Bugs...

Some companies call them "issues" -- generally they're programming errors or incompatibilities that come to light as new people use the software in unusual ways or on systems configured differently from other people's. Unfortunately, I cannot fix problems until I hear about them and can reproduce them. Some problems depend upon a unique combination of hardware and software, others appear only when certain types of data are entered in certain ways. If I cannot reproduce the problem, then there is no way of knowing exactly what is happening internally and no way to tell if I have indeed fixed the problem. Whatever the case, I issue bug-fix releases to solve problems as they are reported and fixed (even if that means a new update every month), so please visit this web site regularly to stay up to date!

These are known problems as of April 28, 2004:

Lightwright 4.0.4 for Windows

Confirmed bugs:   Unconfirmed bugs:   Reported bugs, not reproducible: LW4 lost work notes Focus charts don't print (this has been reported by two users, but cannot be reproduced by others) Scroll bar arrows jump to first and last page instead of scrolling (only in Focus Charts)

Lightwright 4.0.4 for Macintosh OSX

Confirmed bugs:Layouts did not keep ganging info  Lightwright cannot accept filenames more than 31 characters in length Unconfirmed bugs: "Distribute Vertically" command may not work properly on focus charts Lightwright crashed without warning while working in work notes window, perhaps while changing a label in Prefs/Work Notes Sometimes cannot select last item in worksheet Some pages are printed using condensed style Reported bugs, not reproducible: Text size shown by Size menu is not always accurate in layout

Lightwright 3 for Windows

If you try to add a very wide or tall graphic to your paperwork, Lightwright will produce an Error #6 "Overflow". Status: Confirmed. Fix is NOT done. In the meantime, if you encounter this error, reduce the width and/or height of the graphic. The fonts in the Error Checking and Tech Reports dialog windows are sometimes weird. Status: Not confirmed, but a possible fix was incorporated beginning with version 3e. There are two identical instrument names on the Instrument Types list! Status: Confirmed, but the cause is unknown. If this happens to you, View the instrument type with the problem, then select the instrument type column and give all of those units a temporary new name. Then go to List Maintenance/Instrument Types and make sure there is no stock quantity for either of the two identical names. Then press the Remove Unused button. Finally, while you're still in List Maintenance, find the temporary name and change it to the original name that was duplicated. I can't drag columns around in Layout / I can't change the width of columns in layout. Status: Cannot be reproduced, and no obvious causes can be found in the program's code. One user could not drag anything and found that updating his Windows mouse driver solved the problem. Clicking on the View menu, you don't get a chance to make a selection; it jumps right to the first item on the list (Channel) and asks what channel(s) you want to look at. Status: Cannot be reproduced, and there is no code within Lightwright itself that handles popup menu actions. The problem occurs when users have their mice set to execute a double-click automatically when they click the mouse once. Selecting a printer with a paper width or length greater than 22 inches (such as a plotter) causes Lightwright to crash with an Overflow error. Status: Confirmed. Lightwright freezes after entering registration information. Status: Cannot reproduce, but switching screen to 16 bit color solved the problem. Drag handle for scaling graphics in layouts is not available. Status: Confirmed. However, this is not a bug, it's just a feature that is not available in the Windows version of Lightwright. Importing a Lightwright 2 show file, if the combined color separator has been used to separate colors from templates, then the templates are not put into their own column correctly. Status: The combined color separator is not supposed to be used in this way, but 3a and subsequent versions do their best (results are NOT guaranteed).

Lightwright 3 for Macintosh

There are two identical instrument names on the Instrument Types list! Status: Confirmed, but the cause is unknown. If this happens to you, View the instrument type with the problem, then select the instrument type column and give all of those units a temporary new name. Then go to List Maintenance/Instrument Types and make sure there is no stock quantity for either of the two identical names. Then press the Remove Unused button. Finally, while you're still in List Maintenance, find the temporary name and change it to the original name that was duplicated. Registration information has to be entered every time the program starts. Status: Confirmed, but tossing the "Registration Info" file (found in Lightwright's Settings folder) in the trash fixes the problem. The names of paperwork on the Paperwork menu disappear, so you can't get to the layout for that kind of paperwork. The names are also missing from the Print Paperwork dialog. Status: Confirmed, but we cannot find out why. When this happens, it is a sign that the Lightwright application has been damaged. Toss your current copy of the Lightwright application in the trash and replace it with a fresh copy. You do not need to toss the whole Lightwright folder, just the application itself.

Beamwright 3 & 4 for Windows and Macintosh

If you add a new zoom light with zero as the beam and field angle and then zoom in all the way, Beamwright will crash with a "divide by zero" error. Status: Problem verified, no workaround available yet.

Beamwright 2 for Windows

Switching to metric measurements produces a "screwy" display that will not let you move the light where you want it, and calculated results are incorrect. Status: Problem fixed in Version 3.

Beamwright 3 for Windows

If you enter information into the "criteria area" and then click "Draw as Entered", the results are inaccurate the first time. Subsequent clicks of "Draw as Entered" are correct. Status: Confirmed. Fix is included in Beamwright 4, which requires Lightwright 4.