topic Re: Mystery Button in Modeling

Mystery Button

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Dec 2004 17:01:22 GMT

Occasionally I or someone else seems to hit a mysterious key combination that shuts down AC and doesn’t prompt for a save. Autosave does not activate so the only retrieval option is from the last manual save. Anybody have any ideas?

Re: Mystery Button

Stephen Dolbee — Wed, 29 Dec 2004 20:43:39 GMT

Eric,

This has happened to me, also (bumping certain keys by mistake). However, I never know what keys I have hit, so have no ideas for you. I do "save" my work quite frequently. If you ever figure out what key-combo does it, please let Graphisoft know. It shouldn't happen.

Steve

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Dec 2004 19:51:35 GMT

Thanks for letting me know our office is not the only ones. I'm surprised the rest of the gurus have not responded. Somebody must have some idea why this happens. Perhaps everyone is on vacation.

Re: Mystery Button

Aussie John — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:13:02 GMT

Shuts down or crashes?

Re: Mystery Button

__archiben — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 06:08:30 GMT

i'm not familar with the PC, but the only thing i can think of that can cause archiCAD quitting without crashing or prompting to save is 'kill process' ('end task' on the PC?)

is there some kind of wierd hard-coded shortcut combination for 'end
task'? or maybe Ctl+Alt+Del and immeadiately hitting return does this?

. . . ?
~/archiben

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 11:13:23 GMT

You are not alone ...

Since upgrading to AC9 I have also noticed that there is this *mysterious key combination* which closes Archicad without any warning.

It seems to happen in the office about once a month. I've done it twice - and certainly didn't press ctrl-alt-del-enter ... although (afair) I was typing fast and pressed 'backspace' on two occasions...

Maybe it is an undiscovered Easter Egg

- Stuart

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:02:04 GMT

This appears to be a Windows related problem. At least, so far, everyone reporting it is on Windows, and I haven't seen or heard any reports of it from Mac users.

From the reports I wonder if it is a specific key combination, or if ArchiCAD is just getting into a state where any keyboard input precipitates a crash.

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:43:01 GMT

I dont think it is Ctl+Alt+Del+enter. It usually happens as Stuart stated when typing fast. It also seems (for me) to be located to the left of the keyboard, Ctrl+D (drag) & Ctrl+Shift+D (drag copy). I dont use many keyboard shortcuts (just the ones i identified) but rather the right click "edit" menu. To clarify for John it doesnt crash, just closes without the prompt to "save changes" or the prompt to open "autosave document" when opening AC up again after the mysterious close. Although it is quit infrequent and random its not very comforting to know it still does it in AC9.

I wish all a Happy New Year!

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:06:05 GMT

Eric;

Your description seems quite good. Yes - after a (keyboard-shortcut) drag/copy command - but we use f1/f2/f3 (for drag/rotate/mirror) - so it is _possible_ that I have also hit 'escape'. But this shouldn't close the program.

As you state - the program doesn't crash - just closes. Very quickly too! ... the effect is just like when you 'End Process' from the (Windows) Task Manager. No tears, no shouting just a quick painless disappearance (although there is no temporary file to be recovered)

I would start to get really concerned if it happened once a week.

- Stuart

PS. On this year's mobile message top ten, the current leader is (something like) "365 days have been deposited into the love branch of your happiness bank. I hope you spend them happily". HNY to all!

Re: Mystery Button

SeaGeoff — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 20:09:25 GMT

This brings up a good question. Does anybody know how to force open the autosave files? Unrelated to the Mystery Button I have heard many a groan when a coworker hits Don’t Save by accident when closing a file. Since autosave has been running you’d think it would be easy to revert to the last autosave point. But the files are not regular ArchiCAD file types.

Re: Mystery Button

Aussie John — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 23:19:49 GMT

Geoff wrote:
This brings up a good question. Does anybody know how to force open the autosave files? Unrelated to the Mystery Button I have heard many a groan when a coworker hits Don’t Save by accident when closing a file. Since autosave has been running you’d think it would be easy to revert to the last autosave point. But the files are not regular ArchiCAD file types.

Immediately force quit ArchiCAD then reopen and it will use the autosave file

Re: Mystery Button

SeaGeoff — Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:26:04 GMT

Aussie wrote:
Immediately force quit ArchiCAD then reopen and it will use the autosave file

Thanks John. I figured this out too in the time since my last post. Force Quit is the key as a regular Quit deletes the autosave folder and then you're out of luck.

P.S. Happy New Year everyone

Re: Mystery Button

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 13:38:10 GMT

In the autosave directory you will find a file called (@Global.T). This is the autosave file. I just copy this file somewere else then manually rename it by changeing the ".t" extension to a ".pln" extension. This will then open in archicad being the file you needed.

Re: Mystery Button

SeaGeoff — Mon, 03 Jan 2005 22:17:33 GMT

The @Global.T file is the floor plan database only so if you open it directly you might lose work created in S/E and detail windows. There are workarounds however. Everyone should read record 567 from the Graphisoft US knowledge base http://tr.graphisoftus.com. Thanks to Daniel Pon at Graphisoft US for the pointer.