An InRoads user asked for Mark's help to solve this problem he was having with software crashes:
Zen,
I seem to be experiencing periodic software crashes when editing my transitions in the Roadway Designer. Am I doing something wrong? What do you think the problem is?
Thanks, Koti
Here is the Zen Dude's response:
Hi Koti!
I've personally noticed an increase in software crashes when editing the transitions, and it seems to be corresponding with the V8i and SS1 / SS2 versions of InRoads. So, when I see crashes in the Edit Transition tool, my first suspicion is the software, not any of the specific corridor model settings or user. You didn't say exactly when the crash happened for you, but it usually crashes after the transition has been edited, and when the secondary Edit Transition Midpoint interface is being exited.
Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that these crashes started occurring during the V8i / SS1 / SS2 releases, because Bentley made some changes to the template transition zone during the V8i release.
If you look at the InRoads README you see these items (among others):
- Roadway Designer. Transition performance was improved
- Roadway Designer > Corridor > Template Drops. Transitions no longer reset when synchronizing templates.
- Roadway Designer > Corridor > Template Drops. The ability to enable or disable transitions within this dialog was added.
- Roadway Designer. The ability to right click in plan view to add or delete a transition was added.
- Roadway Designer > Edit Transition > Edit Transition Midpoint. A message was added to inform the user that constraints need to be removed from points that need to transition.
I believe that something happened to the Roadway Designer when these changes were made that caused the transitions to experience some periodic instability. And now we just have to learn to live with it because it's doubtful that anything will ever be done to address it now that OpenRoads Designer has become the focus of the future.
So, here is what I do now.
And just for a little orientation, this is directly related to anytime you have a template to template transition in need of editing.
When I get either a hard crash (the software just closes) or a soft crash (a dialog box appears indicating something has gone wrong) I follow these steps:
Note: this is the place where the crash usually occurs: (during the Edit Transition Midpoint stage, and clicking OK)
Close the software if it hasn't already shut itself down.
Open it back up along with any project data
As a habit, I always try to make the transition edits one more time to see if it works. If it works, I smile, feel happy, and move on.
If it crashes again I close it and reopen everything and then . . .
Go into the Roadway Design, find the transition in the Plan view, right-click on it, and Delete it.
Now go into the Template Drops and add the transition back in by clicking on the template at the end of the transition under Enable Transition, placing a X to recreate the transition.
Note that simply unchecking the Enable Transition and checking it again will not delete the transition, it just 'disables' it. To really remove it, it has to be deleted in the plan view as noted above.
Now try to edit the transition again and cross your fingers.
I wish I knew more about why the crash was actually occurring, but I've never been able to pinpoint exactly what's going on, hence the work-around. In most cases I've seen the crash happen when the transition was re-edited, or a template change occurred in the transition. But I've also seen it crash on a fresh clean transition. Usually, deleting and recreating it will eventually get you through the transition editing process.
Because of this, I'll admit that I tend to feel like I'm walking on eggshells as I step through editing transitions, but I've never hit one that couldn't be processed eventually.
Civilly yours,
- zen
Great Instructor. Thoroughly explained everything and so clearly. Used good examples when explaining concepts. Enjoyed it, learned a lot. 
