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 legacy versions of SPACE GASS 12.92 or earlier. If you have SPACE GASS 14 or later then please click here for more up-to-date troubleshooting advice.
The Windows 10 Creator update that started being rolled out in April 2017 has been found to cause problems in some parts of SPACE GASS 12.5. Reported effects of this Windows update include spurious errors and unpredictable behaviour in the portal frame builder (an “Invalid ridge position” error message), the shape builder (Tb getting the Tw value for I-shapes or Z shapes being drawn incorrectly) and the steel design modules (random errors and potentially incorrect results), however other unreported and potentially serious problems may also occur. The Windows 10 Creator update adversely affects the obfuscation used in SPACE GASS 12.5 and so a fix has been provided in v12.54.574 and later versions that uses a different obfuscation method. You can upgrade to get this fix by Clicking Here.
The same problem has been reported in SPACE GASS 12.5 with some versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8, and we suspect that an update of a particular Windows component is responsible for the changed behaviour. For this reason we strongly recommend that you upgrade to v12.54.574 or later regardless of which version of Windows you have.
Some examples of what you might experience with this problem are shown below:
The bottom flange of an equal flanged I-section adversely affected as shown in the shape builder
The properties of a standard Z-section adversely affected as shown in the section properties panel
Followed by...
These errors can occur if you have SPACE GASS 12.50.439 or earlier and you are using the default "SG12Default" skin supplied with SPACE GASS. If this is the case then you should upgrade to the latest version of SPACE GASS by Clicking Here.
The error can also occur in SPACE GASS 12.50.440 or later with the default "SG12Default" skin if you have a high resolution monitor, Windows is set to magnify text and other items to greater than 100%, and DPI awareness is turned on in SPACE GASS. The obvious solution is to just change the skin by running SPACE GASS, going to "Settings => Color Preferences" and selecting a different skin.
Alternatively, you could reduce the Windows magnification back to 100% or turn off DPI awareness in SPACE GASS. You can change the magnification in Windows 10 by right-clicking on a blank space of your desktop, selecting "Display Settings" and then moving the slider to suit.
You can turn off DPI awareness by running SPACE GASS, going to "Settings => General Preferences" and unticking "DPI aware". Note that turning off DPI awareness in SPACE GASS may result in slightly less clear text in the SPACE GASS menus and buttons.
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 Start menu => All Programs => SPACE GASS 12 => Tools => SPACE GASS Utility), 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 (x86)\SPACE GASS 12" 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.
If you get the above error in the renderer, it generally means that SPACE GASS is having a problem supporting hardware acceleration with your graphics card. The cards that have been reported to us so far as having this problem are:
If you get this error, please first establish exactly what type of graphics card you have. You can do this by running MSInfo32.exe from your Windows Start menu and then expanding the "Components" section of the menu tree on the left, followed by clicking "Display". Detailed information about your graphics card will then be displayed on the right as shown below.
If the System Information display shows that you don't have one of the graphics cards listed above then please update your graphics card driver to the latest version via the graphics card manufacturer's website. Please use the manufacturer's website rather than just updating via the Windows automatic updating facility.
If the problem persists after updating the driver, copy and paste the information from the System Information display into an email and send it to us at admin@spacegass.com along with a brief description of the problem. We will do some investigation and respond with possible suggestions.
If the System Information display confirms that you have a graphics card from the above list then the short-term solution is to disable hardware acceleration by running the SPACE GASS Utility tool (via Start menu => All Programs => SPACE GASS 12 => Tools => SPACE GASS Utility), ticking the "Disable OpenGL Shaders" option and then clicking the Close button (see below). The SPACE GASS 12 renderer will then run in a slower software emulation mode. 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 (x86)\SPACE GASS 12" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.
Alternatively, if you want the extra graphical speed and memory savings that come with hardware acceleration (highly recommended), you might consider changing to an NVIDIA graphics card (other than the Quadro model) or a different AMD graphics card. It is expected that hardware acceleration will be supported for all brands of graphics cards in a future version of SPACE GASS 12.
If this happens, run the SPACE GASS Utility tool (via Start menu => All Programs => SPACE GASS 12 => Tools => SPACE GASS Utility), 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 (x86)\SPACE GASS 12" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.
You can fix this issue by running the SPACE GASS Utility tool (via Start menu => All Programs => SPACE GASS 12 => Tools => SPACE GASS Utility), and clicking the "Reset Eyeshot Licence" button (see below). Once you have done this the problem should not recur. 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 (x86)\SPACE GASS 12" folder, locate "SPACEGASS Utility Tool.exe" and double-click it.
This is usually caused by your graphics card driver being out of date. You should update the driver to the latest version via the graphics card manufacturer's website. Please use the manufacturer's website rather than just updating via the Windows automatic updating facility.
If you get this error, it can generally be fixed by simply going to the AMD website and updating your graphics card driver to the latest version. If you are not sure exactly which graphics card you have then should run MSInfo32.exe as described near the top of this page.
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++ 2010 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++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64)".
If that doesn't fix it then browse to your SPACE GASS program folder (usually "C:\Program Files (x86)\SPACE GASS 12") 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.
The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 is required by SPACE GASS, however recent versions of Windows do not include it automatically. You should therefore install it by Clicking Here (if you have Windows 8) or Clicking Here (if you have Windows 7 or earlier).
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 and install the required components.
Please report any problems not listed above to admin@spacegass.com for further investigation.
