* Jittery diagrams

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Dagwood
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Family Historian: V6.2

Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

In the last week or so I have returned to my project using V5.0.9 not having touched it for a couple of months while we moved house.
Data entry seems ok but when I open any diagram for, it would appear, any person I notice the diagram has a slight wobble to start with and then sections of it start to flash on and off. While this is happening the cursor alternates between the arrow and a rotating blue circle.
As the frequency and amount of diagram that flashes on and off increases by the second I have been exiting it before something major happens.
I have full backups on the PC and two external HDD's.
It is the only application on my PC that I appear to have any issue with.....yet!
Any thoughts or suggestions most welcome.
Dagwood

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Jane
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Jane »

I had that problem a while ago and reset my default diagram to installation settings and the problem went away, but when I mentioned it to Calico they said they would have liked a copy of the settings, my system eventually finished rendering the diagram and it worked ok other than occasionally flicking the mouse pointer.

So please could you open your diagram and save it as a Custom Diagram Type and hopefully if you then open the custom diagram type you will have the same problem and then email the file to support@family-historian.co.uk so they can look into the problem.

Once you have done that I suspect setting everything back to installation settings will fix it.
Jane
My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Thanks jane. I'll look at that tomorrow and send to Calico Pie as you suggest.
Dagwood
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Hi Jane, just to let you know I saved the diagram as a Custom Diagram and sent to Calico as requested ( with some help from them on how to find it once I had saved it[oops])
I'll hold off doing as you suggested for today in case they want anything else.
Thanks again
Dagwood
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

I received the following from Calico Pie. Could someone please explain what is meant by this and how do I go about doing what they request?
Dagwood

'Please could you send over your current text scheme as well,  as we are not seeing the problem,  if you are using a standard one, with changes please use the Clone option to create a custom version and use the File>Import Export option to find it and send it to us.
Thank you for you help in tracking this down.'
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PeterR
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Jittery diagrams

Post by PeterR »

The Text tab in the Diagram Options dialog specifies your Current Text Scheme.

One of the options in the FH Menu File > Import/Export > Export > is Diagram Text Scheme.... The subsequent dialog box allows you to select the relevant custom text scheme to be exported, including the new one created by using the Clone option in the Diagram Options dialog, as suggested by Calico Pie support.
Peter Richmond (researching Richmond, Bulman, Martin, Driscoll, Baxter, Hall, Dales, Tyrer)
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Many thanks Peter. That seems to imply, if I understand it correctly, that they think I may have made changes to the text scheme ( which I haven't or at least cannot remember ever having done so) or is it that merely cloning the diagram makes some alteration ?
Whichever it is I think I am much clearer now in why and what I need to do
Dagwood
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PeterR
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Jittery diagrams

Post by PeterR »

OK.  The point is that, if you have made any changes, making a Clone of the Text Scheme as a Custom Text Scheme means than any changes will be included in the exported Text Scheme that you can then send to Calico Pie support.
Peter Richmond (researching Richmond, Bulman, Martin, Driscoll, Baxter, Hall, Dales, Tyrer)
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Thanks Peter,
I can see exactly what is required now and appreciate your explanations.
I'll come back when I hear from Calico and share the results with others in case the same happens to anyone else.
Regards
Dagwood
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

I received the following from Calico but have to admit I really do not understand it:

'We are still not having any luck reproducing the problem with your settings, but believe we have found the problem and it's tied to a relationship function combined with with the function, can you double check you don't have ones of those in the current text scheme or box settings.'

I'm awaiting a reply to a request for an explanation but in the meantime had another email from them asking me to carry out the restore to installation for both the diagram and text scheme. Having restored both the diagram and cursor unfortunately continue to flash as before.
I'll come back with further updates.
Dagwood[frown]
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tatewise
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Jittery diagrams

Post by tatewise »

The relationship function is found as follows:
Open Diagram Options, select Text tab, and click Edit button.
In left-hand Available Items there is Relationship to Chart Root.
If this exists in the left-hand Items Used in This Text Scheme then its Template is =Relationship([''],%INDI%,TEXT,1).
This is the case for the default Text Scheme called Name, Dates, How Related to Chart Root and can be added to any other Text Scheme.
This function might also be used in a Boxes tab Condition ~ Expression.
Calico Pie are saying this is causing the problem.

To restore all Installation Settings I believe you need to use the Installation Settings button on each of the following Diagram Options:
General tab.
Text tab, then Edit button.
Pictures, Lines, Proxies, Print & Dimensions tabs.

Also on Boxes tab select any Presets button option.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

I spoke to Ros at Calico this morning and using join.me she was able to go into my copy of FH and look at possible sources of the problem. To be honest she was not certain what was causing the problem but by the time she had finished running through various options the flashing sections of the diagram had stopped and it was quite stable.
The flashing cursor remains, although slower, but I can live with that.
Ros did think it might be a similar problem to the one Jane had but not exactly the same.
For now it seems acceptable and I have learnt something if not about FH then how to use join.me.
Thanks for all inputs.
Dagwood
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Alas I spoke to quickly. This morning I noticed my ancestor diagram had only 5 levels above the subject, normally I have up to 10, and when I changed it the jitters started again. Changing back to 5 did not stop it and it seems to be on all diagrams and regardless of whether it is the root or any other person that is the basis of the diagram.
I've informed Calico Pie and will await their response.
I am wondering whether a full programme uninstall and re-installation might be the answer but will await their reply to that suggestion.
Dagwood
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Dagwood
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Jittery diagrams

Post by Dagwood »

Problem solved.....for now anyway!
Not sure what the root cause was but it would appear that I had a program running in the background ,possibly connected to a printer task, that was affecting FH.
Ros at Calico spotted a very high processor usage when she looked at my machine using join.me and it would appear that this may have been what was the problem. How it started and exactly which program I don't know but we tried clones of my Gedcom file, running the tutorial sample tree, different levels of diagram display and on different people but to no avail.
It was only following Calico's advice that I try and shut down all background tasks that, after using System Mechanic to do so, the diagram was at last stable and the cursor steady.
I post this in the hope that if others have a jittery diagram they'll have some idea of what might be the cause.
I have to say the support from Calico was excellent throughout.
Dagwood
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