Android on Eclipse crashes every time I open main.xml

I have ADT loaded onto classic Eclipse. I followed the steps from the Android Helloworld starting guide located here: http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/hello-world.html

The problem happens every time I load up main.xml. It appears to be a problem with the ADT plugin as it relates to the GUI layout editor it has (the one that creates XML in the background). If I access the XML source directly, it doesn't crash.

I've gotten different error messages, out of memory, no exit information, and "exception in checkandloadtargetdata permgen space". If you have any questions about my setup, feel free to post them in comments and I'll update the thread.

I'm running windows 7 x64 bit with a fairly clean install. I've also got JDK 1.6. Here's the text from Eclipse's .log file located in .metadata. Any help would be appreciated.

!SESSION 2011-08-14 13:11:38.628 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=I20110613-1736
java.version=1.6.0_26
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86_64, WS=win32, NL=en_US
Command-line arguments:  -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86_64 -debug -console -consoleLog

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2011-08-14 13:11:51.038
!MESSAGE Unhandled event loop exception
!STACK 0
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.defineClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:188)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.defineClass(ClasspathManager.java:601)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:567)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:490)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass_LockClassLoader(ClasspathManager.java:478)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass(ClasspathManager.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.findLocalClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:216)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findLocalClass(BundleLoader.java:400)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.SingleSourcePackage.loadClass(SingleSourcePackage.java:35)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:473)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:429)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:417)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.loadClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:107)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.osgi.RegistryStrategyOSGI.createExecutableExtension(RegistryStrategyOSGI.java:184)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ExtensionRegistry.createExecutableExtension(ExtensionRegistry.java:905)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ConfigurationElement.createExecutableExtension(ConfigurationElement.java:243)
    at org.eclipse.core.internal.registry.ConfigurationElementHandle.createExecutableExtension(ConfigurationElementHandle.java:55)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPlugin.createExtension(WorkbenchPlugin.java:260)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.registry.ViewDescriptor.createView(ViewDescriptor.java:63)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewReference.createPartHelper(ViewReference.java:327)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewReference.createPart(ViewReference.java:229)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPartReference.getPart(WorkbenchPartReference.java:595)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ViewReference.getView(ViewReference.java:198)

!ENTRY com.android.ide.eclipse.adt 4 0 2011-08-14 13:11:51.043
!MESSAGE Exception in checkAndLoadTargetData.
!STACK 0
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2011-08-14 13:11:51.056
!MESSAGE Error occurred during status handling
!STACK 0
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClassCond(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.defineClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:188)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.defineClass(ClasspathManager.java:601)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:567)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClassImpl(ClasspathManager.java:490)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass_LockClassLoader(ClasspathManager.java:478)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.baseadaptor.loader.ClasspathManager.findLocalClass(ClasspathManager.java:458)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.findLocalClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:216)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findLocalClass(BundleLoader.java:400)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClassInternal(BundleLoader.java:476)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:429)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.loader.BundleLoader.findClass(BundleLoader.java:417)
    at org.eclipse.osgi.internal.baseadaptor.DefaultClassLoader.loadClass(DefaultClassLoader.java:107)
    at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.ui.statushandlers.StatusManager.getStatusHandler(StatusManager.java:135)
    at org.eclipse.ui.statushandlers.StatusManager.handle(StatusManager.java:189)
    at org.eclipse.ui.statushandlers.StatusManager.handle(StatusManager.java:231)
    at org.eclipse.ui.statushandlers.StatusManager.handle(StatusManager.java:242)
    at org.eclipse.ui.application.WorkbenchAdvisor.eventLoopException(WorkbenchAdvisor.java:326)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ExceptionHandler.handleException(ExceptionHandler.java:65)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:2700)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:2660)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Workbench.java:2494)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$7.run(Workbench.java:674)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:667)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:123)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 4 2011-08-14 13:13:59.256
!MESSAGE Invalid preference page path: XML Syntax

!ENTRY com.android.ide.eclipse.adt 4 0 2011-08-14 13:13:59.263
!MESSAGE Parsing Data for android-7 failed
!STACK 0
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

After trying the below eclipse.ini settings

-startup
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.2.0.v20110502.jar
--launcher.library
plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.100.v20110502
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Xms2048m
-Xmx2048m
-XX:PermSize=1024m
-XX:MaxPermSize=1024m
-XX:+UseParallelGC

I now get something new, I since main.xml is already "opened" if I open Eclipse all the way, and just let it churn for a few seconds without doing anything, the GUI editor comes up and seems to be working fine. If I click on anything else (Like the tab for HelloAndroid.java) then it locks up, and crashes.

Solution

I uninstalled the SDK, deleted my Eclipse install, and reinstalled everything.

Notable things I changed.

-I moved the Eclipse install out of the program files directory, as I know Windows treats that one differently. It's now in C:/Eclipse

-I moved the Android SDK out of the program files directory, for the same reasons, and made sure there were no spaces in the path. It's now in C:/androidSDK/

Seems to be working fine, now. I wonder if it was a conflict between eclipse being in one of the program files directory and the SDK being in the other. I don't know if windows boots those programs differently based on which directory they're in. In any case, if you're having an issue like this, move them out of the program files directory.