Version 2.3.3 Released and a mystery solved

Monday, June 30. 2008

Version 2.3.3 Released and a mystery solved

Several users were not able to execute Creative Docs .NET on their system and I did not find any evidence as to why the application failed very early, before displaying anything at all. It happened on Windows 2000, XP and Vista, all the like. Even on Server 2003 and Server 2008.

[ if you experience the problem, try version 2.3.3 ]

Windows 2000 running in VMware Workstation

Windows 2000 running in VMware Workstation

I checked everything on my VMware virtual test bed and was unable to reproduce the problem. Until Juan (thanks!) finally provided me with an image of his virtual machine, where Creative Docs .NET crashed, every time. He was using Microsoft's virtual machine, not Parallel's or VMware's, and he did not have the specific tools installed on it.

Tracking down the problem was not too long: after installing the .NET 2.0 SDK, I could attach the debugger and see what was happening. A DLL was unable to load (.NET is not really helpful: it simply reports COM error 0x800736B1). More specifically, AntiGrain.Net.dll was unable to load AntiGrain.Win32.dll, because AntiGrain.Win32.dll was referencing MSVCR80.dll. Hmmm. But I was sure that the MSI setup included a reference to the proper merge module (i.e. Microsoft_VC80_CRT_x86.msm). I was wrong.

At the beginning of the year, I migrated my development environment to a new 64-bit Vista machine, yet that machine has no Visual Studio 2005 installed, and therefore lacks the required merge module files in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Merge Modules folder. For some reason, the setup now include Microsoft_VC90_CRT_x86.msm; the proper DLL was no longer installed. And on my virtual machines, the VMware tools had themselves installed the missing DLL!

Therefore, be aware that even on a "clean" virtual machine install, the virtual machine is no longer perfectly clean once you have installed the associated tools. At least, that's my only explanation as to what I was observing.

Posted by Pierre Arnaud at 13:21 | Comments (7) | Trackbacks (0)

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Hello and thank you for fixing this issue. I'm very new to Creative Docs, and wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong to cause it. I do have a question, though; are any help files or documentation available for Creative Docs? If not at this time, will there be something in the near future? Thanks so much!

#1 Jackie on 2008-07-01 03:05

We are planning help files in English for the end of the Summer, or early this Fall. For now, you might find some interesting stuff here:

http://www.epsitec.ch/download/cresus/documents/exemples.pdf
http://www.epsitec.ch/download/cresus/documents/manuel.pdf

which are French versions of the documentation, slightly outdated now, but with lots of hints, tips and tricks and screenshots.

#2 Pierre Arnaud (Link) on 2008-07-04 07:12

Great program, keep the releases coming!

Question: is there anything different about selecting with the middle button as opposed to the left button? In particular, when box-selecting?

If not, I propose that you use the middle button dragging for scrolling, especially now that the scroll wheel is used for zooming. I love the zooming implementation, but having to use the scroll bars is really a pain.

I apologize if this is covered in the French documentation, but I don't read French. :-/ I'm greatly looking forward to the English translation of the manual so I can really understand all of the tools.

#3 Josh B on 2008-07-11 15:29

The fact that Creative Docs reacts to the middle button is a small bug; we did not plan to use the middle button for selection! You are right, using a middle-drag to navigate would be quite handy.

Thank you for the idea.

#3.1 Pierre Arnaud (Link) on 2008-07-14 07:43

You are quite welcome. I've seen it implemented two ways.

1. Like the 'hand' panning tool in most Adobe products, where you're just dragging the screen around.

2. The MS Office way (also used in many other products) where the screen keeps scrolling with a speed proportional to how far the mouse is dragged.

I prefer #1, but it's probably just a personal preference. I find it's much more precise and is less fatiguing when doing lots of panning.

Glad to contribute a small idea. Keep up the great work on a very useful piece of software.

#3.1.1 Josh B on 2008-07-14 12:26

Hello,
It might be a very stupid question, but I'm very new to creative so... I would like to know how to put color in my drawings...I can't find the tool. Could you please show me the steps?
Thanks

#4 Fernando on 2008-08-30 03:35

Easy, but maybe not obvious; everything happens in the Properties panel, on the right. When the rectangle tool is selected, you'll see a "Line color" and "Surface color" palette appear there. Click on the color sample, which pops up a color chooser widget at the bottom of the panel. You can then change the color before you draw.

Alternatively, draw, then select the object and change its color using the same technique: click on the small color sample and change it by using the color wheel or color swatches at the bottom of the panel.

Pierre

#4.1 Pierre Arnaud (Link) on 2008-08-31 20:22

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Version 2.3.3 Released and a mystery solved

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