Malformed S3D XML Configuration

[RxNcO]

Hi all,

I've encountered what I think could be a baddly "escaped/encoded" Simplify3D xml configuration.
What happened, is that I've imported a stl file with french character in the name.
Everything went fine, until I closed S3D and reopened it.
When I restarted S3D, I've got a pop up information dialog telling me of a xml problem.
After this warning everything looked OK, expect when I tryied printing something.
S3D was not post-processing my gcode to x3g anymore.
I had to reload a fresh configuration to get everything working again.

Could you look at this issue?

Regards

[brian442]

Try to not use any weird characters or accented letters in the filenames, then I think it will work

[NitroXpress]

Yes, that's the solution...

[RxNcO]

Hi guys,

Of course, your solution is perfectly acceptable:
if a "weird and accented but perfectly legal OS wise" file is messing up S3D internal settings, don't use such file !!!

But in fact, I was not really asking for that kind of solution.
I was just reporting a bug to the S3D dev team.

Either, S3D does not accept all well formed file names, and MUST then prevent users from loading them.
Or, S3D does not put restriction on file names, and MUST then make sure that its internal xml configuration file is encoded/decoded correctly.

Moreover, the problem does not only arise with "weird and accented" file names. It also arise if you use "weird and accented" characters anywhere in S3D. (In a gcode startup script for example).

We're living in 2017 and restricting people on using only US-ASCII characters is something of the past !!!

Having put such a great piece of software, I have no doubt that the S3D dev team will be able to find a UTF8 compatible xml encoding/decoding library that will fix this bug.

Here is how you can reproduce the bug:

Start S3D
Open a STL file with "weird or accented" characters
Close S3D
Open S3D again: -> you get a warning about a malformed xml content
After you clicked "OK", everything looks fine, but it is not the case.
Going back to a normal behaviour is not easy. It is not just a matter of removing the STL file from S3D.
You also have to manually revert all you profile to default.


Another way to reproduce the problem is:

Start S3D
Add a process
Edit the process
Go to the "Scripts" tab
Add a comment with a "weird or accented character" to one script
Close S3D
Reopen S3D: -> Tadam !!! Here come the malformed xml warning

I know: what was I thinking when writing a comment with a "weird or accented" character !!!

Cheers

[RxNcO]

Hi,

Any feedback from S3D dev team??

Cheers

[brian442]

You'll probably have better luck getting help if you post some sample files that re-create the issue. That will make it easier for someone to test it out and maybe even come up with a workaround.

[RxNcO]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your answer, but I'm not really seecking help on this issue.
Indeed, the workaround, as you said, is obvious: "dont use any non US-ASCII characters anywhere in S3D".

I just wanted to hear from the S3D dev team about this problem and if they plan on fixing it.

I gave 2 step by step methods to reproduce the problem in my previous post.

If that's the problem, here are some "weird or accented" characters that can be copy-pasted in the startup script to reproduce the problem:
éÔö àçèåæËØŠßÚ

Cheers

[brian442]

Well you can always email them directly if you want (https://www.simplify3d.com/contact-us/), although I'm sure they are already aware of this. From my emails with their support people, they said they have multiple people who read every post on this forum to make sure they are tracking any new issues or suggestions. So if you post something here, you can be assured they have seen it.

[Radish]

I just ran into this issue with the file mês.STL from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1852755. I could import the file initially but got an error when I re-opened S3D. I was born in the US and live in the US and work as a web developer in the US and think it's ridiculous that S3D chokes on such common characters as this or as RxNcO posted. Windows handles the characters just fine as does Meshmixer (and probably most every other program installed on my computer).

I really like S3D but it really needs polish, not the grandiose and overly-complicated features requested elsewhere in the forums. Handling non-US ASCII characters is example of polish.

- Paul