Trouble Shooting
These are the most common sources of trouble
Command Not Found
If you get a "Bad Command" or "Command Not Found" type error when running pcgen.jar or pcgen.bat, then you most likely don't have java installed. http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/download.html will take you to a page where you can download java for most Oses (Mac users must go to apple.com). Download java for your OS and install it.
The initial splash screen appears, then PCGen dies
For most users this means that java couldn't find your Fonts directory. If your "Fonts" directory is not in the standard location (for windows users this is typically something like C:\Windows\Fonts or C:\Winnt\Fonts) then you need to specify where it is located with the environment variable "JAVA_FONTS". At a command prompt type
SET JAVA_FONTS=C:\Windows\Fonts
Replace C:\Windows\Fonts with the location of your Fonts directory if necessary.
Some users have had this trouble if they have too many true-type Fonts in their Fonts directory. This appears to be a java-related issue with 1.3 (hopefully it has been resolved in java 1.4). If you Fonts directory is in the standard location and you still have this fault, try removing some true-type fonts and see if that helps. The one Java looks for is Lucida, so don't remove that one.
I see the Source Tab, but it's empty
There are a number of reasons for this.
- You didn't unzip the part2of2.zip file of the release files (see Install.htm)
- You didn't unzip the part2of2.zip file into the same directory as the part1of2.zip file.
- Your unzipping application truncated the long filenames of the files (many files have over 32 character long names, and some zip/unzip apps have difficulty with this)
- Your unzipping application didn't unzip the files into their subdirectories. For WinZip users this means making sure the "Use folder names" option is checked.
I try to preview a character or bring up the Doc, and nothing happens
Since PCGen is cross-platform it's hard to assume what browser you're using. Click on
the menu item File->Preferences->Browser Path... and select the path to your browser.
For Windows users that will most likely be C:\Program Files\InternetExplorer\iexplore.exe
I click on the print icon and get a warning about missing files
The pdf.zip library is required if you want to print directly from PCGen - otherwise you can
view the files in your browser or adobe acrobat (pdf files) and print from there. The pdf.zip
file is located at http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/pcgen/pdf.zip and unzip it into the
lib subdirectory where you installed PCGen. Then you'll need to re-launch PCGen for it
to find it properly.