PTE project file has been deleted after PTE error

[fh1805]

I've just encountered a PTE "Out of memory" error: Exception EOutOfMemory in module apr.exe at 00002B28. As a result of this it would seem that PTE has deleted my project file.

This project file contained the work of an entire day (5 hours) building up the complicated animated image that Lin said PTE would handle no problem. (See thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=8304)

Where is the file? Can I recover it without losing all today's work?

During the course of the day I must have saved the file over twenty times. The file state as of last night will be on my backup drive and I could recover from there but I'd rather have all today's work back.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[xahu34]

Hello,

let me again refer to a previous suggestion, see here.

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[Conflow]

Peter,

Did you check your Re-Cycle Bin ?...If it's not there and you know the 'name' of the File,try as follows:-

Select--->Start Button--->Search--->Files or Folders--->when the Search Window opens,type in

the name of the File in the Mini-Window (flashing prompt bar) then select--->'Look-In' window and use

the small side Button to select Hard-Drives. Hit the 'Search Button' and wait for the listing to develop...

(Make sure under the View Button on the Tool Bar that you have selected the (Details Tab.)

If the File still exists it will be listed in the Search Window together with details of 'where it is'.

Brian.Confow.

[Igor]

Peter,

I'm sorry about this problem!

If you saved the projector before the crash, PicturesToExe should not delete the project file. If you has intermediate EXE files, please let me know, I'll recover .pte file for you.

I'll add auto-save feature and creating backup copies in separate file.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

I'm certain it will be possible to recover your PTE file but meanwhile it appears you have reached a hardware limitation, not a PTE limitation. If you have the time, could you send me a sample of the objects you are using both for your red and yellow squares as well as the "map". I will check them and possibly offer suggestions on optimization.

Something exceeded your available memory while you were constructing the objects and keyframes. Available memory is constrained by not only the amount of RAM you have in your system but also by processes running in the background.

If you do a CTRL/ALT/DEL to bring up the task manager, look at the "Performance" tab and see how much available memory you have. You may want to stop some optional running processes to give you more memory while working on this project to prevent this from happening in the future. From your description I see nothing to indicate that you should not be able to do this project but again, depending on your individual hardware.

If you send me the files I will be glad to see if there is a way to decrease the memory requirements sutstantially.

Did you download and run the sample demo I linked, and did it run properly? That sample has over 400 objets and over 1200 keyframe so will be a good test of whether there is some issue with hardware.

Best regards,

Lin

I've just encountered a PTE "Out of memory" error: Exception EOutOfMemory in module apr.exe at 00002B28. As a result of this it would seem that PTE has deleted my project file.

This project file contained the work of an entire day (5 hours) building up the complicated animated image that Lin said PTE would handle no problem. (See thread here: http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....showtopic=8304)

Where is the file? Can I recover it without losing all today's work?

During the course of the day I must have saved the file over twenty times. The file state as of last night will be on my backup drive and I could recover from there but I'd rather have all today's work back.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lin Evans]

Probably a good idea, see my post from:

http://www.picturestoexe.com/forums/index....amp;hl=autosave

Lin

Hello,

let me again refer to a previous suggestion, see here.

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[fh1805]

Xaver,

Your suggestion of an auto-save feature, if already implemented, would have saved me from this disaster. As you will see from Igor's post, he now accepts the need for such a feature and says it will be coming (soon I hope)

Brian,

I've had a real good root around with the File Search and it just isn't there any where that I can find. I've drawn upon all my past experience as an IT technician to find it - and it just ain't there (at least, not under a name anything remotely like its original name. I'm now doing what I should have done all along (stable doors and horses!) and saving regularly to a new file name each time. I'll continue working in this manner until Igor provides auto-save feature.

I have a secondary problem in that the copy of the file on the backups (taken using Windows Vista's Backup/Recovery software) didn't reflect its state as of last night at 22:00 when the most recent backup ran. That's another problem I'll have to look into.

Igor,

As I've said above for Brian, I've not been able to find any trace of this project file anywhere on the system. An auto-save feature would be a very welcome addition to the capabilities of PTE, especially as I'm sure I'm not alone in sometimes spending several hours on complex animations. I thought I was taking enough precautions by saving the project file regularly. But I always saved it back over itself. I don't understand why the project file was deleted. Was it done by Windows Vista's error handling clean-up routines, perhaps?

Thanks for the offer of building the pte from an EXE. Unfortunately I hadn't got as far as creating an EXE.

I've started again to build this complex animation - but adopting a slightly different technique. I was trying to build it all on a single main image. I'm now spreading it out over twelve main images. If the memory condition was caused by having too much information relating to a single image, I should have bypassed that particular problem.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

If you do not add any code or files to your hard disk it will be possible to recover the file even if it was deleted by Vista. There are myriad disk recovery programs which can be used to recover files deleted - they still reside on the hard disk if not overwritten. Some of these are freeware and work very well.

Usually the first letter of the file name is dropped but the extension and the rest of the file name are complete.

Give me a few moments and I'll get you a link....

Try this one:

Recover files link:

Best regards,

Lin

[fh1805]

Lin,

I have checked memory using Task Manager. It reports 2046MB total memory of which 32% (c.670MB is in use). There should be 2048MB.

I have attached a zip of the images here: PTE_Error.zip

The project file, when it failed, comprised:

- Black slide

- Google Earth image with Mask

- Google Earth image with Mask

- Google Earth image with Mask

- Black slide

Google #1 had seven blue squares as children. Each square had a single word of text as a child. All these objects were at 100% opacity with no animation keyframes

Google #2 had same objects as above plus: 30 red squares as children, each of which had a yellow square as a child and a single text object child comprising either one or two words of text

Google #3 had same objects as Google #2 plus: a Frame that had 120 children, each a single text object comprising a year (to cover all years from 1845 thru 1964)

Google #3 had animation as follows: each text object had four keyframes: start and end of fade up, start and end of fade out. The keyframes of each start/endpair were 50ms apart. The two pairs for each year were 1000ms apart.

Google #2 had animation as follows: each red square had start and end of fade up, each associated text object had start and end of fade up.

In the final edit session, that failed on me, I had copied the frame from Google #3 into Google #2 as a child of the main image. I was adding additional keyframes to the yellow squares and associated text objects as follows: start and end of fade up of the square, start and end of fade out of the text.

I was about half way through the thirty squares and text objects when PTE crashed.

Hope that makes some sort of sense.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

Let me sort it out - meanwhile click the link on my post above to download free file recovery software. This "should" be able to recover your PTE file from the hard disk.

Best regards,

Lin

[fh1805]

Lin,

Just to "dot i's and cross t's", I have downloaded your 3d file and it plays perfectly on my system.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

That means that your project "should" be feasible providing that hardware limts are not exceeded. Download the file recovery software from my previous link and let us know how that works. You should be able to recover the last save without issue.

Best regards,

Lin

Lin,

Just to "dot i's and cross t's", I have downloaded your 3d file and it plays perfectly on my system.

[xahu34]

Peter,

sorry for my reaction from above, being rather technical than sympathetic!

Lin,

sorry for reinventing the wheel!

Best regards

Xaver

Munich

[Lin Evans]

Hi Xaver,

Actually a good idea to bring it to developer's attention again - sometimes these suggestions get lost in the great number of posts on the suggestions page.

I think Igor has been considering this for some time and had planned to implement it in a future version, but since many are pushing the limits of both PTE and hardware it's probably a good idea to do it sooner rather than later.

Best regards,

Lin

[fh1805]

Lin,

Download the file recovery software from my previous link and let us know how that works. You should be able to recover the last save without issue.

I have downloaded and installed the recovery software. When I run the program it seems unable to find any logical drives. Reading the tutorial it implies that the first step in a recovery is to locate the logical drives. So I seem to be stuck when trying to go down this route.

Having had to think the whole project through again, I can see several different ways of doing things. Therefore I would prefer to re-build from scratch. In fact, I've already re-built the "digital clock" to count the years in about a tenth of the time it took me originally.

If I am heading towards a possible resource shortage on my system, would it be prudent to have the Task Manager window open all the time while I'm working in PTE and to take periodic checks on how the resources are doing?

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for your advice and assistance so far. Help so promptly and freely given is what makes this forum the success that it undoubtedly is.

[fh1805]

Xaver,

sorry for my reaction from above, being rather technical than sympathetic!

No problem! As Lin pointed out, it has probably done no harm to remind Igor and the developers of the potential benefit that such a feature would have. As I alluded to in my reply aimed at Brian, when this feature does come it will, for me, be a case of "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted". But it will save a great deal of anguish for many users over the years to come.

[Ken Cox]

PETER

this is a freebie from MS

more sofisticated than taskmon in fact think you can replace taskmon with it - i wouldn't go that far

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinte...s/bb896653.aspx

ken

[fh1805]

Just to bring things up to date...

This morning I resumed rebuilding my sequence; this time with Windows Task Manager running alongside things so I could monitor the memory usage.

My system is a HP Desktop fitted with 2GB of RAM running Windows Vista Home Premium. In System Idle steady state it was using 386MB of RAM.

After launching PTE v5.5beta8 that went up to 484MB. PTE reported the project file size as 44KB and the EXE file size as 1.3MB (Note: I still have not created any EXE for this sequence as yet). This was with the first image, a Black Slide, as the selected image.

After selecting the next image, one which has many objects on it, the memory usage rose to 506MB.

After clicking on Objects & Animation button memory usage rose to 568MB.

I then did a select of a text object, copied it to the clipboard, pasted it as a child of another object, changed the actual text via Properties tab (it was only a one word text item) and changed its label via the Common tab. Memory usage was now 597MB.

I pasted the clipboard contents as a child of another object and did the changes as before. Memory usage now 613MB.

I selected a different text object, copied it, pasted it, changed its contents and label. Memory usage now 634MB.

Pasted and changed it twice more. Memory usage now 697MB.

This little exercise has shown me just how memory hungry PTE O&A activity is. We don't have to worry only about the power of our graphics cards to run the EXE. We must also consider the memory needs of PTE when doing O&A editting.

I now know that it not sufficient simply to save work frequently during a heavy O&A edit session. You must also close down PTE and restart it in order to get that memory freed up.

I'd be interested to know whether these numbers come as surprise to Igor and his developers.

[Ken Cox]

ram 1 gb 2.8 ghz p4 pte 5.5 beta 8 windows xp home

system before starting p2e

ram use +-64%

cache +-12%

windows and programs +-51.9%

started pte and loaded a normal series

ram = 67.7 % +-

cache 12.3 % +-

windows/programs 554.4% +-

started show running but very had to see what is happening but quickly shut it down -- rdgs increased +- 2%

btw i could barely run the timer demo JPD made a month or so back

ken

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

I must apologize because I should have suggested that you close and re-open PTE during your construction of multi-object O&A shows because the same thing has happened to me in the past.

I don't know how feasible it might be, but if possible Igor might consider an optional tab to save file then "flush buffers" or save and quickly close and reopen PTE because your observation is absolutely correct.

When I constructed the +400 object +1200 keyframe animation I didn't do it in one time sequence but would work an hour, save work, shut down PTE and check email, etc., then resume. At the time I made the initial suggestion about "auto-save" it was prompted by just this experience.

I'll ask Igor about the possibility of doing this and refer him to this thread...

Best regards,

Lin

snip

I now know that it not sufficient simply to save work frequently during a heavy O&A edit session. You must also close down PTE and restart it in order to get that memory freed up.

I'd be interested to know whether these numbers come as surprise to Igor and his developers.

[fh1805]

Thanks Lin,

In the meantime I'll adopt my new working method that will, at the least, minimise the impact of any future "disaster" of this kind.

[susiesdad]

Peter

You could use "Save as" instead of "save" and run three PTE files in a Grandfather, Father, Son routine and then go back and overwrite grandfather etc. etc. . That way you should retain at least 2 accessible copies if the prog crashes again.

Good luck with the project

Alan

[AnKo]

Hi all,

If I may put in my quarter. The problems we start to encounter are due to several things. First of all, PtE is developping to a more and more complex piece of software. Programming is getting more and more complex for Igor and his team because they build on the basis of version 5.5. They looked forward in the future and wrote the software in a way they can be build future features on. Meanwhile new features means sometimes new problems and they have to be solved by programming. I gues sometimes that isn't easy at all.

Secondly, there all our wishes, experiences and findings. Sometimes these help to solve known problems with PtE, sometimes they help living with these problems and sometimes its just asking for more. But all the time Igor and his team have to evaluate the problem to the botom and find a way, whitin the software (lets say the PtE engine), to solve the problem in a way future planned developments can still be implemented. Take my word for this, that isn't easy at all and consessions should be made sometimes

Working this way has a disadvantage too: the software isn't that "clean" anymore. And slowly there sneaks in more memory consuming, more CPU power that is needed and more GPU-power that is required to make our shows work as we planned them.

Last, but not least, we use all these wonderful new features PtE offers us today! So now we put PtE everytime to the test and search for it's limits.

So, on one hand we get what we want now PtE is more and more AV orriented, on the other hand our hardware has to be able to make use of all these new features. I do not want to be critical in any way to anyone, but I think we have to keep this in mind.

To get back to the subject of this topic, there was a memory violation error. As mentioned before: a hardware issue. The auto-save option will help us only not to get rid of our work completely, but will not solve the problem. With the above in mind we have to consider to keep our hardware specs up to date. For me, that day will come sooner then planned and I have to considder buying new hardware too now PtE is developing so rappidly.

I have a deep respect for Igor and his team in making PtE the best AV-software there is today for a fair price. And my complements for all of you on this forum, because with your interaction PtE would not have been what it is today! But 5.5 beta 8 is asking all of my hardware, and yours. We have to live with that as it is part of our hobby, I gues.

kind regards,

André

[Lin Evans]

Hi Peter,

I have discussed this issue with Igor and what is happening it that most likely the 2 gigabyte limitation is being overwhelmed by the Undo history. As we know, PTE has a "virtually" unlimited undo feature but this feature requires considerably more memory reserve that a first impression would indicate based on the file sizes, etc. So the answer is that when we are working with many object on such a scale we can close the project and re-open or temporarily open an new project and add one slide which frees up the memory by releasing memory held for Undo.

He will implement the auto-save feature which should avert this disaster of loosing the PTE file in the future.

Best regards,

Lin

Thanks Lin,

In the meantime I'll adopt my new working method that will, at the least, minimise the impact of any future "disaster" of this kind.

[fh1805]

Hi Lin,

That explanation makes sense. Thanks for taking the time to pursue this with Igor on my behalf. And my thanks also to Igor for adding auto-save to his To Do list.