Creating A Dump File

This page describes the process for creating a dump of your memory system while WireCAD is running or immediately after a crash or hang.

Definitions

1. Crash - the application quits working without warning and Windows reports that the application has quit unexpectedly. It is very unusual for WireCAD to crash. Please note that a crash is NOT a logical error in the code that causes the standard WireCAD exception handler to pop up (the unhappy face form). Crashes are catastrophic. They are unrecoverable and may corrupt data. 
2. Hang - there are two types of application hang:

• Race or high CPU usage. This type of hang causes your machine to go nuts. You can't do anything else because the CPU is too busy running away.
• Non responsive low CPU usage. This type of hang let's the rest of the machine work but the offending application appears to be doing nothing.

What is a dump file?

A dump file contains all of the memory on your machine relating to the program that is under scrutiny.

A full dump file can be quite large as it contains the values of all memory locations used by the application.

A mini dump file is often enough information for us to determine the offending code or hardware.

How to Generate a Dump File?

If an application crashes Windows will let you know that it is creating a dump file and where to find it. Please zip that file up and email it to support@wirecad.com

The remainder of this article will be devoted to describing the process of creating dump files using the Windows Debugging Tools.