Contacting Support

If you are a user with current subscription, you can email technical support at support@formsys.com for all your technical questions.

Also see important information below on some recommended practices to using email communication.

Best Practice Guide to using Support

Following the guidelines below will improve the quality of support we can offer.

1: Submit one issue per email

In order for you to be able to track an issue, make sure you submit only one issue per email. This way when one issue is fixed/solved it can be closed while other issues can still be outstanding in separate emails.

1a One issue = One Subject line

Also in order to keep track of all incoming emails we need to receive the same subject line for emails on the same topic. Easiest way to do this is by simply hitting reply to response emails from us. Do not remove the Re: TID##### bit in front of the email subject line (this is the ID tag that is used for tracking).

2: Use of the subject line

2a: Problem description

A lot of information can be derived from the subject of an email, so that the person receiving the email will be able to deal with it faster. Make sure the subject line reflects the issue as accurately as possible.

Bad examples of subject lines are:

Maxsurf problem
more issues..
yesterday's problems
error
crash

Good examples are:

Trimming fails when switching precision
Tank not calibrating
Plate not developing
Pipe ends not connecting with snap off

2b: Collating tickets

As mentioned above in 1A, another important feature of the subject line is that it allows us to collate relating emails together. All email replies you'll get from support@formsys.com will have a TID#### prefixed to the subject line. It is important that you do not change the subject line!

3: Send only to support@formsys.com

For Formation Support System it is extremely important to submit only to support@formsys.com. Formation has a web-based email system that allows all employees of the company to view and contribute. This means there is no need to send a technical support request to a direct email account.

Note: Sending the email to a personal email address will delay the response.

If you really want a particular FDS employee to look at your query, use a ATTN: above the body of the email.

4: Complete email content

Include the text of any error message and/or screenshots

Most of our time is spent on trying to reproduce the problem. Providing information which allows us to reproduce the problem significantly speeds up the process towards a solution

Which drawing/file does the problem occur with?
Which settings do you use? (screenshots of settings dialog)
When do you get the error message (eg after you press ok, or after you zoom in)
Do you notice any other abnormalities?

5: Use of video to explain steps of problems

Screen recordings are an excellent way to display a problem including the steps required to produce the problem. Make sure however, that the video is in a format that can be read by all recipients of your email.

There are a few important settings that you will need to check before recording a video in order for the videos to be <10 Mb so that they can be emailed. Videos > 10 Mb will have to be uploaded to a FTP site.

1: ShipConstructor window size

Make sure you size the ShipConstructor application window to a smaller size, so that it still shows what you want to show. Use the Restore Down window button (next to minimize). Then, when recording use the "Specific Window" and "pick window" option for your video input.

Note: a 2 minute video on a 1024pixel width window = approx 10 Mb ; a 2 minute video on a 800 pixel width window = approx 5 Mb

2: Camtasia settings

Start up Camtasia recorder from the Tools menu in Camtasia Studio.
Go to Tools | Options and set the file options on the General Tab to “Save as AVI.”

To help efficient video Compression and Decompression (CODEC), make sure the Streams Tab lists the TSCC CODEC for video.

You can download the TSCC CODEC from: http://www.techsmith.com/download/tsccdefault.asp

On the capture tab, switch on "Disable display acceleration during capture".

Finally it is recommended to switch on the show cursor + highlight clicks.

Recording your voice explaining what you are trying to do while recording can also be very useful.

For example:

Pipe A does not penetrate plate B:
Start the recorder
Restore Down your ShipConstructor application window to the smallest size possible
Highlight the procedure you are using to penetrate the plate
Do a list on both the pipe and the plate.
Finish recording

Note: you do not have to display the list for very long, the viewer can pause the video if he wants to study the list dialog in detail.

Sending us information when the application crashes

In the rare event that one of application crashes, we can extract a lot of useful information from a "Crash dump" and a crash log file. Click here to find out how to send us this information.