FrameMaker hangs regularly

[léandro_0776]

Hi,

With FrameMaker 2022 (v17), when editing a 750 pages document converted from a previous release, I have 2 problems:

1) At start, it says "At least one original filter used for graphics is not available......"

How can I find what graphic is missing or bad?

2) Regularly, Frame hangs for 30s. It's very disruptive, how can I find why and remedy to it?

I use an Intel 24 core, a GEN4 NVME SSD and 128GB  memory, so resources are not the problem.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[léandro_0776 · Accepted solution]

Well, I was wrong about the anchored frames.

After spending much time redoing them, that did not help.

So I took the advice gievn here to do a binary search.

I ended up with a completyl blank document that was still hanging.

I then (finally!) created a brand new document, imported all the settings of the old one, and than made a cut & paste of the content.

I ended up with the same document, but no more hang ups.

Just a corruped or too badly imported a long time ago file.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Did somebody suggest a MIF-wash at some point? I forget if anybody did. That might have cleaned things up for your legacy doc.

[léandro_0776]

I tried with a copy I kept of the hanging file, Frame also hangs opening the MIF.

[frameexpert]

Are you working across a network? That can cause slow scrolling. One thing to try: choose View > Options and uncheck Graphics. This will hide the graphics in the document. See if that solves the scrolling problem.

[léandro_0776]

No network problem. 

As I posted above:
I found the problem: some anchore frames created with an old FrameMaker version should show a box around the text inside, but do not. Removing these frames and reformatting solved it, but it's a lot of work, it hangs at every action.

[frameexpert · Accepted solution]

Here is a utility script that may help you solve the "original filter" message. When you run it on an active document (File > Script > Run), it will write 3 pieces of information to the Console window (View > Panels > Console) for each imported-by-reference graphic:

1. The file name of the image.
2. The import filter base name.
3. The import filter full name.

In general, the graphic's file extension should match the import filter base name. If it doesn't, that may reveal the problem. Here is how it can occur: You import a graphic and FrameMaker figures out the filter to use. You later create another graphic with a different format but with the same name as the original graphic. That will usually trigger the message you are seeing. Anyway, this script may help you figure out if there any mismatches like this.

All that said, you probably have images that were imported with an earlier version of FrameMaker and that import filter is no longer available in your current version.

main ();

function main () {

    var doc;
    
    doc = app.ActiveDoc;
    if (doc.ObjectValid () === 1) {
        processDoc (doc);            
    }
}

function processDoc (doc) {
    
    var graphic, file, importHint;
    
    graphic = doc.FirstGraphicInDoc;
    while (graphic.ObjectValid () === 1) {
        if (graphic.constructor.name === "Inset") {
            if (graphic.InsetFile !== "") {
                file = new File (graphic.InsetFile);
                importHint = graphic.ImportHint;
                Console (File.decode (file.name) + "\t" + 
                    importHint.substring (8, 12) + "\t" + 
                    importHint);
            }
        }
        graphic = graphic.NextGraphicInDoc;
    }
}

[léandro_0776]

Thanks, that's interesting although I would have to look into it to know how to use it.

But as posed above, I figured out that (you are 100% right) that it's caused by old .rast files.

The display and print fine, so I'll forget about the warning: these are not causing the slow down, as posted above.

[léandro_0776]

I finally got over being lazy, and used this script to change all the .rast files with JPEG ones converted with GIMP.

The error message does not happen anymore.

Thanks!

[frameexpert]

You can download the script for free from my store:

https://frameexpert.gumroad.com/l/cp-graphics-filter-report

Here is a video that demonstrates the script:

https://youtu.be/suKTZ-TEmRk