Model Sharing: Joining or read-in large number of packets sometimes hanging

Tekla Structures

Not version-specific

Tekla Structures

Environment

Not environment-specific

We have been getting many cases where model sharing read in is hanging randomly. The progress bar just jams and looks like nothing is happening. Sometimes it helps to restart Tekla Structures and try again, or try with a smaller number of packets. It looks like there is nothing wrong in the packets themselves as the problem is random, it is just the read-in process which is jamming.

We have been investigating this issue and it seemed to be related to Azure Blob Storage service. The network communication to Storage Service is occasionally hanging during the download. This seems to happen more likely with large baselines or packets with hundreds of Megabytes data sizes.

We have found a workaround with a special back-off setting when communicating with Azure Storage service and added this workaround to the new Cache Server version. In case you are facing this issue installing the new Cache Server is the quickest way to get this workaround into use.

The Cache Server is anyway recommended to be used in most cases. In case there is a server in an office and a VPN connection then the Cache Server can be shared with many users in the same area. If not then the Cache Server can be installed in the user's workstation as it's really lightweight.

The fix for this issue is included in the following Tekla Structures Service Pack installations (does not require Cache Server):

2020 SP3
2019i SP7
2019 SP8
2018i SP9

Show available updates

As a workaround you can also try reading in smaller number of packets at a time. Following options make sure that when you read in or join a model, you will get a list of available baselines and packets and you can select which one to read in.

Make sure that you have the following options checked in the File menu > Sharing > Sharing settings dialog box:

Show available updates when joining the model
Show available updates when reading in the changes

Model Sharing: Joining or read-in large number of packets sometimes hanging

Show available updates

See also