While we are always happy to receive bug reports, even anecdotally, there are some things you can do to help us resolve your problems:
- Check if the problem has been reported already. Please read or search this forum first, it may be that the issue you have come across has already been reported, and perhaps even fixed! It helps us to keep track if you add an "I'm experiencing this problem too" reply to an existing thread, rather than starting a new discussion about the same problem.
- Tell us what you are using. It seems obvious, but is often forgotten. Remember to tell us which product you are using (Irricad or FastQuote) and which version. It is also useful for us to know what environment you are running in, i.e., which version of Windows you are using (including the service pack number if you know it).
- Tell us what you were doing at the time. Were you laying out your system? What were you drawing? Were you running through the design process? Which part? Management? Zone design? Were you doing fitting selection? Finding and fixing bugs is, by-and-large, a question of specificity - we need to know exactly what you were doing at the time and exactly the sequence you were doing it in. If we cannot replicate the bug, it is generally somewhere between very difficult and impossible to track it down and fix it.
- Record error messages. Please try to write down or screen-capture any error message dialogs you see - often these can point us to the problem code.
- Send us an example. Probably the easiest way to illustrate a problem to us is to send us a design which demonstrates the issue. We also need a detailed description of the steps necessary to cause the problem (repeatability again!). Please remember to include all the files associated with the design (.mdb, .des, .vcd, .dml, .dzf, .dzn, .stn, .wsp, .zne, .ztm, .cer), zipping them up is usually the most efficient way. You can attach small example designs to a forum post, but larger examples will have to be emailed to us.