Digital Workshop

Whenever I open a publication created in Opus Pro 6.4, using Opus Pro 7.6,
I am unable to make changes to the converted publication.

If I just do something as simple as open a page in the Organizer, Opus goes into
limbo, and I have to "X" exit out.

Yet, if I run a preview in the converted file, it will run fine, and I can also publish it, and it will also run fine.

I can't even "troubleshoot" the publication for those occassional corrupt objects, because opening a page causes the publication to collapse.

(I know the publications I'm using are clean, and that the Pro 7.6 is clean, because I can install the same ones on an XP machine, and it all works fine.)

I've uninstalled, re-installed, killed the virous protections, etc, and have pretty much exhausted the obvious and usual troubleshooting steps.

DW support doesn't have a clue, and they can't explain why the 7.x installation would not work, when the 6.4 installation does, or why the previews work okay.

Of course, they suspect a driver (graphics), but that doesn't make sense, since 6.4 works fine, and in my experience with Opus (I've been using Opus since 2005), the graphics driver is always suspected, and has never actually been the problem.

So, the problem seems to be peculiar to my Vista 64 bit machine. I was just wondering if anyone else had/has similiar problems with a Vista 64, and converting publications from version 6.4, to version 7.6 ?

I'm at a loss...

Thanks !

Hey Steve,
Just curious... was your Opus 6.4 app always on the current machine? (and is v6.4 installed on it now?)

Hi There,

The short answer is yes; V6.4 was installed on the Vista64 machine.

The Vista/64 was not my primary development machine for my V6.4 publications; I was using an XP machine. My intention is to move those V6.4 publications to the Vista64 machine, and convert them to V7.6.

I am able to create new/fresh publications, but, "converted" publications will publish, and run okay. But I cannot modify/edit those converted publications.

(I'm glad I didn't make a wholesale conversion of all the publications.)

Regards,
Steve

If you still have the old development system, or access to it, I suggest you try something: Do a backup (using OpusPro) of one or two completed v6.4 Pubs while on the WinXP machine. Take the option to include resources or consolidate resources when prompted. This gives you a zip package for each Pub.

Simple copy that zip archive over to your new Vista/64 system and extract the .ILM file and the resources folder to your working directory for Opus. Open the ILM file from within OpusPro v7.x.
-- allow Opus to convert the Pub to the new version
-- I suggest you do an immediate 'Save As' to a new folder or new directory (or at least name the Pub so you know it is new/v7)

The reason I suggest the above is from my past experience migrating my Opus Pubs from WinXP laptop to a new Vista32 laptop a few years ago. I think I posted in the forum in 2008-2009 in reply then to someone else's issues. Anyway, I concluded that differences in Vista's folder structures, and possibly changes in my User logon name... Vista's new User Account Control features, etc --- any of it could have contributed to raising obstacles. (FYI, on both WinXP and Vista32, I was using a D: or G: drive partition for all my working files/folders... not using 'My Documents' or Vista's equivalent path).

Good luck.

I tried your suggestions, and it didn't solve my problem.

====

I realized that I should be able to convert my 6.4 publications on an XP machine, and then transfer them to the Vista machine.

Much to my consternation, this does not work. The 6.4 publications convert fine, but when
I transfer them to the Vista machine, I'm having the same problems.

Weird...

So, it seems I can create new publications on Vista, using Pro 7.6, and there is no wahy for me to upgrade my 6.4 publications to 7.6. (or, I suppose any further upgrades; obviously, it wouldn't make sense to upgrade to 8.x).

I'm still working at it !

Thanks for you suggestions !

Regards,
Steve

I do not recall the nature of the problems I had had back then -- but doing the Opus "Back-up" ZIP worked for me.

One other thing you can try, is to install OpusPro v6.4 on your Vista or the Win7 machine (maybe force it to install as a 32-bit app). Then bring over original Pubs in the Zipped form. Open them in v6.4, and "Save As" to some other working folder. Then try opening that in the newer version of Opus.

(As a last resort, you could try installing Opus v7.x on the old WinXP system -- if that is possible. See if you can covert and save new there.)


--------->>> Let me take a different view of the original problem.
* What TYPE of Pub did you have?
* Did you have videos included in the Pub?
* Were you producing Flash Pub?
Perhaps there are some compatibility issues with video codecs, flash players, other drivers.

BTW, it's a good idea to post a profile showing your Dev system info.
Good luck.
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Thanks very much; I'll try your suggestions in the next day, or !

Hey...

Just to follow-up on this problem....

I did try your suggestions, and it didn't resolve the issue; they were good angles that I
hadn't considered.

As of right now, I'm working with DW support.

On a sample pub I sent to them, it appears that there are corrupt objects
on one the pages. After the page with the offending objects is opened,
the pub fails (goes into limbo) when I try to open any other pages.

We've narrowed to a group of about 55 objects. At this point, I am sure that
it involves more than one corrupt obect; it could be multiple objects.

It's easy to find one bad object, but, it gets very time consuming when there are
multiple possibilities.

Right now, the ball is their court; I'll post more when I know more...

Thanks !

Steve Hawley

Hey, that's great! You got a job out of the deal.
I have some other questions/problems I'd like to raise in that case.

Joking aside, if you have done any versioning you could "go back" and see where the corruption surfaced. But that still may not tell you much (you may have not changed a WIP pub at all and simply during the Save As... something went awry.

For those other Opus Users reading this... I think it is not uncommon with any of these multimedia or other CAD applications to encounter a glitch from time to time. Hell, even in authoring/word-processing... it's possible the PC and program stumbles. I'm continually amazed at the realworld parade of products that follow Moore's Law.

The crash clearly occurs when I move a publication that has been converted from Pro 6.4, to Pro 7.x (7.6 in this case), on an XP machine, to a Vista 64 machine. On the XP machine, all is well, while on the Vista machine, the imp is corrupt. And it's a massive corruption, not just a few wayward objects.

The disturbing part is that the corrupt publication will compile, and run properly, and the previews will also run properly, and the corrupt imp is not apparent until it's necessary to make a modification.

Anyway, DW Support was not able to help, and basically advised me to stick with my
6.4 version documents, on the XP machine. This is unusual for them because, in the past, they have been adept at resolving issues that I've had in the past several years.

They did suggest that I might resovle the issue if I were to upgrade to Windows 7, which is not out of the question, and which I will do, though it seems like wishful thinking, since they don't have a clue as to the problem.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions; I'll post more if I do discover a cure....

Steve,
That is a blow to the gut. Yet I can see that response if such a problem could not be duplicated in the lab and folks are just puzzled as to source of the problem.

What do you think about Fonts? Any chance you made some default font preferences, or some non-mainstream font choices, that just are not in Windows Vista and do not have a ready mapping to an alternative font?

What you might try is borrow a friend's Vista32 laptop and try Opus v7.6 on that -- see if any pubs can come over that way.

Have you tried converting one of DW's Sample Publications from v6.4 WinXP, then over to your Vista64 system? I'd pick one of the more recent where line drawing or other features came in after ~6.2 ??

DW is able to duplicate the problem. I sent a simple bare-bones imp that consistently fails. It's clear that a certain group of objects are corrupt; if the objects are deleted, then the publication does not fail. The problem is, it can't be narrowed to a single object; it is more than one object, and, in this case, that opens the door to 100's of possible combinations. (I tried many, hoping I'd get lucky, but it's a fools errand; it's be quicker to re-program, than try to track down the problem.)

I don't use any special fonts; I've learned to only use DW resources.

I will try finding a Vista 32 machine, and I'll also switch to Windows 7 when I get the chance.

I'm still working at it !

Thanks

Oh, there might be an explanation... given that here in the US it is an election year.

Seriously though, if I understand correctly you have an installed OpusPro 6.4 program which in combination with WinXP OS or machine --- consistently generates Pubs with non-conforming objects. (my words 'non-conforming'... in that the Pub works okay while in or on that same environment, but not elsewhere, or certain elsewheres.)

It would be interesting to see if you take an existing corrupted Pub and go from your main v6.4/winXP set-up and migrate it to another, newly installed v6.4 on some other x32 machine. Then create a new Pub there, new Pages, and right-click/drag "copy-into" all objects from each old-Pub Page to a new-Pub Page. It is probably an exercise in futility, but I only suggest it from some vague incident I have had with a misbehaving Pub that I saved or resurrected by such re-mapping.

That's a good idea; I'll give it shot, just out of curiosity.

What I have is a known good pub created in 6.4, on a 32 bit XP machine, converted to
7.6, also on a 32 bit XP machine (a second machine). When I move the converted pub
to a Vista 64 machine, the pub fails when I attempt to edit a certain page. (The pub runs fine in preview mode, and when published, but I can't make any changes because the one corrupt page precludes changes to other pages.)

(We don't seem to have election "years" any more; it's become non-stop electioneering..groan...)