Problems with Ferraris Style Example Maps Crashing - Solved
Wyvern
🖼️ 280 images Cartographer
As I noted on the Forum yesterday, in trying to help resolve a different issue someone was having with the Ferraris Style (from Cartographer's Annual 158), I ran into issues with the program crashing if I tried to open the Vegetation.fsc catalogue. Rather than continue hijacking that topic here, I felt it better to start a new one instead.
The key elements of the problems I had, as extracted from that other topic below here, were all discovered just using the two example maps from that CA issue:
The Village of Greythorne map opens, but if I try to access the vegetation catalogue, the program crashes and auto-closes-down. If I try opening The Ferraris Style Legend.FCW, it starts to open, then crashes and closes too. I've done a full repair reinstall, with exactly the same results.
I have created a new map in the style as a test. If I click to open the vegetation catalogue by the button, or navigate to it using the right-hand symbol pane button, it crashes. If I open the "All" symbols catalogue, it's fine, and I can see and access the vegetation symbols perfectly OK. There seems to be an issue with the Vegetation.FSC file for some reason. I can also navigate to the two example files in the style using the opened new map file OK as well - as long as I don't click the vegetation catalogue button! However, if I try to open the Legend example file directly from the Program Data => etc. option, it crashes after opening.
As our resident Forum expert Sue Daniel was unable to recreate the problem, she suggested I contact PF Tech Support, and having done so, I had a reply from Ralf this morning. He WAS able to reproduce the problem, and sent me a replacement Vegetation.fsc file to test, and that HAS solved the issues, so the program no longer crashes. However, he mentioned too being uncertain as to what was causing it; possibly something to do with one or other macro implemented with the drawing tools.
If others run into the same issue, at least you'll know it can be solved, and can hopefully be resolved in the download file before long as well. Providing this solution hasn't thrown-up another problem I've not spotted yet, at least!
Comments
Can Ralf supply the Vegetation file here, so we can all download for when we use that annual.
The problem was actually with the preview FCW files for the vegetation drawing tools. Some of them had effects enabled, which can cause problems with the preview in the catalog window. Unzipping the attached FCW files into System/Drawtools/Annual Ferraris Style/ should fix the problem.
Thanks Ralf :)
Even though I don't seem to have the same issue I've updated my own files to match others, and will bookmark this thread so I can get to it again easily if anyone else has a similar problem.
Having just completed the file replacement myself, I can confirm that the new files definitely work OK. In today's reply message, Ralf also said he'll be rebuilding the 2020 CA download for these, so that would be another option as a repair reinstall in (probably) a few days' time.
Sue, I seem to remember back in the mists of time (so, before last week...) you mentioned at some point you were probably still using your original files (or those advance ones for checking before the issue was generally available) , rather than the download ones, so that may be why you didn't have the problem. As you can tell, I'm a bit vague on the specifics here though, so may be mistaken 😁!
The Ferraris Style is older than my machine, and all the original artwork was archived long ago, so I might have been talking about another style. However, like you I'm progressively finding that last week is distinctly more foggy than it used to be.