[Michael la-Cour]

I've just installed Painter 7 (I've decided finally to learn how to use this very complex (almoust scary) looking program.
And my first impression was good. I was able to use the very convincing tools.
Probably mainly because of the very nice thread about Painter in this forum.

After a couple of speedpaints, it crashed. I thought nothing of it. An started a new painting, a serious one. And after a few hours it crashed. And I (the stupid optimist) hadn't saved.

It has crashed 3 times in the 2 days Iv'e had it installed, is that normal? Or is there something I should know???
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[Lunatique]

There's an update patch. It should fix it.

[summer]

I have heard many different user experiences with painter 7. From "totally usesless" to "never had a single problem". I think it depends on your system.

I've never seen it crash, but I've had several issues where the program wanted to "save as" even though I clicked "save".

regs
summer

[Pat]

I've had almost no problems on either the Mac or the PC version and I do a considerable amount of work in it.

I did have a serious issue with Painter and some ATI graphics drivers on the Mac (specifically an incompatibility with the Graphics Acceleration extension) which disappeared after the patch.

About the only annoying problem I still have is a slow-down related to magnification tool. It's very easy to zoom in to an obscene level of magnification by accidently dragging the mouse. What idiot at Corel decided I needed to be able to zoom into my document by 10000% in 1% increments? The resulting brush rebuilding can literally take a minute, even on a P4 2.53ghz/1gig of ram machine. Memory intensive brushes can crash Painter when this happens, though this is a lot less likely if you use the patched version. The good news is that while you can't interrupt the process normally, if you program one of your function keys to "Zoom to Fit" you can halt the unwanted brush rebuilding/preview generation if you inadvertantly zoom in too far by resizing the doc. This problem exists on both platforms.

---useless technical ranting, skip if you're so inclined--

I suspect this is some sort of memory handling issue relating to screen previews --so if you're having a rough time of it you might consider reducing the number of behavors that stress Painter's memory cache. Chief among these is non-destructively rotating your 7000 pixel canvas, using a memory intensive brush and then zooming into the rotated document --it's a setup for disaster. Painter has to cache the proxy image for the rotated pic, then it has to load then calculate the rotation and new preview for your new magnification level for the image, the paper texture and any layers and channels you have active. Then, as if that weren't enough it has to rebuild the brush and generate a preview for that. Instead, try using a slightly less memory intensive brush and magnify to your desired level THEN rotate the canvas. By rotating last you're saving Painter from a lot of work and a possible crash. I'm positive this is a memory-related issue because I only observe it on extremely large documents.

-Pat

[B0b]

michael, you don't say what ur system is.. if your running 95,98,98SE,Me then you may well encounter problems, theses OS's aren't designed to run much more than 'Home' user apps/games, and chances are anything like Photoshop/Painter will cause all kinds of problems..

[Michael la-Cour]

Thanks for the many replys.
I looked at corels homepage but only found patches for Painter 6.
Obviously there is something I've overlooked, so please help

Bob.
I don't think it's my system that's the problem.
My machine has been put together to handle heavy 3d rendering.
I'm running win2k on a dual 1800+ with 2 gigs of RAM and about � Terabyte free hard drive in 4 striped Raid controlled drives.
And I've never encountered stability problems in photoshop.

Anyway, I'll look for an update. Thanks everyone.
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[Michael la-Cour]

-found it!
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[Jin]

Michael,

In case you didn't find all of the files in the Painter 7 Update package, here's a copy of a message I sent around last December containing a list of direct URLs to all of the files. A lot of folks had problems with the Procreate site.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: *** UPDATED*** - Painter 7 Update - In Case You Didn't Get an E-mail from Procreate]
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 18:04:51 -0800
From: Jinny Brown <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

*** UPDATED TO INCLUDE URLS TO THE PDF FILES FOR: ***

> Painter 7 Update Installation Instructions
> Painter 7 Update Information
_____________________________________________________

Dear Painter Friends,

It looks like Santa got our letter this Christmas! )

In case you didn't get an e-mail from Procreate, here's where to get the
Painter 7 Update file and some other files you'll want to read and/or
download.. including some Water Color Tutorials by Cher.


Procreate Site:

http://www.procreate.com/go/painter_update/

Here are the links you'll see if you hold your cursor over the down
arrow so it will scroll down and display everything:
_____________________________________________

> Painter 7 Update Installation Instructions
> Painter 7 Update Information

> Painter 7 for Macintosh Update (bin)
> Painter 7 for Macintosh Update (hqx)
> Painter 7 for Windows Update (exe)

Other Good Stuff:
> Water Color Tutorial Series by Cher
Threinen-Pendarvis
> John Derry's Visual Guides
_____________________________________________

If you're unable to access and view the Procreate page properly,
here are the URLs to download the Installation Instructions and
Update Information PDF files:

Painter 7 Update Installation Instructions
http://www.procreate.com/go/painter_update/install_info.pdf

Painter 7 Update Information
http://www.procreate.com/go/painter_update/update_info.pdf


Be sure to get the Painter 7 Update Installation Instructions and
Painter 7 Update Information PDF files on the Procreate site (or using
the URLs shown above), but if you prefer to download the Painter 7
Update file via the Corel FTP site, and while you're there download
Cher's Water Color Tutorial Series and John Derry's Visual Guides,
follow these links:

MAC

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/7/mac/en/

Painter7Update.sit.bin 27315 Kb Tue Dec 19 22:47:00 2000 Binary
Executable

Painter7Update.sit.hqx 37135 Kb Tue Dec 19 22:47:00 2000 Macintosh
StuffIt Archive

WINDOWS

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/7/win/en/

Painter7Update.exe 29527 Kb Tue Dec 19 22:52:00 2000 Binary
Executable


Cher's Water Color Tutorial Series:

ftp://ftp.procreate.com/pub/procreate/Painter/7/tutorials/WaterColorTutorials/

WaterColorBasicsTut1.pdf
WaterColorBasicsTut2.pdf


John's Visual Guides:

ftp://ftp.procreate.com/pub/procreate/Painter/7/tutorials/VisualGuides/

painter 7 liquid ink visual guide.pdf 2529 Kb Wed Dec 12 21:06:00
2001 Acrobat

painter 7 tinting visual guide.pdf 2865 Kb Wed Dec 12 21:06:00 2001
Acrobat

painter 7 watercolor visual guide.pdf 1328 Kb Wed Dec 12 21:07:00
2001 Acrobat


(Try going to the Painter 7 Help menu and clicking Tutorials to see what
happens.)


Happy Holidays!

[Jin]

Hi again,

Here's some general information that may help you keep Painter 7 running smoothly and avoid losing your work.
__________________________________


Hopefully you won't need to Uninstall and reinstall often. If you ever
do need to, there are specific instructions to follow in order to
prevent problems. I'll also include a list of houskeeping tasks that
should help keep Painter running more smoothly (this is going to be a
long message).

If you ever need to Uninstall and reinstall Painter 7 again, and/or
install the Painter 7 Update, follow these steps exactly:

1. Uninstall Painter 7.

2. Manually delete any remaining Painter 7 folders and files.

3. Reboot.

4. Install Painter 7 and don't open it even one time.

5. Install the Painter 7 Update.

6. Check to see if the version number is 7.1.357. That's what it should
be. To check it, right click on the Painter7.exe file and choose
Properties. Click the Version tab and if you don't see 7.1.357 in the
upper right corner, under "Other version information", click "Product
Version" in the left panel. In the right panel, under Value, you should
see 7.1.357.

7. Reboot.

8. Launch Painter and happy painting!

_______________________________

REGULAR MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES:

In Windows, run ScanDisk and Defrag at least once a week
(if there's a Mac equivalent, I don't know what it is).

Regularly (even as often as several times a day, depending on how much
you're on the Internet and if you've been downloading files, etc.) clear
out browser cache and delete temp files.

If your level of Undo is at the maximum of 32, go to Edit > Preferences
> Undo and lower the number.

If your Auto Save Scripts for: [ ] days is at the maximum of 10 days, go
to Edit > Preferences > General and lower the number.

Either replace the default Scripts file with a new one from the CD or
create a new one with only one Script, then delete the unwanted Scripts
every day or so to keep the file small. I'll give you instructions for
creating a simple Script file later in this message.

NOTE: Since this was originally written, I've been told you can simply delete the Scripts file (Painter.ssd) after Painter is closed and a new one will be regenerated the next time Painter's launched. If that doesn't work, you can get the file from Painter 7 CD 1. It's worth a try because it's faster than creating a new Scripts file but I'll leave the instructions for that in this message so you have both options.)

Close down Painter every hour or so, then reopen it and continue.

After each Painter session, go to the Painter 7 > Brushes folder and
check the size of the Pre-built Brush File. If it's over 1 MB, delete it
and it will be regenerated the next time Painter is launched.

After working in Painter for several hours (even if you've shut down and
reopened it every hour or so), close Painter and reboot, then reopen
Painter and continue (don't forget to delete the Pre-built Brush File
after closing Painter and before rebooting, if it's over 1 MB.. though
you can delete it even if it's smaller than that).

___________________________________

HOW TO CREATE A SIMPLE SCRIPTS FILE:

1. Launch Painter and don't change anything.

2. In the Objects palette's Scripts section menu, choose Record
Script.

3. Use File > New to open a new Canvas.

4. In the Scripts section menu, choose Stop Recording Script and name
the Script "File New".

5. In the Scripts section menu, choose Script Mover.

6. Below the right panel, click New and name your new Scripts Library
"File New.ssd".

7. Drag the File New Script icon from the left panel onto the right
panel, click Close below the right panel, then click the Quit button.

8. Close Painter.

9. In your file manager, highlight the Painter.ssd file and rename
it "PainterSSD_backup.ssd", then highlight File New.ssd and rename it
"Painter.ssd".

10. Launch Painter and take a look at the Scripts section. You should
see only one icon for the File New Script. Now your default Painter
Script Library is much smaller than the original default Painter
Script Library.

If this doesn't seem to help and you want the "real" Painter.ssd
Script Library back again, you can always rename the new one back to
File New.ssd, then rename PainterSSD_backup.ssd back to Painter.ssd.

Or you can copy and paste the default Painter.ssd file from the
Painter CD into the main Painter folder and, in Windows, highlight the
file, right click, choose Properties, uncheck Read Only and check
Archive.
_________________________________

IF YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE PROBLEMS:

Are other programs running while you're using Painter? If so, try
shutting them down and opening Painter again.

Are your default brush libraries in their original state or are they
possibly bloated with custom variants you've saved? If so, this can slow
down Painter's performance. Create a new brush category and move all of
your custom variants into it. Then, in your file manager, create a new
folder at the brush library level and move your new brush category and
its accompanying JPG icon image file into the new brush library. Now
replace your Painter 7 default Painter Brushes library with a new file
from the Painter 7 CD.

Are your other libraries in their original state or are they possibly
bloated with custom Patterns, Gradients, etc.? If so, use the
appropriate Mover utility to create a new library and move all of your
custom icons into it, then replace your default library with a new file
from the Painter 7 CD.

Have you done all of the maintenance procedures on a regular basis
(listed above)? If not, try to remember to do tham all.

Have you created a simple (small) custom Scripts file to replace the
large default Painter.ssd Scripts file (instructions above)? Some
painter users have found that doing this stops Painter from crashing so
often.. sometimes stops it completely.
__________________

If all else fails (but be sure do all of the above listed things first
because I have a hunch you won't need to do this), I'd suggest writing
directly to Corel Painter Program Manager Tanya Staples. You may mention
the fact that I referred you to her if you like. Her e-mail address is:

[email protected]

Include your complete system specs, Painter version (including patch or
update), method used to install the patch/upgrade, steps leading up to
the problem, and any other details that might help Tanya's QA people to
figure out what's happening. Include anything you think might be even
remotely connected to the issue.


Good luck,

[B0b]

[Michael la-Cour]

Wow Jin.
Quite a lot of knowledge on painter

I must admit I hadn't expected quite as long and detailed an explanation. I'm sure it can help a lot of people.

(I should mention that I haven't encountered any problems since I installed the update.)

Bob
Nice
And no, I havent. Probably because I usually don't work with Targa In Photoshop
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