[BUG] 8.1.4-rc1 Designer crashes multiple times a day

8.1.13, still having this issue. Basically doubling my dev time… happens about every 30 mins for me.

Why don’t you upgrade it to v8.1.12?
This is really stable.

Do you mean downgrade? I’m on the latest stable version. Is there some reason to use 8.1.12 over 8.1.13?

Yes, it is stable until this will fixed in new releases this the only option.

8.1.20, same problem

I have had this issue and believe it to be related to DNS config. In my case, directly referencing the IP of the gateway resulted in no more Timeouts.

I suspect the designer does not ask for the client to log back in if the connection to the host is broken. This is a guess though.

@pgriffith
I'm seeing this in 8.1.21 as well, however it wasn't happening in my dev environment. The setup in PROD is different.

In PROD, I'm connected to a VPN (same as DEV), RDP'd into the Ignition gateway, and running the Designer directly on the Ignition gateway (we don't have access yet to launch it from another workstation). I have 2 Designers open, one for global project, one for the main project. The issue occurs a handful of times during the day in both Designers. The issue happens when I'm working in one of the Designers for a period of time and then switch back to the other designer. I don't recall it ever happening while I'm actively working in one Designer, however it also happens if I walk away and leave the Designers idle for a time, e.g. during lunch.

This is my wrapper log below. The first few rows are the browser crashing which results in the opened Views going white. The following java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException is me trying to close the View.

13:19:40.647 ERROR Chromium process exit code: -536870904
13:19:40.660 [Thread-11] ERROR com.teamdev.jxbrowser - Chromium process exit code: -536870904
13:19:40.757 [Thread-11] ERROR designer.JXBrowserUtil - Browser Engine has reported a crash with exit code -536870904: EngineCrashed{exitCode=-536870904}
13:21:02.110 [AWT-EventQueue-0] WARN ViewResourceEditor - Unable to save the view. Could not retrieve view resource data.
java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: null
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.timedGet(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.get(Unknown Source)
	at com.inductiveautomation.perspective.designer.workspace.ViewResourceEditor.getObjectForSave(ViewResourceEditor.java:487)
	at com.inductiveautomation.perspective.designer.workspace.ViewResourceEditor.getObjectForSave(ViewResourceEditor.java:68)
	at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.tabbedworkspace.ResourceEditor.commit(ResourceEditor.java:166)
	at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.tabbedworkspace.TabbedResourceWorkspace.close(TabbedResourceWorkspace.java:284)
	at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.tabbedworkspace.TabbedResourceWorkspace.close(TabbedResourceWorkspace.java:271)
	at com.inductiveautomation.ignition.designer.tabbedworkspace.TabbedResourceWorkspace$1.actionPerformed(TabbedResourceWorkspace.java:81)
	at com.jidesoft.plaf.basic.BasicJideTabbedPaneUI$CloseTabAction.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mouseReleased(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.processEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.processEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$5.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue$5.run(Unknown Source)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.base/java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(Unknown Source)
	at java.desktop/java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(Unknown Source)
13:21:02.117 [AWT-EventQueue-0] ERROR com.inductiveautomation.ignition.client.util.gui.ErrorUtil - null

Is this perhaps a memory leak/usage issue?
I have just noticed the following happen on a docker instance I span up the other day for some development

Is anyone else getting the same CPU % drop and memory fluctuations as I am when this happens?

1GB memory seems extremely low, sure it isn't just low specs?
Regardless, there is a memory leak issue in 8.1.20/21 with a fix due in 8.1.22 relating to gateways connected in a GAN. This particular site doesn't have GAN connections configured

We're still trying to update JxBrowser, which we're hoping will resolve a lot of these instability-over-time issues. The problem is literally every single new version we get runs into some new issue on one of our supported platforms, so we're between a rock and a hard place.

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You don't really need to worry about the Apple OS, so that should help :grin:
Is there some way in the script console to reload the crashed JxBrowser? Rather than having to painfully close all views (each one has a 10s delay to close) an reopen the project?

Yeah 1GB is not a lot, but it's got stuff all in the project, just some templates and a few fake tags. Never been an issue before v22

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FWIW, I've moved back to launching the Designer from my base laptop and I haven't seen the issue happen again. I have a feeling that it's due to low memory, as the gateway was running super low on memory - I saw it up around the 97% mark (oops! We're still commissioning it though, so not in use yet).

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Going to create my own dislike button here... :-1:... :sweat_smile:

That said, I've basically given up designing Perspective applications on a Mac for the time being. Last time I tried it would crash 1-2x per hour. The PC isn't as bad for crashes but I'm not sure which is worse, more designer crashes on Mac or dealing with Windows OS. Guess I need to look into getting a Linux machine :smile:

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I honestly don't know how people use a Mac though. I had one for a year or so and it was so slow to use; you can't* use keyboard shortcuts (alt-keys) to navigate menus and things like you can in Windows. Maybe I just didn't put a lot of effort into learning it :man_shrugging:

*maybe you can and I just never worked it out

Technically, on a Mac, Alt is the "Option" Key, and the Windows Control Shortcuts are often replaced with the "Command" key. For instance on a Mac you use Command-C to Copy, and Command-V to Paste.

There are all kinds of keyboard shortcuts.

Specifically to what you were doing though, on a Mac you would use Ctrl+F2 (yes Mac has a control key too, which can be confusing) to get to the upper menu, and then you can arrow over or press the fist letter of the menu to open that menu.

Don't worry though, I'm a heavy Windows user too. I can't imagine doing PLC programming on a Mac.

Makes sense that having multiple designers would cause issues too, especially with multiple views open, consuming a fair chunk of gateway resources

To @nminchin's point, this doesn't work nicely with the Ignition Designers below version 8. This is because the menu is within the app, not actually in the Apple menu. That said, I rarely navigate the menus in this fashion as most actions I require in the Designer have a dedicated shortcut.

(And you can always change the shortcut keystroke combination to whatever you want within the Keyboard preferences)

Definitely agree with this point, especially now with the ARM based Macs not being able to run a commercial license of Windows within a VM - legally. Not as bad on Intel based Macs. Luckily I haven't needed to do much PLC programming, more just defining the functional specs on that front and then taking care of the HMI/SCADA systems.

I'll stop hijacking this thread now...

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There's not really any way around having multiple Designers open for me though, as I'm constantly switching between looking at the global/shared and main projects. Sometimes I've had more than 2 open for other projects as well :laughing:

I pretty much have 4 open at all times, because we have a "central" gateway that has it's own global project, and a local plant gateway, that also has a global project. It can really be painful at times, though most of my issues are timeout issues (I know what the root cause of that most likely is but my hands are tied and I'll not "point-fingers" just in case.)

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