Art Rage 4 and 5 both keep freezing

[cor]

Hello,
I have been happy with Art Rage 4 so even though I bought Art Rage 5 a while back, I haven't bothered using it. Now, however, I'm having major issues with pen lag and getting the "wait" spinning wheel after each action that I take. The program is currently unusable to me. It appears the problem is with Art Rage and not my computer as all other programs on my computer are working fine and my computer just had a tune-up, has no viruses, has lots of storage, etc. I tried Art Rage 5 to see if a newer program would make a difference, but immediately experienced the same issues. I have a big project due for work and I've been trying to solve this problem all week with no results. Does anyone have a suggestion that I could try? Incidentally I am working on a macOs 10.13.6. Thanks for any help. Feeling distressed

[Enug]

Hello and welcome cor. I would try installing both versions again. If you go to the 'Member Area' top of this page you can download again the items you have previously purchased if they have been registered. Perhaps the "tune up" has caused a hiccup. Good luck!:)

[cor]

Hello and welcome cor. I would try installing both versions again. If you go to the 'Member Area' top of this page you can download again the items you have previously purchased if they have been registered. Perhaps the "tune up" has caused a hiccup. Good luck!:)

I actually had the issues before the tune-up. The tune-up was an attempt to fix the problems. But I guess it couldn't hurt to install the programs again. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Update: I reinstalled Art Rage 5 but is still has the same issues. Might you have any other suggestions?

[Enug]

MarkW will most likely pop in with some ideas - he is a mac man.:) He's in UK so should be around soon.

[markw]

Hello cor and welcome to the ArtRage forums :)
Sorry to hear you are having problems.:(
My initial thought was that it sounded like a lack of RAM but then you say all other programs are running OK..:confused:
I don’t have a copy of OS10.13.6 to try on but I do have 10.11.6 and AR4 & 5 are both working OK on that, so if the problem is OS version specific I’m not sure I can offer much help here.
So you may want to contact Ambient Design directly regarding this problem, either via the support page here: https://www.artrage.com/get-support/
Or by email at: [email protected]
Some useful upfront information though would be…

ArtRage:
What build version number are your copies of AR4 & 5?
(This is displayed on the launch splash screen as the app starts but can also be found after launching from the Menubar by going to: ArtRage > About).
Dose the lag happen with all tools and actions within AR or just some?
What sort of size Canvases, in terms of pixel dimensions, W x H, are you working with?
Would you be able to make a screen recording of what you are seeing?
You can use QuickTime Player to do this. In QuickTime Player go to: File > New Screen Recording.

System:
What type of Mac are you using?
Your OS version. Yours is 10.13.6, correct?
How much RAM dose it have?
What GHz is the CPU?
What size HD dose the system have and how much free storage space is there on it?

Input Device:
What make and type of device are you using when the lag happens, e.g Tablet & Pen, Mouse, etc…?
What Driver version is the input device using?

[cor]

I appreciate your help

[cor]

Hi Mark,
Thanks so much for all of the information and suggestions. I really appreciate your time.

I just thought I'd add that I didn't uninstall Art Rage 5 the right way the first time. I decided to just focus on Art Rage 4 today instead and I uninstalled Art Rage 4 the correct way and then reinstalled it. It made no difference with my issues unfortunately. It was interesting to see though that the version of Art Rage 4 changed from the original of Art Rage 4.5.10 to Art Rage 4 32/64 Bit after the install. This change gave me hope that my problems might be resolved, but of course, that was not the case.

I also uninstalled and then reinstalled my driver. Again, it did not correct the problems.

In case it helps you or anyone else who might be kind enough to offer suggestions for me, my computer is a MacBookPro. (Os 10.13.6)
2 Ghz processor, 8 Gb memory. The storage capacity on it is 498.88 GB and I still have 415.6 GB available for use.

The driver is updated to 6.3 44-2.
I'm using a Wacom Intuous BT S tablet.

The lag happen with all tools and all actions. I do one thing, then everything is frozen. I do the next line or color fll, then everything is frozen. etc.
The canvas I work on is 2550px by 3300 px at 300 px/in. I've been working in these settings for years.

I'm at my wit's end with what to do next. I have so much work to do.
I'd really appreciate any further suggestions.

[markw]

Thanks for the extra info.
Have you tried changing your Wacom driver to an earlier one?
I ask as some months back I found that the latest Wacom driver for my tablet, 6.3.41-2, actually didn’t play all that well with AR.
I had to go back to Driver 6.3.39-1, which is the Driver I'm using now. Using any of the more recent ones after that for my Intuos4 tablet and system gave me problems with the Touch Wheel when using AR. Though I don't recall it causing any lag in response to actions?

Now this may not be the cause of your problems and as I said in my last post I think you should contact Ambient Design and see what they can advise.
But if you are comfortable with experimenting to see if it is your driver version causing the problem you can still find older versions of it for your tablet on Wacom’s site. As well as instructions on how to fully uninstall an existing driver.
If your tablet allows you a Backup/Restore function of your tablet’s settings I would strongly recommend saving your current settings before changing drivers.

Really hope you can get this sorted soon, keep us updated

[cor]

Hello again,
Nothing was working so I ended up buying a new computer. It wasn't the route I wanted to go, but my other computer was from 2013 so even if it wasn't the problem I would probably be needing a new one soon anyway. Now that I am working on the new computer, I do not have the lag or freezing issue when using Art Rage. The new problem I have though are these white rectangles that show up on my screen when I am working in Art Rage (but not at any other time or in any other program). Sometimes it's just one rectangle, sometimes it's a series of 3 that are either layered on top of each other or spread around the monitor. If I drag my Art Rage canvas either to my computer screen or to my extra monitor, the white rectangles stay behind. But as I keep working in art rage they are likely to show up again in the new location. Any thoughts? Is this a driver issue?
Also, as a completely separate issue, do you Mark, or anyone else know why my black and white images now seem to be bleeding outside of the outer black line? There is a thin white line around the black line which wasn't an issue on my last computer. If I just use the bucket and click to fill each individual section with white then I don't have this. But when I color the whole image at once in black and white (by using the selection tool around the outer edge of the image and then inverting it , etc.) then I get this white "bleeding" slightly outside of the black outer line. Is there some setting I need to adjust to avoid this happening? Thanks for any suggestions.

[romaroken]

Thanks for the tips

[markw]

Hello cor,
Glad you have AR working now:cool: Though that was quite an extreme solution!!!

Not sure what the “white squares” could be that you are referring to:confused:
Though I do get white squares appearing as the cursor travels over the canvas while using the Transform tool. These are always outside of the Transform Bounding Box and temporary in nature, disappearing after completing the Transform.
The later issue with the Bucket sounds like an antialiasing issue. You could try turning Off Antialiasing, though you will get jagged edges around the fill colour.
In AR it’s generally better when possible to keep Line layers separate to Fill layers. With the Line layer/s placed above the Fill layer/s which effectively hides/masks any semitransparent pixels around the edges of the fill colour caused by the antialiasing.

Can you post some screenshots of your current issues?
Along with some step by steps of how to reproduce them?

[cor]

Yes, the solution did feel extreme. I had just run out of options and I needed to get back to work after wasting a week trying to solve the problem. Not too happy about it tho.

Thanks for being willing to help with my black and white image issues. I really appreciate it.

This is the process I was taught for turning a black line image (black outlines, transparent inside) into a black and white image from the help desk at Art Rage and I've been doing it for years. I haven't had any issues until now on my new computer which makes me think some setting is different that I need to correct.

I'll have my blackline drawing on a layer. I'll use the select tool to outline the outer lines of the drawing. But because I am trying to make the inside of the drawing white, I then need to click on Invert in order to select the inside of the drawing. Then I move to the layer under the drawing and click on the bucket tool, then I click on current layer only in settings (the antialising box already has a check in it) then I click inside my drawing and the whole thing turns white. Then I just clear the selection.
The result on this computer is that there is a white outline around the outside edge of the black line. This is a problem if the customer might put the image on either a dark background or when they layer black and white images over each other because you'll see all those white edges.

I will try to attach an image of a simple circle to show you. If an image is simple I could just manual click on it with the bucket tool, of course, but if an image has lots of different segments within the outer black line that would take a long time. 102061102062

I'd love to know what I could do here.

[markw]

Well, I’ve had a play now on two computers, this one and another 11 year old MacBook Pro running OSX10.11, both with past editions of AR3.5 to the latest ARV.
Following your steps, I always find that the fill spreads approximately 1px beyond the edge of the shape used to define the fill area.

My best guess is that when the area is filled, rather than stopping at the inside edge as it were of the selection boundary of ‘marching ants”, this boundary line is also being included in the area to be filled, and thus over extending the fill.
As to why you were not seeing this behaviour on your previous system, indeed you say you were getting arguably better Select & Fill results, I really don’t know?

So in general I would say use the Fill tool with it’s built in border detection function whenever possible. This would streamline your workflow a bit for some areas.
However for those times when you deem the fill areas too numerous to tackle with the Fill tool alone, a possible workaround could be to use your Select & Fill routine as before, but then use the Transform tool to slightly shrink the filled area back behind the border colour.

[cor]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure why this is happening now when it didn't before, but that is a good workaround. I really appreciate the time you put in to answer this question. Very kind of you!