Freehand MX Unexpectedly quits

[FHJOE]

I have a G5 dual pros. with OX 10.3. Freehand 10, Freehand MX, Freehand MX
11.2.0 ALL
unexpectedly quit at any given time. I started a log to see if it happens with
a particular command.
But it quits at random as I?m working. I usually have Freehand & PhotoShop CS
open at the same time
but in all my years working with Freehand as far back when it was aldus
Freehand this has never happened
I dumped prefs. still NG. Please help
Joe

[Judy Arndt]

I'm not seeing this on my machine with a similar setup. Since it's happening
in both FH versions, I would suspect a damaged font or a third-party
extension such as FontCard.

Use the OS X utility, Console to look for a file called
FreeHandMX.crash.log. The crash log lists the last commands performed before
the crash. It will often give you a clue.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.3
Photoshop CS


FHJOE wrote:

> I have a G5 dual pros. with OX 10.3. Freehand 10, Freehand MX, Freehand MX
> 11.2.0 ALL unexpectedly quit at any given time. I started a log to see if it
> happens with a particular command. But it quits at random as I?m working. I
> usually have Freehand & PhotoShop CS open at the same time but in all my years
> working with Freehand as far back when it was aldus Freehand this has never
> happened I dumped prefs. still NG. Please help Joe
>

[fentbaggie]

Judy

I'm getting the same thing, updated to 11.0.2 Build 97 and Ive got a file that
crashes Freehand everytime!

Its not fonts as Ive removed the 3 fonts in the job, all pictures are dumped
so it should only open with the copy and ask me to substitute right? wrong!

I took the advice you gave Joe and this is mainly what I kept seeing.

Do you have any idea what it means????



Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0xf208542a

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 libSystem.B.dylib 0x9000dbb8 small_free_list_remove_ptr +
0x98
1 libSystem.B.dylib 0x90001a68 szone_free + 0x8a8
2 FreeHand 11 Base 0x0261dfc8 0x2008000 + 0x615fc8
3 FreeHand 11 Base 0x0256ac78 0x2008000 + 0x562c78

etc etc etc.

This is getting desperate as this is a big job and Ive just lost a full 2 or 3
days work if I cant get this file open.

Alternatively, is there a sneaky way of opening a Freehand file through
something else - giving it a txt suffix or something like in the good old, rock
steady fh9 and 10 days?

fingers crossed and hanging on for your reply

Mark

[Judy Arndt]

fentbaggie wrote:

> fingers crossed and hanging on for your reply

Mark,
You poor soul. You are truly a drowning man grasping at straws if you are
hanging on for my reply. :-)

I'm just another FHMX user, not a programmer.

Sometimes the last few lines of the crash log will list a font, print
command, third-party extension that will give you a clue to the crash.

There may be a corrupt element in the FHMX file. Are you able to open the
file? If so, copy everything into a new file. Sort to new layers and
ungroup.

I've had problems opening older files when 'remember layer info' is checked
in Prefs and 'transform as unit' is applied to groups. I think FHMX wants to
apply group attributes, but the previously remembered layer info confuses
it, especially if the current file has layers of the same names in a
different stacking order.

Do you have a backup copy of the file saved at an earlier stage? Will it
open?

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.3

[fentbaggie]

LOL! Truly a drowning man is right!!

I cant see anything that is obvious in the crash log and FHMX opens other
files fine. There was nothing layered or any complex groups in the file and the
file had only been saved a minute or two before I tried to re-open it!

I just wondered when you came up with the console thing that you may spot
something in the excerpt I copied.

Ive tried all sorts, importing into a new file, duplicating the old file, even
trying to 'con' other software into thinking its an rtf or txt file, but no!

I've removed the fonts I know are in it, and the images that we're in it too,
so its only got to open the texct and some keyline boxes. I've contacted the
support centre at Macromedia though and hopefully will get some reply although
the policy looked like saying "We dont know much but give us a try!!!"

Any other clues as to a work around - I can manage if I can just get all the
copy back off the file as it was completely edited from the original file a few
days ago and i go away in a few days so re-doing it is going to be just about
impossible!

god I sound desperate!

here's hoping!

Mark

Oh yeah - its build 92 too by the way, typo's!

[Judy Arndt]

fentbaggie wrote:

> Any other clues as to a work around - I can manage if I can just get all the
> copy back off the file as it was completely edited from the original file a
> few days ago and i go away in a few days so re-doing it is going to be just
> about impossible!

By 'the copy' I assume you mean the text. You might be able to do a salvage
operation if you export to RTF format. That will give you the text which you
could you put together with graphics from your older version of the file.

Good luck.

Judy Arndt

[FHJOE]

Thanks for the crashlog tip but, how do you read this stuff?


2004-05-10 11:38:08.548 FreeHand MX[438] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in
dictionary.

2004-05-10 11:38:08.549 FreeHand MX[438] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): The file name for this data might be (or it
might not): file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York

Authentication Service: Started


2004-05-10 17:17:21.785 FreeHand MX[550] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in
dictionary.

2004-05-10 17:17:21.786 FreeHand MX[550] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): The file name for this data might be (or it
might not): file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York

[Judy Arndt]

Is that in a crash.log or a console.log? If it's in the console.log I
believe it's just a record of normal operation. I think that FHMX is trying
to log into the internet to send info to the Macromedia to 'authenticate'
FHMX. Are you in the same time zone as New York? I have similar entries in
my console.log for my time zone,
"file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/Canada/Mountain"

Do you have two ways to access a modem, such as Ethernet/Cable/DSL and an
internal modem for sending faxes? I do and had problems with that at one
time.

Judy Arndt


FHJOE wrote:

> Thanks for the crashlog tip but, how do you read this stuff?
>
>
> 2004-05-10 11:38:08.548 FreeHand MX[438] CFLog (0):
> CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon
> in
> dictionary.
>
> 2004-05-10 11:38:08.549 FreeHand MX[438] CFLog (0):
> CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): The file name for this data might be (or it
> might not): file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York
>
> Authentication Service: Started
>
>
> 2004-05-10 17:17:21.785 FreeHand MX[550] CFLog (0):
> CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon
> in
> dictionary.
>
> 2004-05-10 17:17:21.786 FreeHand MX[550] CFLog (0):
> CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): The file name for this data might be (or it
> might not): file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York
>
>
>

[FHJOE]

Freehand quit on me twice today and had to do at least 20min over again.
And when you're up against a deadline that's a lot of time wasted.
When I had this problem on OS9's it was bad prefs, extension conflict, or fonts
On OSX I don't know were to look and i hate to call tech support and end up
speaking to someone
looking up solutions from a text book as if we didn't know.
I'm thinking of uninstalling MX and reinstalling FH10. Would that cause more
problems?
Come on Freehand people is there any body out there with the solution?
Help
Thanks, FHJOE

[Tiemo]

here's some more...oh yeah. It do it everyday...espacially when you havent
saved yet, and click layers. Nice!

May 14 15:54:03 Teemu crashdump: Crash report written to:
/Users/teemuhursti/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/FreeHand MX.crash.log

2004-05-14 15:54:21.275 FreeHand MX[485] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in
dictionary.
2004-05-14 15:54:21.285 FreeHand MX[485] CFLog (0):
CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): The file name for this data might be (or it
might not): file://localhost/usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Helsinki

[Judy Arndt]

Tiemo wrote:

> here's some more...oh yeah. It do it everyday...espacially when you havent
> saved yet, and click layers. Nice!

There's a bug in FHMX/OSX Panther, associated with having your Layers and
Styles panels grouped. After certain steps editing (with the pen tool ?) and
then clicking on the tab of the hidden Layers or Styles panel, you trigger a
crash. The workaround is to separate the Layers and Styles panels.

I see the Authentication error message in my console.log every time I launch
FHMX, but it's never the cause of a crash on my machine.

I had FHMX crashes when I was using FontCard. I have since completely
uninstalled FontCard, Silk and all of the 'Ape' files installed by the
Unsanity installers.

Judy Arndt
--
FHMX 11.0.2 (Build 92)
Mac G4, OS 10.3.3

[fygraph]

I have been having a similar problem occur for me. It only seems to
unexpectedly quit when I try to either export or print and its pretty
consistent.

I was wondering if there was a known bug or patch somewhere I can download to
fix this? I know its not a font problem as I reverted all text to Times font to
check. I am running FHMX with OX 10.2.8.

thanks

[FHJOE]

I copied & pasted the very end of two deferent messasges from Console crash
log does anyone know how to read these

CRASH 1 MESSAGE
Command: FreeHand MX
Path: /Applications/Macromedia FreeHand MXa/FreeHand
MX.app/Contents/MacOS/FreeHand MX
Version: 11.0.2 (11.0.2) PID: 603 Thread: 0
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x4be04184

CRASH 2 MESSAGE
Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000010
FHJOE

[FHJOE]

So far so good. I seperated the styles panel from the layers panel and for a
good 6 days so far Freehand
HAS NOT CRASHED. I'm crossing my fingers that's all it was.
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
FHJOE

[fygraph]

I was pressed for time but I came up with a decent enough solution in a fix. If
you just group up everything in the crashing document, copy then paste it to
duplicate it. Next take one of the duplicates and 'convert it to image' then
copy that image into a new document and the new doc should print and export
fine. Keep the old crashing document with the non-image duplicate so that you
can edit or make changes to it later then repeat the process to print out
another draft or whatever.

Worked for me, hope it works for others in a pinch.

[mrbubba]

ahh yes the unexpeceted quit or just flat out dissappears with out any notice.
i have FH 10 and FH MX and bothe do it 10 is worse than MX and usually when
tryin to print. anyone figure out anythang yet?????

[fygraph]

This seems to be a common problem and yet - still no patch or official word as
I have heard.

Another solution that seems to fix it occasionally is to take all strokes off
of text. You can still achieve the same effect by duplicating the text and
placing it behind the original text and making it a point or two larger. Not as
convenient but it fixes the crashing problem every now and then.

[hallison]

I'm having the same issue as well. I'm getting the crashes when I'm using the
pen tool zoomed in. At first, I thought it had something to do with being
zoomed in, but after reading these posts, I'm thinking it might be the pen
tool. There are no images and no text in the document. Just some vector lines.
I'm to the point where I can't even work in freehandMX right now. I'm crashing
about every 5 minutes. I'll try the syltes/ layers idea to see if that helps.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

[fentbaggie]

Mine seems to have stabilised now, although its not perfect, I've now resorted
to saving a back-up 'export as a Freehand 9 copy' as security (Freehand 9
seeming to be the last rock solid version there has been for a while that's
still reasonably up-to-date!)

I cant spot one single thing that's caused it to slow down, except Ive updated
the OS X as and when the updates arrived and allowed it to optimise my disk as
it installs. Whether its a conflict thing with OS's in general and its slowly
being ironed out I dont know.

I do think though that Macromedia need to be reading this forum and sorting
out some sort of answers/fixes/patches/new versions as soon as possible!

Any insight at the moment stands at "save often and with a backup file!" Can
save loads of backtracking time in the long run.

Jeez - this sounds like Quark 10 years ago!!!!