Running Vista Business 32bit it fails to load. One of the primary reasons behind buying a moderately powerful laptop such as I did, was the hope to sit in the lounge room in my underwear and make 3D stuff! :-)

Any word on what I am doing wrong?

All I get is 'Unexpected Error: Quitting".

I initially had the same problem but quickily fiquired out that you need to install and run 3DC under UAC. Switch you user account "back on" and all should be well then.

Paul's additional plugins are available from here -

http://www31.brinkster.com/decapod/

Vista requires that you register them now, however Paul has kindly supplied a small batch file that will register them for you.

I hate Vista. Takes control away from the people all in aid of security, what's new these days

Thank you for the quick reply mate! I already have UAC switched on. Is there something else I need to do?

Is this a "fresh" version of Vista. Meaning did you install a bunch of other software before installing 3D Canvas?

Do you know what graphics chip is in your laptop?

Can you send the file "3D Canvas.log" to support@amabilis.com? Thanks.

My Vista installation is certainly not fresh! In fact, it's a bit on the nose. :-)

The system is as follows:
Dell XPS M1210 Vista Business
Intel Core Duo 2.0Ghz
2Gig RAM
nVidia 7400 Go

There is a .log file in my Documents folder but it's from a previous attempt I think. Here are it's contents below:
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Begin 3D Canvas Log
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Basic Install Valid
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Special Offer Displayed
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Single 3D Canvas Instance Running
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Creating Scene Graph
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Creating Canvas RM
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Direct3D RM Available
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Canvas RM Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Canvas RM Available
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Canvas Scene Graph Collections Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Scene Graph Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | 3D Canvas Scene Graph Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Registry Entries Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Version Determined
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | File System Object Initialized
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Capicom validated
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | My Documents Folder Found: "C:\Users\nickeax\Documents\3D Canvas 7.0.1"
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Drive Selected
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Short File Name of My Documents Found
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Installation Check #2 Succeeded
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | 3D Canvas Folder in My Documents Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | 3D Canvas\Media Folder in My Documents Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | 3D Canvas\Media\Textures Folder in My Documents Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | 3D Canvas\Media\Objects Folder in My Documents Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Folder Copying Complete
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | File Copying Complete
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Folders Created
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Help File Set
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | File Recovery Attempted
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | System Is Valid
17/03/2007 | 12:59:15 AM | Splash Screen Shown
17/03/2007 | 12:59:16 AM | Direct3D Initialized
17/03/2007 | 12:59:23 AM | Error #: -2147221503 Error Description: Unable to Configure DirectX. Please ensure that the most recent version of DirectX is installed, and that your graphics card drivers are up to date. Error Location: modMain.Main

Try turning on UAC...

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=72759

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Gausden:
Try turning on UAC...

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=72759

Paul, thanks for the tip, but I've tried this with the same results. The error I'm getting is not as informative as that which the user was receiving in your link.

My message is simply, 'Unknown Error'. I have to assume that the little people in my computer are scratching their heads too. :-)

Vista is very particular about installation of software and security thereafter when running programs.

Have you used the control panel to remove all previously installed 3D Canvas components and directories? This fixes up the registry. Any remaining registry entries will cause a problem. Then make sure that you run the unzipped download of the free version first in administrator mode. Once you have installed the free 3D Canvas which automatically will go into "C:\Program Files\3D Canvas" directory run the free installed 3D Canvas in administrator mode. It will check your video driver and stop with a 3D Window and prompt window. Close extra windows. Open the help drop down and enter your license data. Exit 3D Canvas. Start 3D Canvas up again in administrator mode. This time it should come up in Professional mode. Again open the help drop down and download the helpfile. Again exit 3D Canvas. Unzip and install the help file using administrator mode. Then Go to Start and open and look for the Command Prompt(Old DOS style) and right click on it and run in administrator mode. It will say that it is an Administrator Command Window. After you get the "C:\Windows\System" prompt and you want to use Paul's .BAT file to install plugins, type in the complete path to the .BAT file location or CD to that directory and file. Since you started the Command Prompt in Administator mode, this should register all of them. After this open 3D Canvas and check that the plugins show in the options window when plugins are selected.

After this, 3D Canvas should run on any logged in account if User Account Code is activated on your computer. If you have UAC off use the right click and run in Administrator mode.

This has worked on every version of 7.0.x.x that has recently been made available on my laptop.

If this does not work, you may have a problem with your laptop OEM software. One clue, don't expect Microsoft to help much unless you're willing to pay. The first question they ask is, if it is on a laptop and then refer you to the OEM for first software responder support.

charles

cohearn, thanks for the in depth help mate. The only thing that I'm doing differently to what you suggest is the 'Install as Admin' part. I'm not sure how to do this?

Installing normally, I can 'Run As Admin', but before the program even starts, I get the 'Unknown Error: Quitting' message.

Hmmm...

Charles,

That's definitely useful information for me. I never thought of "run as administrator". I'll have to try it.

Niceax,

I didn't get your log file. I suppose 3D Canvas is not producing it, if it isn't even starting?

This is almost certainly a case of something being messed up with Windows. Something isn't registered, or an old version is installed. It's really hard to track down this sort of problem. It's like the other day when my developement environment stopped working. I had to use "System Restore" to fix things.

UPDATE:

Did a fresh install of OS and all seems fine so far! :-)

I have not delved into the program to any high degree yet, but it's great just to be able to fire it up.

Thanks to all for helping.

Good to hear. A fresh install of Windows has cured virtually every problem such as this I've ever seen. I can only recall one exception and it was XP 64 on an unusual configuration.

I added some things to the installation for 7.1 that I hope will help with this sort of thing. But, if Windows is really messed up, it seems it is more or less unfixable.

It's very hard for me to recommend "re-install windows", so I don't normally do it.

I'd recommend checking 3D Canvas after each install of other software. Chances are that something you installed previously was the cause of the problems, and it will happen again if you install the exact same programs. If you check after each installtion, you'll be able to track down the cause of the problem, and be able to easily recover via System Restore.

Good advice. I'm going to set restore points often from now on.

Cheers!