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SurView Tutorial

Troubleshooting & bugs

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  1. File Association
    Problem:
    I click on a file in File Manager or try to 'run' the file from Program Manager and Windows says:
    "No application is associated with this file"

    Solution:
    You must run SurView first in order to register the SurView file types for File Association. Simply start up SurView, do the File Association and then terminate it. Click on the file icon again and SurView should start up with that file in the File Display List.

    In Windows '95 you may be invited to select an application. Do not do this. Instead, use the procedure described above: it writes 'cleaner' entries in your Windows registry file.

  2. Lost SurView
    Problem:
    I click on a file in File Manager or try to 'run' the file from Program Manager and Windows says:
    "Cannot find SURVIEW.EXE. This application is required to run files with extension ..."

    Solution:
    Windows has an incorrect File Association setting that points to a non-existent SURVIEW.EXE. It is likely that you have moved SURVIEW.EXE to another location since the association was initially registered. Windows will provide a dialog box to ask you to 'Locate' SURVIEW.EXE. Ignore this dialog box (close it) and follow the procedure to reset the File Association from SurView.

  3. CTL3DV2.DLL
    Problem:
    I try to run SurView and I get an error message:
    "This application uses CTL3DV2.DLL, which has not been correctly installed"

    Then the application runs, but the dialog boxes don't look right.

    Solution:
    CTL3DV2.DLL will not allow itself to be run from any directory other than ...\windows\system or ...\windows (for network installations). Either you have not installed CTL3DV2.DLL in that directory, or Windows is finding another copy of it first. Delete all versions of CTL3DV2.DLL on your system, except the copy in ...\windows\system.

    In order to allow you to run SurView directly from the CD, the CTL3DV2.DLL file has been deliberately placed in a subdirectory below the directory which contains SURVIEW.EXE. This ensures that Windows can not find it if you run SurView by double-clicking on the SURVIEW.EXE file on the CD from File Manager or by using Program Manager's File | Run command.

  4. Drawing area
    Problem:
    SurView does not use the entire drawing area within the application window to draw the picture

    Explanation
    SurView needs to know your monitor size and most of the time Windows makes a good guess on the size (the information is not stored anywhere). However, if SurView's picture does not fill the entire drawing area of the window, leaving margins at the top and right, you will need to make a one-time adjustment for the monitor that you are using.

    Solution:
    Windows does not know the physical size of your monitor, so it makes a guess, based on the video card resolution you are using. In some cases (small monitor/high resolution or large monitor/low resolution), this estimate will be incorrect and you must make a small adjustment for the monitor size. Windows '95 makes a better guess at the monitor size because it has a setting for you to enter your monitor type and size.

    Click on the system menu [-] in the extreme upper left corner of SurView and select 'Adjust for Monitor Size'. Follow the instructions (click on the centre of the RED cursor so it moves to the black crosshair location) and click Ok. When the picture is redrawn, it should now fill the entire window. This must be done with at least one data file selected: the problem does not exhibit itself if only the GSC logo is displayed.

    This calibration only needs to be done once: the settings are saved in ...\WINDOWS\SURVIEW.CFG when you close the SurView application. The interactive help for SurView contains additional information regarding this adjustment in Section 2.3.8 (in surview.hlp).

  5. Printing problems
    SurView should not have any problems displaying polylines or polygons on the screen, since the Windows video drivers seem to be very good. However, some Windows printer drivers are not as good as most video drivers. In particular, some printers can not plot very large and/or complex polygons (with many islands). If you print a map and some large polygons are missing, this is not a defect in SurView - it is a printer driver problem. Try to find a newer version of the printer driver: perhaps it can be downloaded from the manufacturer's Web site.

  6. Printing is slow!
    Problem:
    It takes forever to print, especially images!

    Solution:
    Yes, I know that. At the moment, images are drawn with code written in 1992, designed to provide dithered colours even on primitive 16-colour VGA video cards. As a result, it is very slow and inefficient at drawing, both on the screen and on printers. I intend to rewrite the code to use more modern 'BitBlt' methods.

  7. The bitmap legend won't print
    Problem:
    If a GRX file has a bitmap legend, it doesn't print.

    Solution:
    Yes, I know that too. This new feature was added quickly and I haven't had a chance to fix it yet.