Lost Toolboxes Etc.

Hi

Today I opened mstn and found a bare workspace. All my toobox settings were lost - none were open. I'm using the same workspace/user/project etc. on open as when I closed out last night.

My Key-in spot is gone. The bottom where status messages, key-in window, and where I parked AccuDraw, were all gone except for the status messages. Further, it seems to not fit into the available space anymore - if I dock AccuDraw it is off the screen to the left and I can't see it. There is no place to change views anymore.

What happened? How can I restore it to how it was? I can open the toolboxes again (although I can't seem to find the one that open the Model dialog, it only wants me to create new models from the Models toolbox), but the AccuDraw and key-in missing have me concerned.

I don't know of any environment changes, though IT maybe installed a Windows update last night - I do not know.

V8i SS3

thanks

Parents
  • Ugh. I got things as best I could. But then on opening it was all lost again. The attached show what I am seeing when I open. Ordinarily there'd be several toolbars, the menu (with File, Edit, etc.) is usually on top, and the issues I reported at the bottom are still there.

  • I would check to see that you have read/write privileges to your "prefs" folder.

    Timothy Hickman

    CADD Manager | CADD Department

    timothy.hickman@colliersengineering.com

    Main: 877 627 3772| 

    1000 Waterview Drive Suite 201 | Hamilton, New Jersey 08691

  • Did the steps in the attached links not resolve your problem?

    technet.microsoft.com/.../ms14-079 and support.microsoft.com/.../3002885
    communities.bentley.com/.../15905.toolboxes-disappear

  • I didn't try, but will look now to see if there is something I can prevent.

    BUT ... IT restored <user>.upf for me last night and I have my workspace back to how it was this morning. somehow that file had a write to it or something and became corrupted or something.
  • ok, I looked at that stuff. there were no Windows updates applied the day it went bad, so I don't think it was a denial of service. and it seems that the Bentley link had to do with standard toolboxes, but also custom. for whatever reason the only thing that didn't disappear was the task pane. it does have some custom tools in it that we wrote for our application, and they are fine.

    so it looks like the .upf file was to blame. why, I do not know. when I looked at the windows event log, under application there was the following. I don't know enough to tell whether this caused my problem or not. But it was pointed at the Civil Platform, so I doubt this error had anything to do with it:

    Activation context generation failed for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Bentley Shared\Civil Platform\08.11.07\Data\SMItoFWD.exe". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.DebugCRT,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.762" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.
  • I can't help with why this happened or how to get it back other than to start with a new <user>.upf and place everything back the way you like it. I would then go into your <user>.ucf and add the following comment "MS_COMPRESS_USER_PREFS = 1". THis will keep your upf file from becoming too large. Since I added this years ago I have not had any corruption problems with my .upf file.

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  • Thanks for the advice on the variable. I will add it to my ucf.

    But, look at this - "User preferences file was left open. Closing it (click here for details.)
    Application "USTN" opened the user preferences file and did not close it. This is not normal behavior. Please notify Bentley Systems or the author of the application." This appear in the status window today. I'm thinking this is how the upf got corrupted ...

    hey Bentley?
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  • Thanks for the advice on the variable. I will add it to my ucf.

    But, look at this - "User preferences file was left open. Closing it (click here for details.)
    Application "USTN" opened the user preferences file and did not close it. This is not normal behavior. Please notify Bentley Systems or the author of the application." This appear in the status window today. I'm thinking this is how the upf got corrupted ...

    hey Bentley?
Children
  • Rene,

    There is a variable you can write to use a seed file  to rebuild the upf..

    I have this in my my workspace config have saved  clean copies for all my users  onto the network 

    if things get out of wack as the  seem to do I an just delete the user.upf and mstn rebuilds it with the seed version..

    alternatively ..

    delete your upf file

    restart mstn  set it up the way you want it to look but 1. dont run any applications 2 dont open any more dgn files after setting up your workspace settings and docking of tols etc

    save setting get out of mstn entirely 

    now find the your user.upf  file and  make a duplicate and rename the extension to seed  or .spf  ( so you know this is your seed ) and you can just copy and rename it  back to upf ( after  you first deleted the current one)

    Now this never fixes the cause of why it got corrupted that will need investigation but it will get you back to work fast..

    I have the variable for the spf at work ( I;m at home now) but you can search this forum for spf  or user pref seed  variable

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • delete the user pref file for the user.

    set up how the user wants his prefs layed out then copy the new  CLEAN LEAN user pref file ie username.upf

    renamed to usernaname.spf and save it on the server

    just tell the workspace cfg variable to use the

    MS_USERPREFSEED= "nwtwork drive letter:/network folder/user /seed/username.spf'

    tells it where to find the seed file 

    So now if there is a problem  I now delete the users.upf and restart mstn 

    and their original setup is back...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me