2018.1 xlights crashing

[Bartlettguy67]

Yes, still would not open.

I just downloaded 2018.2 and it crashes also.  It says xlights.exe has stopped working. 

I just downloaded 2017.44 and it works fine. 

I don't know where the issue could be.

[keithsw1111]

Start in a new show folder.

[Bartlettguy67]

How can I start it in a new show folder? 

I'm willing to try that to see if it'll work.  I can't get xlights to open.

[Gilrock]

1)  Close xLights.
2)  Rename your show folder with something like "_backup" in the name.
3)  Launch xLights from a command prompt using the /w option.
4)  Upon launching xLights will prompt you for a show folder so you need to create a blank directory.

[Bartlettguy67]

Tried that and it still didn't work.  Nothing will work above the 2017.44.

This is a new desktop with windows 10.    I'm not sure why it's not working.

[Gilrock]

Can you either capture a video showing all those steps fail or get into zoom with an expert user sometime?

[Bartlettguy67]

I know this might sound like a dumb question, how do I get into zoom?

[keithsw1111]

Blue button XLights.org

[keithsw1111]

Have you been into zoom yet to get help ... we have looked at your files and cant reproduce the problem and I am keen to get you going again.

[Gilrock]

Yeah we don't always just hangout in the Zoom channel but if you can get in the xLights Facebook group just post a request for help and there is almost always power users that can help.

[Bartlettguy67]

I just downloaded 2018.3.  I had to tweak my models because Xlights could not figure the start channel on 4 groups.  Once I did that, 2018.3 is working.

[Gilrock]

Ummm what?  Keith did a new feature get added?  Groups don't have start channels.  Sounds like you had circular dependencies in your models.

[keithsw1111]

No new feature adding start channels to groups.

[Bartlettguy67]

I'm not sure what happened.  I had a model setup running 12 candy canes together, all doing the same thing.  Then I had them broken down into groups of three.  For some reason it didn't like the names that I had, so I renamed them and it's working now. 

Before I couldn't even get xlights to work on the versions between 2017.44 and 2018.3. 

I'm glad to get it working and thanks for looking to see what could have been the issues.

[JonB256]

I'm not sure what happened.  I had a model setup running 12 candy canes together, all doing the same thing.  Then I had them broken down into groups of three.  For some reason it didn't like the names that I had, so I renamed them and it's working now. 

Before I couldn't even get xlights to work on the versions between 2017.44 and 2018.3. 

I'm glad to get it working and thanks for looking to see what could have been the issues.

You don't mention the problematic names but keep in mind that all xLights data is stored in XML files and you can sometimes use characters that will confuse the parsing during file load.

I would mention the names you needed to change and perhaps the programmers can create a filter to allow them or at least get past the error.