What files to include when reporting crashes?

Symptoms

You experienced a program crash, or the program crashes frequently.

Cause

The most reliable way to report a crash is to provide a repeatable scenario. That means a step-by-step procedure is provided together with a well-defined starting context. This can take some effort to get right, but it has by far the largest chances for success.

In general, to make a scenario repeatable the environment is best reduced to be as standard as possible. This is a process of simplification and elimination. If possible, a scenario should start with a default BricsCAD user profile, a new drawing, no third-party plugins or user customization, and a default CUI file.

If it is not possible to provide a repeatable scenario then in some cases, we can deduce enough information from additional diagnostic files.

Solution

Submit a Support Request including the following details:

  • Check if the issue is reproducible in Safe Mode. To run BricsCAD in Safe Mode, follow the steps outlined in the How to start BricsCAD in Safe Mode, without any applications? article.

    If the problem goes away when running in Safe Mode, it can be helpful to switch back to normal mode and disable or uninstall plugins and customization to narrow down the culprit.

  • crash_report.txt
    Note:
    • The crash_report.txt file is created on Windows and, starting with BricsCAD V24.2.02, on Linux.
    • On macOS, there is the bricscad-YYY-MM-DD-xxxxxxxx.ips file generated by the operating system.
    The crash report is saved in the BricsCAD startup folder. The location of this folder depends on how you start BricsCAD:
    • HOMEPATH folder (on Windows, typically is C:\Users\%username%\)
    • Drawing folder
    • Program folder (C:\Program Files\Bricsys\BricsCAD V24 en_US)
  • Crash dump (.dmp) file

    In most cases, a program crash results in a crash dump (.dmp) file, which is generated in the same folder as the crash_report.txt.

    The creation of a crash dump file can be enabled or disabled depending on QAFLAGS bit 2048.

  • User profile

    Your current user profile settings can be exported to a file using the Profile Manager.

  • Drawing file

    If a crash is specific to a drawing, then such drawing will be helpful.

  • Provide a detailed description of the workflow, including any specific commands or actions that may be causing the issue.
  • Attach the full return of _REDSDKINFO command from BricsCAD command line.

    It prints a report in the command window containing information about the graphics capabilities of your computer. Press F2 to open the prompt history window.

  • Log file

    Use _LOGFILEON command to record all prompts from the program and all your keyboard input. The file is located in the folder specified by the _LOGFILEPATH system variable.

Note:

The word crash is often misused for other problems, so the analyst may ask questions to define exactly what happens. A hang-up or freeze is not a crash, and an extremely slow operation is not a hang-up. An operation which fails with an error but does not close down BricsCAD is also not a crash.

A crash report is written to the crash_report.txt file each time BricsCAD crashes. The crash report is saved in the BricsCAD startup folder. The location of this folder depends on how you start BricsCAD, so be aware that multiple files can exist on your system in different folders. If the program does not have permission to create the file in the startup folder, the file is created in your %HOMEPATH% folder (on Windows, typically is C:\Users\[username]\). Sometimes the crash report is generated without the program closing. Sometimes there is a crash without a crash report.

(Windows specific) In most cases, a program crash results in a crash dump (.dmp) file, which is generated in the same folder as the crash_report.txt. The creation of a crash dump file can be enabled or disabled depending on QAFLAGS bit 2048. Before V18.2, the crash dump was only created if QAFLAGS bit 2048 had been set. In more recent versions, the meaning of the flag has been inverted, and the crash dump file is now created by default.

BricsCAD can log each executed command to a text log file. The generation of this log is controlled by the LOGFILEMODE system variable. If LOGFILEMODE = 1, a log file is created each time a drawing is opened. The filename format is DrawingName_yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss.log.

BricsCAD log files are saved in the folder specified by the LOGFILEPATH system variable. By default, this is the folder pointed to by the LOCALROOTPREFIX system variable.