Reply With QuoteDWG files can open in many types of CAD software so it would be worth asking a friend to open the file in another application and export again for Autocad.
My daughter is in her second year at uni, she is home for Easter and was doing some work on Autocad 360.
She has got the right hump as a file she is working on now won't open - Autocad 360 just says 'cannot open file'. I suspect the file is corrupt somehow as other files do open in the program and any recovery attempt within the program also states 'Cannot open file' - Although she can see her work in 'preview'.
She has put a fair bit of work in this file and was wondering if the more technical computer/software gurus would have a solution?? or do I just tell her to start over??
I can send the file.
Many thanks in anticipation
DWG files can open in many types of CAD software so it would be worth asking a friend to open the file in another application and export again for Autocad.
Draftsght is a free for personal use program which will work with DWG files
Any joy in an on line DWG viewer?
https://a360.autodesk.com/viewer/
I have used the Draftsight program smashie mentions below but it tries to do a recovery and ends up with an error code, thank you for your reply.Originally Posted by chrisparker
Downloaded it, but not able to recover the file, thank you though.
Just tried this, thank you, but it says Sorry, the drawing file is invalid and cannot be viewed.
Cheers guys
I work for Autodesk. If you still need help on Tuesday I can see what I can do at work. I don't work on Autocad but do have it I installed. I should be able to get help internally.
Alternatively I'd recommend posting on the Autocad forum. There are a lot of people there willing to help.
You could try rhino 3D they do a 90 day free trial for the fully functioning program.
If you are in full time education you can license any Autodesk product free of charge via our education portal.
Thank you for help gents, much appreciated.
She has Autodesk (from which the work and file was generated) already installed on her laptop, the software was free as she is at Sheffield Uni - Architecture .
She has sought help from the Autodesk forum - and she has just had a reply indicating the file is "probably toast".
Just thought I (old Dad) could solve the problem, with your help of course.
Did she store the file in Dropbox, OneDrive or something similar? If she did she might be able to recover an earlier version.
right click and copy, paste onto another drive, or drag it to a clean usb drive and open from there, the drive its sitting on might have errors.
If all else fails try a Google for 'dwg repair program'.
Have a look here. - https://knowledge.autodesk.com/suppo...r-message.html
Jake
I set her up with a tiny PSY 32gb usb drive as a backup, so store on laptop and then back up to her usb drive - but she didn't - lesson learned.
Transferred the file to my computer, same result
Thanks, now running a program DWG repair kit - will see what happens (fingers crossed)
Has she created the file on another computer? It sometimes happens to me that files created at work don't open on my home computer, even though I have the exact same software installed
yes, saving files on a FAT32 file system and then opening them on a NTFS file system can be problematic.
I will look to see if we have any internal file recovery tools next week. I can't make any promises though as it isn't my area of expertise.
Does she have any .bak or .sv$ files...?
Well, 3 hours later with this program crunching the 4mb file, didn't work :-
'An unsigned add-in, ExportTableAddin.dll, has been detected, and will not be loaded. Only signed and authenticated add-ins are permitted.'
I appreciate all the offers of help.
I have suggested she starts to redo this work in case it cannot be retrieved.
What? I work in IT (yawn) and although I always learn something new on most days I'm not too sure I follow your statement?
I agree. My work laptop uses NTFS and I save files back and forth from it to an exFAT USB stick all the time with no issues.
That doesn't sound like a corrupted or damaged file.
So was the file created on the same computer and the same software version she's now trying to use to open it? It would seem not, from that error message. If she created it on a different computer, presumably she will also be able to open it again on that computer, and perhaps save it in some other format.
If it's the same computer, what changed since the last time she successfully opened it? Software upgrade? OS upgrade? Add-in upgrades? It may be possible to restore the machine to the previous known good state.
If not, since we have a friendly insider at the software vendor, they may well be able to find an engineer who can figure out what's wrong with it.
Was your daughter opening/working on the file direct from a USB flash drive? That's really the only time I've seen issues similar to that you've described.
My youngest son is home, he has autocad on his PC,if you want to pm me and then email the file to me I can get him to see if it opens?
Yes it was Autocad 2017 - student version, used on her Laptop, drawing completed, saved to USB, opened again later the same day further work, same the following couple of days, then wouldn't open yesterday.
She has restarted the work, another forum member is very kindly trying to get the file restored.
Many thanks for all the offers of help.
If you look in the directory where the .dwg file is located, is there a file with the same name but with a .bak file extension? If so, rename this to .dwg (you may need to move it somewhere so it doesn't clash with the main file) & see if you can open this file. It will be up to date up to the last save she made.
Look at installing Dropbox & using the DB directory as her working folder. DB keeps all previous versions for month - even of files you've deleted. It's a much better idea than a USB stick as you can't lose it.
I have autocad lite if that is any good and can read dwg and dxf files :)
PM if you want to send the file ??
Thanks for the advice, there was a .bak file, copied and moved it, renamed the extension to .dwg and still comes up with 'drawing file invalid'
Thank you for the offer, but it will not open as the file appears corrupt or something else.
Depending on how she set up her AutoCAD, there is an automatic save file created, it usually saves them as an .SV$ File from memory ( I will check when I get home exact extension when I get home ).
The annoying thing is trying to find the folder .SV$ files are saved in.
Make a copy of the file and then rename the extension to a .dwg file.
However I'm surprised the Recover Drawing folder didn't kick into action. Maybe the USB issue has something to do with.
Hope this may be of help.
Regards
Gavin
No probs, hope you get it sorted ?????
To find out where it automatically saves the files, go to Options (you can type in op in the command line) and under the first tab, Files, look for Automatic Save File Location.
But it probably won't work, because if it had any backups, Drawing Recovery would have kicked in when you tried opening the file
Agreed, that's what I said above, but I think, if I'm reading the thread correctly the drawing did not 'crash' which would have helped initiate the drawing recovery ( I'm also assuming the 'Drawing Recovery' palette is on and visible). Drawing was closed, saved to USB and then USB inserted into a different machine at home. I'd go back to original machine and try SV$ as an option.
Anyway heartbreaking losing all the work, I feel your pain, hopefully you get it resolved.
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