lock).

Note that these instructions apply to SPACE GASS 14 or later. If you have an earlier version of SPACE GASS then please Click here for legacy troubleshooting advice.

Diagram Quality

Do your diagrams look like this?

Instead of this?

If so, it means that you haven't optimized SPACE GASS to use your graphics hardware properly. It also means that you haven't yet experienced the true power and silky smoothness of the SPACE GASS graphics. You should go to www.spacegass.com/hardware and follow the steps under "Optimize SPACE GASS To Use Your Hardware Correctly".

After correctly optimizing SPACE GASS for your hardware you will find that it not only looks better, but its graphics will also perform much faster and smoother, sometimes by a factor of 100 times or more!


NetFortran.dll Errors

NetFortran.dll errors similar to above are usually a result of required components blocked from being installed during a SPACE GASS installation.

  1. Shut down SPACE GASS.
  2. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2" folder and locate the two MSI files that have names starting with "ww_ifort_redist..."
  3. Double-click on each of these to manually re-install them (You need to install BOTH msi files).
  4. SPACE GASS should now run without the error.

If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:

  1. Uninstall SPACE GASS 14.2.
  2. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files" folder and delete the "SPACE GASS 14.2" folder if it still exists there.
  3. Start Windows "Control Panel", select "Programs and Features" and uninstall all versions of the "Intel(R) Visual Fortran Redistributable..." files that are listed there.
  4. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel" folder and delete all the folders inside.
  5. Navigate to your "C:\Windows\sysWow64" folder and rename the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file to LIBIOMP5MD.old if it exists there.
  6. Reinstall SPACE GASS by right-clicking on its installation file and selecting "Run as Administrator".
  7. SPACE GASS should now run without the error.

Titan Cloud Login File Error 906

This type of error indicates that Windows may be providing a folder location that contains an invalid/out of date TitanCloud.pwd login file, despite you providing a valid file on registration.

Some Windows configurations are set to use a hidden 'Virtual Store'. With these 'Virtual Stores', there can be two locations of the C:\ProgramData folder that we use to access the login file.

  1. You will first need access to Windows hidden folders, C:\ProgramData (NOT C:\Program Files) and C:\Users\\AppData. Refer to Windows help page View hidden files and folders in Windows
  2. Navigate to your "C:\ProgramData\SPACE GASS" folder and manually delete the TitanCloud.pwd file if it exists in this folder.
  3. Navigate to your "C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\SPACE GASS" folder and if it exists, manually delete the TitanCloud.pwd file if it exists in this folder.
  4. Run SPACE GASS and it should now display that it is unregistered.
  5. Register SPACE GASS with your provided login file or username/password obtained from your licence administrator. Refer Titan Cloud System for detailed instructions.

Titan Cloud Connection Error

This error can be a result of the following:

  1. No internet connection.
  2. Using an old version of SPACE GASS 14. You require at least SPACE GASS 14.11 or greater. Updates available at www.spacegass.com/upgrade
  3. Virus protection software/Corporate IT restrictions blocking access to the cloud server internet address. To connect to the Titan Cloud licence server, access to https://titanclouddispatch.azurewebsites.net using TCP port 443 is required.

SofTrack Causing SPACE GASS to Crash after Analysing or when Opening/Saving a Model

A 3rd party application called SofTrack (a software usage monitoring application) has been found to interfere with SPACE GASS and cause it to crash after an analysis or when opening or saving a job. If you are experiencing this behavior and you have SofTrack installed on your system then it is recommended that you try upgrading it to the latest version. If that doesn't fix the problem then you should uninstall SofTrack.


SPACE GASS Crashing, Black Backgrounds or Unexplained Error Messages

Almost all of these types of errors are caused by an out-of-date graphics driver! Because SPACE GASS now takes full advantage of the parallel processing power of your graphics card, it relies on the OpenGL graphical software that comes with your graphics driver. If your graphics driver is out-of-date then unpredictable and unstable behaviour can result. Because of this, if you experience SPACE GASS crashing, a black background on the screen, blackened reports or unexplained error messages then you should update your graphics driver before trying anything else. This is very important!

Some examples of what you might experience with an out-of-date graphics driver are shown below:

SPACE GASS core crash

Black screen or report

OpenGL error message

The steps to solve these types of problems are as follows:

  1. First of all establish exactly which graphics cards you have in your computer. You can do this by running SPACE GASS 12.50.436 or later, going to "Help => About SPACE GASS..." and looking at the graphics cards listed under "Available Cards". If you can't run SPACE GASS then you should run MSInfo32.exe from your Windows Start menu, expand the "Components" section of the menu tree on the left and then click on "Display" in the expanded tree. Detailed information about your graphics card(s) will then be displayed on the right. Note that if you have multiple graphics cards then you may need to scroll to see them all.

  2. You can skip this step if your computer has only one graphics card, however if you have multiple graphics cards (common in many laptops) then you should ensure that SPACE GASS is using the high performance card. By default, your computer will probably assign the slow onboard graphics card to SPACE GASS and you will not experience its true graphical performance unless you change it. For example, if you have an NVIDIA card, right-click on a blank space of your desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel". When the NVIDIA control panel appears, select "Manage 3D settings" in the menu on the left, click the "Program Settings" tab on the right, select sgwin.exe from your SPACE GASS program folder in the "Select a program to customize" list (click the "Add" button to add SPACE GASS to the list if it doesn't appear there), select "High-performance NVIDIA processor" in the "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program" list and then click the "Apply" button in the bottom-right corner.. For other brands of graphics cards the procedure depends on the type of card. For more detailed information, go to www.spacegass.com/hardware and refer to step 2 under "Optimize SPACE GASS To Use Your Hardware Correctly".

  3. Update the driver for the graphics card used by SPACE GASS via the card manufacturer's website. Do not use Windows Update! Links for some common graphics card manufacturers are: NVIDIA, AMD, ATI, HP and Intel. Note that if you are updating the driver for your graphics card, do not tick the box to install Raptr or PlaysTV because they will cause SPACE GASS and other high-end graphics programs to crash. If you still have problems after updating your graphics driver then check if Raptr or PlaysTV are installed and uninstall them!

  4. If the problem persists after completing the above steps then please generate a system information file, attach it to an email and send it to us at admin@spacegass.com along with a brief description of the problem. You can generate the system information file by running the SPACE GASS Utility Tool (via the Start menu => SPACE GASS Utility Tool), clicking the "Generate System Information File" button and then saving the SGSystemInfo.zip file to your desktop. Please be patient while the system information file is being generated as it may take a few minutes.

    If you can't find the SPACE GASS Utility Tool in your Start menu (or if you don't have a Start button) then just browse to your "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.

Job Failed to Load on Start-up

This is usually due to your graphics card crashing when SPACE GASS loads the graphics engine. It could be due to any of the following reasons.

  1. Your graphics card software is not up-to-date (refer to item 3 at www.spacegass.com/hardware).
  2. Your computer has multiple graphics cards installed, but SPACE GASS is not set to use the high performance card (refer to item 2 at www.spacegass.com/hardware).
  3. You are using a laptop docking station or expansion hub that does not support the latest OpenGL 4 graphics (try undocking/unplugging the laptop and just use the laptop display).
  4. You are using Remote Desktop software that does not support the latest OpenGL 4 graphics (refer to www.spacegass.com/remotedesktop for an example of remote desktop software that will work).
  5. You are using a Virtual Machine that does not support the latest OpenGL 4 graphics (note that Microsoft Hyper-V with RemoteFX supports OpenGL 4).
  6. You are using an Apple Mac with VMWare or Parallels Desktop, both of which do not support OpenGL 4 graphics (Apple BootCamp with Windows installed is the best option).
  7. Your graphics card is too old and doesn't support the latest OpenGL 4 graphics that SPACE GASS uses (run the SPACE GASS Utility Tool from your SPACE GASS program folder and tick the "Disable OpenGL shaders" option (see below) - this solution will result in much slower graphics than normal but at least will enable SPACE GASS to run).


Repeated Job Recovery on Start-up

If you get the above Job Recovery form each time you try to start SPACE GASS, it is probably due to SPACE GASS crashing after the job is loaded, leaving the job open and triggering the Job Recovery process each time you try again. It happens commonly with the Portal Frame job because that is the default job that is opened when SPACE GASS is first installed.

You should choose "Force access to the job", click Ok, and then see if SPACE GASS starts successfully. If it crashes or just shuts down then that is the cause of the problem rather than the job recovery being the issue. You should take notice of any error messages that might appear after the job recovery form to see if they give a clue about what the problem is.

In order to find the solution you should refer to the various items elsewhere on this page that deal with out-of-date graphics card drivers, SPACE GASS crashing or SPACE GASS failing to start. One of them is likely to be the root cause of the problem.


SPACE GASS must have write access to some folders

During normal operations, SPACE GASS needs access to a number of folders that it writes files to. If access to these folders is blocked then you will get this error message when you try to start SPACE GASS. It could be due to any of the following reasons.

  1. If you are in a corporate environment, your IT department may have locked down the computers to stop this access. You should contact them to have this changed.
  2. You may have an overzealous third party anti-virus program. Add SPACE GASS to its "safe" or "trusted" list.
  3. Your Windows ransomware protection settings may be enabled. Add SPACE GASS to the "Allow an app through Controlled folder access" list.

For items 2 and 3 above, the SPACE GASS program is sgwin.exe and is usually located in "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2".


IFLink Dependency Error at Startup

This happens because Windows is referring an out-of-date version of an Intel component to SPACE GASS. It could be triggered by a SPACE GASS upgrade or if another program has installed an out-of-date version of the Intel component. The solution is to restore the up-to-date file using the following procedure:

  1. Shut down SPACE GASS.
  2. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2" folder and locate the two MSI files that have names starting with "ww_ifort_redist..."
  3. Double-click on each of these to manually re-install them.
  4. SPACE GASS should now run without the error.

If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:

  1. Uninstall SPACE GASS.
  2. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files" folder and delete the "SPACE GASS 14.2" folder if it still exists there.
  3. Start Windows "Control Panel", select "Programs and Features" and uninstall all versions of the "Intel(R) Visual Fortran Redistributable..." files that are listed there.
  4. Navigate to your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Intel" folder and delete all the folders inside.
  5. Navigate to your "C:\Windows\sysWow64" folder and rename the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file to LIBIOMP5MD.old if it exists there.
  6. Reinstall SPACE GASS by right-clicking on its installation file and selecting "Run as Administrator".
  7. SPACE GASS should now run without the error.

If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:

  1. Click here to download a program called Dependency Walker.
  2. Unzip the downloaded file into a temporary folder and then from that temporary folder run a program called “depends.exe”.
  3. When it is running, click its open button, navigate to your “C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2” folder and open the file called IFLink32.dll.
  4. Dependency Walker will scan your system for a minute or so and then say that there were some errors. Just click Ok to ignore those errors.
  5. Look near the top of the results for a file called LIBIOMP5MD.dll and then click the “c:\” button in the toolbar to reveal the full path of the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file.
  6. From outside of Dependency Walker, navigate to the folder containing the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file and then rename it to LIBIOMP5MD.old.
  7. Shut down Dependency Walker.
  8. SPACE GASS should now run without the error.


Ordinal 747 Error When Running an Analysis

This happens because SPACE GASS is finding and trying to use an out-of-date version of an Intel component it needs. It could be triggered by a SPACE GASS upgrade or if another program has installed an out-of-date version of the Intel component. The solution is to locate and rename the out-of-date file using the following procedure:

  1. Shut down SPACE GASS.
  2. Click here to download a program called Dependency Walker.
  3. Unzip the downloaded file into a temporary folder and then from that temporary folder run a program called “depends.exe”.
  4. When it is running, click its open button, navigate to your “C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2” folder and open the file called SGMKL64.dll.
  5. Dependency Walker will scan your system for a minute or so and then say that there were some errors. Just click Ok to ignore those errors.
  6. Look near the top of the results for a file called LIBIOMP5MD.dll and then click the “c:\” button in the toolbar to reveal the full path of the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file.
  7. From outside of Dependency Walker, browse to the folder containing the LIBIOMP5MD.dll file and then rename it to LIBIOMP5MD-Old.dll.
  8. Shut down Dependency Walker.
  9. SPACE GASS should now analyse without the error.


Crash When Opening The Shape Builder

Note that you may also get this error when using the moving loads generator, portal frame builder, steel connection design module, RC beam module or RC column module. In all cases it is most likely due to an out-of-date graphics driver and you should follow the steps explained in "SPACE GASS Crashing, Black Backgrounds or Unexplained Error Messages" above.

If the problem persists after updating your graphics driver then you should try turning off hardware acceleration for graphical forms. You can do this by running SPACE GASS, going to "Settings => General Preferences" and unticking "Hardware accelerate graphical forms". This will result in slightly slower performance in the graphical forms and so it is important that you untick hardware acceleration only if you still have the problem after updating your graphics driver.

If you still experience the problem with hardware acceleration turned off then please generate a system information file, attach it to an email and send it to us at admin@spacegass.com along with a brief description of the problem. You can generate the system information file by running the SPACE GASS Utility Tool (via the Start menu => SPACE GASS Utility Tool), clicking the "Generate System Information File" button and then saving the SGSystemInfo.zip file to your desktop. Please be patient while the system information file is being generated as it may take a few minutes.

If you can't find the SPACE GASS Utility tool in your Start menu (or if you don't have a Start button) then just browse to your "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.


NVIDIA Graphics Card with No Anti-aliasing or a Black Screen

A few people have reported that after updating their NVIDIA graphics driver they are getting jagged lines in SPACE GASS (ie. no anti-aliasing) or a black screen.

Jagged lines (no anti-aliasing)

Black screen

This seems to be due to some NVIDIA settings becoming corrupted during the graphics driver update. You can fix it as follows:

  1. Right-click on a blank space of your desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel". Once the NVIDIA control panel appears you should select "Manage 3D Settings" in the menu tree on the left, click the "Global Settings" tab and then click the "Restore" button in the bottom-right corner. You should then click "Yes" when asked if you want to proceed with the restore and finally click "Apply" in the bottom-right corner of the control panel.


  2. If your computer has multiple graphics cards then the restore step above has probably made it forget that SPACE GASS should be using the NVIDIA graphics card. To fix this click the "Program Settings" tab in the NVIDIA control panel, select sgwin.exe from your SPACE GASS program folder in the "Select a program to customize" list (click the "Add" button to add SPACE GASS to the list if it doesn't appear there), select "High-performance NVIDIA processor" in the "Select the preferred graphics processor for this program" list and then click the "Apply" button in the bottom-right corner.


Unexplained Titan or Fortran Errors

If you get any unexplained errors related to not being able to connect to Titan when starting SPACE GASS or any sort of Fortran error when trying to analyse then it is probably due to your anti-virus software being a little bit over protective. The solution is to open your anti-virus software's control panel or settings and then add "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2\sgcore.exe" as a trusted program.


SPACE GASS Not Starting

If SPACE GASS won't start and just seems to freeze when you try to run it, you should reset your configuration as follows:

  1. Run Windows Task Manager by holding down Ctrl and Alt and then pressing Delete, followed by selecting Task Manager from the menu that appears.

  2. Stop SPACE GASS by locating "SPACE GASS Core..." in the Task Manager list (it might be in the Apps (or Programs) section or the Background Processes section), selecting it and then clicking the "End Task" button. You can then close Task Manager.

  3. Run the SPACE GASS Utility Tool (via the Start menu => SPACE GASS Utility Tool), click the "Reset Client Configuration" button (see below) and then confirm that you want to reset the configuration. Note that if you can't find the SPACE GASS Utility tool in your Start menu (or if you don't have a Start button) then just browse to your "C:\Program Files\SPACE GASS 14.2" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.

  4. SPACE GASS should then start normally.

If this doesn't fix the problem then it is most likely caused by your anti-virus software blocking access to some of the SPACE GASS configuration files that SPACE GASS needs to open at startup. This has been a reported problem after upgrading to Windows 10 when some versions of AVG and Symantec anti-virus software are installed, but it may not be restricted to just those two brands. You can test if it is an anti-virus problem by either re-starting your computer in safe mode or by uninstalling your anti-virus software (disabling it won't help), repeating steps 1 to 3 above and then trying to start SPACE GASS again.


Runtime DLL Missing

For either of these errors the MS-Visual C++ 2015 redistributable package hasn't been installed correctly. You can get it from Microsoft by Clicking Here. When you get to the Microsoft website it will ask if you want to install either the x64 or x86 versions. You should download and install both.


Ordinal 229 Error with LIBIOMP5MD.dll when Running an Analysis

This error has only been reported on a couple of older computers running Windows XP. If you are getting this error and do not wish to upgrade your hardware then you should use the Watcom solver and avoid the Paradise and Wavefront solvers.

If you are getting the error with a fairly modern computer running Windows 7 or 8 then please contact us at admin@spacegass.com for further investigation.


MSVCR140.dll Missing when Running an Analysis

This error indicates that a file required for the 64-bit SPACE GASS analysis solver is missing from your system. You can get it from Microsoft by Clicking Here. When you get to the Microsoft website, click the red "Download" button and then follow the instructions to download and install the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Package (x64)". You should then be able to run the 64-bit SPACE GASS analysis solver.


SGSolver64 Application Error when Running an Analysis

SPACE GASS is having trouble running the 64-bit version of the solver. Try installing a file that enables 64-bit operations which may be missing from your system. You can get it from Microsoft by Clicking Here. When you get to the Microsoft website, click the red "Download" button and then follow the instructions to download and install the "Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Package (x64)".

If that doesn't fix it then browse to your SPACE GASS program folder (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\SPACE GASS 14") and rename the "64" folder to "64a". This will disable the 64-bit solver and will force SPACE GASS to use the 32-bit solver. The 32-bit solver is slightly slower than the 64-bit solver and has a smaller problem size capacity, however the results and accuracy of the two solvers are identical.


Expiry Date Check Failed

This error may occur with time limited versions of SPACE GASS such as trial or student versions. Try right-clicking the SPACE GASS shortcut on your desktop and selecting "Run as Administrator". You should only have to do this once.

If the error persists then temporarily turn off your virus protection before trying SPACE GASS again. You can then turn your virus protection back on.

If all else fails you should try resetting the licence by Clicking Here.


Restart Required

This error occurs if some components required by SPACE GASS have not been fully installed. Restarting your computer will usually fix the problem, but if the error persists then please Click here to download the required components. After downloading you should double-click the downloaded file and then install both the x86 and x64 versions.


Unable to Save

If you get this error when exporting a graphical image then you may need to install MS-Visual C++ 2012 redistributable package. You can get it from Microsoft by Clicking Here.


Upgrade

Click here if your installed version of SPACE GASS is out of date and you wish to upgrade it to the latest version.

Clean Install

Click here if you already have SPACE GASS installed and you wish to delete it and do a clean install. You may wish to try this if you are having problems that can't be resolved using the above suggestions or if you suspect that an upgrade was not entirely successful.

Problems with the Titan Softlock System

Click here to go to the Titan troubleshooting page.

Problems with a Hardware Lock

Click here to go to the hardware lock troubleshooting page.

Other Problems

Please report any problems not listed above to admin@spacegass.com for further investigation.