for some time i have a problem with MoI. files won't open at all, or not properly...

possibility A)
- the 3D-models (no matter what file format) don't open at all
- in the activity monitor first CPU is at high percentage and memory is rising. sooner or later memory get's stuck at a certain point and CPU is turning to zero.
- the software doesn't seem to be frozen (when pushing alt+cmd+esc)
- nothing further happen

possibility B)
- the 3D-models (no matter what file format) only open partly.
- the software is not frozen and in the activity monitor there is no suspicious activity.
- only a part of the file was opened (in the browser i don't see all objects and layers).
- apart from that MoI seems to have full functionality

version & enviromet:
first i was working with Moi v3.0 on OS 10.7 and upgraded to 10.8 (since MoI worked fine on other computers with 10.8). but this did't solve the problem.
now i upgraded to 10.11 and also updated MoI to v3.1.
the issues were the same in any of these OS/software combinations.

how i tried to solve the problem:
- i tried to re-install MoI => no improvement
- i deleted the plist entries => first i had the impression that this helps, but i'm not sure anymore
- i did start the system in "safe mode" => just in addition to the plist approach

with a combination of the later two actions, sometimes MoI seemed to work again. but sooner or later (usually sooner) the problems are back.
the only thing that works, is starting up the (same) computer with a new (and clean) user.
with this different user on the same computer i have no problems with MoI at all.


did anybody have similar problems so far? could you solve it? and how?
i don't really want to delete my normal user profile and build a new one up...

Hi toggi, I have not heard of this particular problem before. I would guess that since it's user specific that it could be something bad in your user home directory.

Can you take a look at ~/Library/Saved Application State   and see if there are a whole lot of wineskin files or folders in there named like 8582838535.wineskin.prefs.savedState ?

Have you by any chance set any unusual file permissions on anything in your home directory?

I really don't know how you'd only get part of a file read in though, that's very strange behavior. About the only thing I can think that would cause that would be if your disk is failing intermittently...

- Michael

dear Michael,

thanks for your response and your advised. but please don't worry; i don't think it is a problem of your software, but simply of my computer (user)...


to answer your questions:
- in ~/Library/Saved Application State i didn't find any wineskin data. that is no surprise, since i don't like this resume function and switched it off.
- for fixing file permissions i tried out something new, according to this description: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/os-x-repair-home-folder-permissions it lead to some small temporary improvement, but did't solve the problem.
- it's quite surely not a problem of the disc. because usally i save the data on the NAS, but also copied it to the internal hard-drive to make sure that the whole issue is not related to an unstable connection to the NAS.


last but not least a further description of the problem:
- usually i don't have problems with small items. maybe up to 10 MB. no matter if i open a STP file or native 3dm data.
- STP files around 100 MB (when saved as 3dm they are around 300 MB) cause a lot of problems. often they don't open at all, or just partly
- when the files open just partly, i only see those objects, which are listed in the browser in the section objects (it can be 10% or 30% or 70% of the original objects in a file)
- when showing/hiding objects, it happens that not the hole object is shown, but only some lines of the object
- none of the above problems happen, when i open the files with another (new created) user

today i tried to fix the permissions and then i was surprised that i could open a 300 MB file. first it worked fine. then MoI started to get slow. then i had the showing/hiding issue, and in the end the program crashed.
i reopened then with the other user, and everything worked fine.

Hi toggie, if you only see the problem with large files, probably MoI is running out of memory during the file loading - that's probably the only other explanation for that kind of partial load behavior than a failing disk.

MoI is currently a 32-bit program and so it has some limits on the amount of memory it is able to use.

One thing you can try is to alter a view setting to make a coarser display mesh which will consume less memory.

To do that, go to Options > View > "Meshing parameters" and set the "Mesh angle" option to 25 degrees and uncheck "Add detail to inflections". That will make a somewhat rougher looking shaded display but will also consume a lot less memory on complex models and that may help avoid running out of memory in the middle of the import.

I am in the process of a major rewrite of MoI for version 4 to make it 64-bit. It will still be a while before that is finished but when it is that will enable MoI to use all your system memory and that should help with larger imports then.

I'm still not sure why you see different behavior with different user accounts though, that's pretty mysterious.

- Michael

dear Michael,

thanks a lot for your detailed answer. even as this didn't solve my problem, i could learn something about the way MoI uses the RAM.
it already happened to me, when saving certain views as PDF, that i get a message that i'm out of memory. i was always surprised, since i have far enough RAM (32GB). and also the activity monitor didn't solve the mystery.
but actually i was not aware that MoI is a 32-bit program. well, this explains the issues with the RAM.
so i'm looking forward to the 64-bit version.

in case i can solve the issue with different behaviour on different users, i'll post what i found out.
but i guess, i'm simply switching the profiles, depending on what i'm working on. that's not very elegant, but it hardly needs time and works for sure.

best regards:
_toggi