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.
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 similar to above are usually a result of required components blocked from being installed during a SPACE GASS installation.
If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:
This type of error indicates that Windows may be providing a folder location that contains an invalid/out of date TitanCloud.pwd login file, despite you providing a valid file on registration.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.
This error can be a result of the following:
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.
Almost all of these types of errors are caused by an out-of-date graphics driver!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 If your graphics driver is out-of-date then unpredictable and unstable behaviour can result.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:
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.
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.
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.
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".
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:
If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:
If the problem persists then follow the additional steps below:
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:
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.
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:
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.
If SPACE GASS won't start and just seems to freeze when you try to run it, you should reset your configuration as follows:
Run Windows Task Manager by holding down Ctrl and Alt and then pressing Delete, followed by selecting Task Manager from the menu that appears.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Click here if your installed version of SPACE GASS is out of date and you wish to upgrade it to the latest version.
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.
Click here to go to the Titan troubleshooting page.
Click here to go to the hardware lock troubleshooting page.
Please report any problems not listed above to admin@spacegass.com for further investigation.