Digital Workshop

Hi, I am using Opus Pro on a VMWare Fusion virtual xp machine on a Macbook. I create a Professional document, enter some text, and then go to change the font. At this point everything freezes and the program will not respond. Can anyone help?

What version of Opus?

Hi, it is version 6.00

A couple of questions then:

Have you got the latest update for V6?

Does this occur in any publication you create?

Can you can the font in a text box and simply type the text or does it still crash?

And does it happen if you use the font list box for other objects - such as buttons etc?

Mack

Hi, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Yes, I now have the latest update. It does occur in any publication and in any object.

I think the problem must have something to do with memory as I can place a text box on screen and type in it - the problem occurs when I try to change the font. I click the font list and the program appears to freeze as it is building the fonts list.

I have just tried it again and remained patient for about 3-4 minutes after which the list was built and the program resumed. I will increase the memory allocated to the virtual machine and see how it goes.

Hi, just an update. I create a text box - if I choose the font I want BEFORE I enter any text, I can use the font list without any problems. If I enter some text, highlight the text and THEN try to use the font list the program slows to a stop - basically because it is populating the list with a preview of of what the text will look like in all the different fonts.

What do folk think?

How much memory in the VPC and what size is the inserted text?

Mack

Hi Mack, I have upped the memory to 1gb for the vpc and the text size doesn't seem to make any difference. I have tried it with a range of sizes all with the same result.

1GB will be more than enough - I've run an XP VPC with 512 and Opus works fine.

Can I ask why is VMWare being used - I was under the impression that the XP emulation on a Mac was handled by a variation of Microsoft's VPC which I know does work with Opus.

Also do you have other font heavy programs installed - like Coral Draw which might be overloading the lookup process.

You could try creating a folder and copying all the fonts to it and then deleting most of those in the folder except a select few.

Plus - is there any security software running - like Zonealarm or AVG.

Lastly have you tried a complete reinstall of Opus including removing all registry entries and folders.

Mack

If you don't need the convenience of running XP and OS X at the same
time, install XP on your Mac using Bootcamp (I'm presuming it's an Intel Mac) and Opus should run ok.
Mac OS X Leopard comes with Bootcamp built in.
Some of our students use Intel Mac's to run Windows CAD software; if
they are getting GUI problems when running on top of virtualization software like VMWare, Parallels, or Sun xVM VirtualBox, I suggest they use Bootcamp and boot straight into XP.
That usually clears up any problems they are having such as you describe.
Because Bootcamp is running without a virtualization layer, you are less likely to get problems with cursors, mouse actions, occasional lock ups and menus not working properly.

Paul

Hi Keith

I used Parallels with Windows XP on my Mac (Tiger OS) and started to have problems.

Font problems, animations slowing down, actions not working etc. Opus works a lot better using Bootcamp. All these problems cleared up once I installed Bootcamp after installing Leopard recently.


Regards Steve

To Mack, I started using Parallels and then Fusion because of the speed improvements over Microsoft's offering. I have been using Headstart (the educational version) with no problems on Parallels and Fusion.

To Paul, yep, I think my next step is going to be to do a clean install of Opus.

To sa, if doing a clean install doesn't help I will be going down to Bootcamp route.

THanks everyone. I will let you know how I go on. Forums are good aren't they

Hi all, came back to using Opus after a long while to find that I too suffer from a hang when the font drop down list is scrolled through. I'm using 6.4, with 4GB of memory under Windows 7. Anyone else using 6.4 under Windows 7 have this problem?

Sorry I cannot afford to upgrade to Opus 7 as much as I'd like to right now.

Thanks, Buns.

Hi, I take it no one else has this problem? I haven't used Opus in weeks because of this, I have tried all manner of compatibilty troubleshooting.

Cheers, a very frustrated Buns...

Hi Buns,
have you tried it on a 32bit version of Windows 7?

cheers
Paul