Sorry about putting the attention symbol on my thread, I don't mean to be a self important motherlicker. It's just appropriate for my situation, I think.

Can anybody help me to recover a CAD file? I don't know how to use the BAK files, but I guess that's where I'd start. The .dwg file itself has seemingly corrupted, and now says that it is 0kB in size.

I am working on a large project and have put 4 hours worth of finishing touches and polishing into this particulr file, so I don't want to have to revert back to an earlier stage in the project and do it all again.

I save all the time, but I only make duplicates (for backup) at the end of every session, so I have lost a solid 4 hours worth of work, and being that the deadline is tomorrow, I am up the creek if I can't recover the project.

Thank you very much,
- Cowboy.

http://www.google.com/search?q=help+me+to+recover+cad+file+freeware&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


http://www.google.com/search?q=help+me+to+recover+a+CAD+file&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.google.com/search?q=help+me+to+recover+cad+file+freeware&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


http://www.google.com/search?q=help+me+to+recover+a+CAD+file&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Don't bother posting if you can't help.

Those are legitimate options but if you like, you can try a restore point. I doubt it will work.

Or get a lve linux cd and boot it an see if it can find the file. I doubt it will work.

File recovery will show you if it can recover the file fore free then you ca\n pay for the registration which I think will work. But that was one of the first options I posted.

I bet you never rode a horse, have you?

:)

http://www.google.com/search?q=How+to+recover+a+CAD+file%3F&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Windows Explorer needs to be set to show you file extensions
first before you can rename a file's extension.

Q - question
How to convert a .BAK file to a .DWG?
A - answer Just rename the backup file to a drawing file with the .DWG extension.

If you cannot see file extensions, go to Windows Explorer options and uncheck the "Hide file extensions for known file types" option.

In AutoCAD 2006 (and higher) you can use the Drawing Recovery Manager to recover .BAK files automatically.

AutoCAD Temp & Backup Files

In AutoCAD, other than the DWG file, there are other files you are working with, whether you know it or not.

1. BAK files: Unless you turn it off in OPTIONS, when you save a drawing that already exists on file, the .DWG is renamed to .BAK, then the new data is written to .DWG. Don't rely on this for true safety of your files, because .BAK files have been known to become corrupt.
2. AC$ Files: These are temporary files created by AutoCAD during the process of creating the drawing. They are only of value to AutoCAD during editing and are usually cleaned up when AutoCAD closes. These files are useless if AutoCAD crashes.
3. SV$ Files: These are autosave files, controlled by the setting inthe OPTIONS dialog. These files are the equivalent of a DWG, you would only need to rename them if AutoCAD crashes. It's important to note that if AutoCAD closes normally, these files are deleted!

How do I restore from a BAK file?

By default AutoCAD makes a backup file with the extension .BAK as you work with drawings. Some users aren't aware of how to use this file when the DWG becomes corrupt. The problem is mostly to the fault of Microsoft and their explorer defaults.

1. Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that contains the file(s).
2. Choose Tools > Folder Options.
3. Click on the View Tab.
4. In the 'Files & Folders' section, turn off the toggle on 'Hide extensions for known file types'.
5. Choose OK (extensions should now show).
6. Left click on the BAK file to highlight it.
7. Right click and choose Rename (or press F2).
8. Change the name to something like RECOVER.DWG.
9. Open the file as normal in AutoCAD.

Note that AutoCAD has been known to sometimes corrupt the BAK file as well.

Prevent Unnecessary Problems with Autodesk Service Packs

Many AutoCAD users don't realize that after installation their system still needs service packs applied. Failure to do this can mean that they suffer through problems that have already been fixed. Autodesk does a good job of making service packs available for all the versions you are likely to run. We found patches going all the way back to R12 for DOS!

1. Click on this link http://www.autodesk.com/support
2. Pull down the list and choose the Autodesk product you use.
3. In the lower left corner of the menu at left, click on "Data & Downloads"
4. Under that section, click on "Updates & Services Packs"
5. Find the version you are running and the patches available.

http://www.dotsoft.com/acadtips.htm

http://www.designcad.com.au/support/cad/autocad/Corrupt_Files/Corruptfiles.htm

Dealing with corrupt CAD files


It is not uncommon to find that an AutoCAD or IntelliCAD drawing will not load (into the drawing editor). The software will usually report 'corrupt file' at some stage of the 'load'.

The following discussion offers some suggestions for possible recovery of the drawing. It is adapted from From CADnews (Nov/Dec 1999) and the the prime credit must go to the original author.

The issue described here are covered in more depth in our CAD workshop series.
Possibility 1. The drawing opens but the software locks up

If you can open your drawing, but the software locks up shortly after and reports a corrupt file, try using the XREF command immediately the drawing loads and detaching all X-REFs.

It is a good idea to type the command directly at the keyboard rather than via a drop down menu or toolbar item. That is make the XREF and detach option the very first thing that you do!

This may be your only problem, your drawing may be trying to resolve what are known as circular X-REFs. This will sometimes happen if you have been sent a drawing file from another consultant who is collaborating with you on a project.

At the end of the XREF detach procedure, it is useful to use (& repeat several times) the AutoCAD PURGE command until its repetition finds no further unreferenced objects.

Note that if you have entities in papers pace, you will have to do the PURGE procedure twice, once in model space & once in paper space - then reassemble the drawing by inserting the cleaned model space & paper space entities into their respective spaces. Be aware that when you insert your paper space viewports back into paper space, the viewports will be off by default & must be turned back on.
Possibilty 2. The drawing opens but locks up when you start to draw

Try using the WBLOCK command to write out a fresh copy of the drawing. Load the new drawing and try it.

If that does not work, try using the DXF command to write out a DXF file from the drawing which will contain all drawing geometry. These files are text files and are unlikely to be corrupt. Then start a new drawing (from scratch) and use the DXFIN command to reconstitute the drawing.
Possibility 3. The drawing opens but locks up when you go to print

If you can open your drawing, but the software locks up when you try and print the drawing, first make sure that you are not sending the drawing to a 'phantom' printer i.e. one that is not available (like a network printer attached to a computer which is not turned on).

If that does not fix the problem, try using the WBLOCK command to write out a fresh copy of the drawing. Load the new drawing and try it.

If that does not work, try using the DXF command to write out a DXF file from the drawing which will contain all drawing geometry. These files are text files and are unlikely to be corrupt. Then start a new drawing (from scratch) and use the DXFIN command to reconstitute the drawing.
Possibility 4. Seriously corrupt files

The RECOVER command can be used to repair a damaged drawing. If AutoCAD or IntelliCAD determines that a drawing you're opening is damaged based on the drawing's header information, OPEN automatically repairs it.

It is well worth trying to use the RECOVER command on the troublesome file from the drawing editor of a brand new drawing. The RECOVER command (in ACAD2000) is found via the file menu: Drawing Utilities Recover or (better in this circumstance) typed directly at the keyboard.

In the Recover Drawing File dialog box, enter the drawing file name or select the damaged drawing file. AutoCAD begins recovery and displays the results in the text window.

When FILEDIA is set to 0 (zero), RECOVER displays the following prompt on the command line.

Enter the name of drawing file to recover.

Enter ~ (tilde) at the prompt to ignore FILEDIA and display the Recover Drawing dialog box.
Use a .BAK file

If the RECOVER command cannot open the file, one must fall back on a backup. AutoCAD and IntelliCAD always produce a .BAK file whenever you save a file. It always has the .BAK extension with the same prefix as your corrupt drawing. You need to rename this file and give it a .DWG extension before you can work on it.

Note: The backup may have unnoticed corruption & should be run through the procedures set out below. I recommend the procedure below even if you load a (RENAMED BAK file) and the AutoCAD AUDIT command finds no errors.

In some cases a file which cannot be saved with the recover command can be saved by opening a new "START FROM SCRATCH" document and using INSERT to insert the corrupt file into a new one. Usually AutoCAD can recover a file and the procedure below should be followed. If you have used INSERT to recover your file that the RECOVER command could not repair, you should also proceed with the next step for assurance that the file has been cleaned to the maximum extents possible.

Note here that steps 2 & 3 can be reversed as to order. If possible start with this step & the DXFOUT command. Let's use the name house.dwg as an example. Create a DXF file (using the defaults in the command) from the bad file - the file name can be the same with the DXF extension (house.dxf). Now use the FILE/NEW command & assign a name that can be anything such as deleteme since we are not going to save the file. It is important to use no prototype. Now issue the DXFIN command & bring in the house.dxf file we just created. ZOOM EXTENTS & then ZOOM .9X so you can see everything.

Thaw, turn on, and unlock all layers. WBLOCK out this file. When you are asked what to block out, use a selection window. A selection window is better than typing "all" or using the "*" option because it will get rid of stray entities that you don't want as null text. The file name you create with WBLOCK could be house01. Now we can again use FILE/NEW with a no prototype environment - we should give this new file a name that reminds us it will be the new clean one - how about house02? When asked to save our deleteme file, check NO. If you have objects in paper space, you will need to do a separate WBLOCK for those objects. If you were not able to DXFOUT in step 2 go back & do so now. Then you will be ready for the final step…..

This step is important even though you wouldn't think so. Our house01.dwg has been through both DXFOUT/IN & WBLOCK out, but let's do one last cleansing step. We are in an empty house02 file that was started from a null prototype. Use INSERT to insert our house01 into the present house02.dwg. When doing this insertion choose the option to explode house01 while you are in the INSERT dialog box. Also it's best to clear the check box for "SPECIFY PARAMETERS ON SCREEN" & let ACAD insert your house01 at point 0,0 or set the insertion point as desired. This house02.dwg is now as clean as it can get. At this point we can explode the house01 block we have just inserted & start to PURGE. When we finish purging, including purging out the house01 block, our current house02 is squeaky clean.

From CADnews (Nov/Dec 1999)

http://ltisacad.blogspot.com/2007/09/recover-defective-drawing-files.html

Recover Defective Drawing Files
Under some circumstances, it is possible that a drawing file becomes defective. This can result from hardware problems or transmission errors. If a drawing file is corrupt, you might be able to recover it.

* Repair a Damaged Drawing File
If a drawing file is damaged, you can recover some or all of the data by using commands to find and correct errors. When an error occurs, diagnostic information is recorded in the aclt.err file, which you can use to report a problem.
A drawing file is marked as damaged if corrupted data is detected, or if you request that the drawing be saved after a program failure. If the damage is minor, sometimes you can repair the drawing simply by opening it. Otherwise, you can use the following:
RECOVER command. Performs an audit on, and attempts to open, any drawing file.
RECOVERALL command (LT2008 and higher). Similar to recover, it additionally operates on all nested xrefs. The results are displayed in the Drawing Recovery Log window.
AUDIT command. Finds and corrects errors in the currently open drawing file.
* Create and Restore Backup Files
Backup files help ensure the safety of your drawing data. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file. Computer hardware problems, power failures or surges, user mistakes, or software problems can cause errors in a drawing. By saving your work frequently, you can ensure a minimum of lost data if your system fails for any reason. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file.
In the Options dialog box, on the Open and Save tab, you can specify that backup files are created when you save drawings. If you do, each time you save a drawing, the previous version of your drawing is saved to a file with the same name and a .bak file extension. The backup file is located in the same folder as the drawing file.
You can revert to your backup version by renaming the .bak file in Windows Explorer to a file with a .dwg extension. You may want to copy it to a different folder to avoid overwriting your original file.
* Recover from a System Failure
A hardware problem, power failure, or software problem can cause this program to terminate unexpectedly. If this happens, you can restore the drawing files that were open. If the program fails, you can save your current work to a different file. This file uses the format, DrawingFileName_recover.dwg, where DrawingFileName is the file name of your current drawing.
After a program or system failure, the Drawing Recovery Manager opens the next time you start AutoCAD LT. Drawing Recovery Manager displays a list of all drawing files (DWG and DWT) that were open.
Note: Unsaved drawings that are open at the time of an unexpected failure are not tracked by the Drawing Recovery Manager. Be sure to save your work after you begin, and regularly thereafter.
For each drawing, you can open and choose from the following files if they exist:
DrawingFileName_recover.dwg
DrawingFileName_a_b_nnnn.sv$
DrawingFileName.dwg
DrawingFileName.bak
Note: The drawing, backup, and recover files are listed in the order of their time stamps—the time when they were last saved.
Doubleclick a top-level drawing node listed under Backup Files to display up to four files as listed above. Right-click any node under Backup Files to display shortcut menu options.
If you close the Drawing Recovery window before resolving all affected drawings, you can open Drawing Recovery at a later time with the DRAWINGRECOVERY command.

Posted by PenDean Inc. at Monday, September 03, 2007
Labels: TroubleShooting
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PenDean Inc.
AutoCAD LT add-ons at http://www.pendean.com/lt

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Looking for corrupted drawings

Autodesk has made great strides over the past few releases in the recovering and auditing of drawing files in AutoCAD, but we are looking for more research test cases. With more non-Autodesk DWG writing applications using reverse engineered libraries to write DWG files it has resulted in more problem drawings for our customers. There are also many other potential causes of these problem drawings such as network issues, hardware issues, customization, as well as editing and saving software applications defects.

We are looking for problem drawings that cannot be recovered in AutoCAD 2005/2006. We are looking to research these drawings to have test cases and incorporate the cases into the AutoCAD recovery and audit functions. There are some complicated methods employed in repairing a problem drawing. One method is to compare the data structure to known valid types and then if something is incorrect have some potential repair methods to repair the problem. The problem is when a data type or the file structure is missing data or is not correctly formatted. There is no automatic magic to reconstruct bad data. When we recover or repair data one of our requirements is the data and file integrity. It would not be good to just recover bad data as that could lead to other problems including drawing accuracy and stability. If we receive test case drawings we can build the types of found problems into AutoCAD recover cases to repair similar issues.

Please Zip the drawing file and email it to me with the subject line of "Problem Drawing". Please detail any known information on the drawing file such as last operations, application that saved it or edited it, and any other known history on the file.

Some recovery resources:
* Autodesk support document "Recover damaged drawing files"
* Great article from CVIS on prevention and recovery of AutoCAD data "After the Crash"

http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2005/04/looking_for_cor.html

Recover drawing data when all seems lost
This is a continuance to my previous post regarding "AutoCAD Automatic Save Feature".

Recovering Drawing Data 101... (AutoCAD 2005 Viewpoint)
1) If you press YES to save changes after a fatal error (assuming it gave you the chance) then a file is created with a "{file name}_recover.dwg" in the same directory as your closed file. Open a new AutoCAD session and run a recover (File>Drawing Utilities>Recover) on the new file. If it's successful REMEMBER to Save As on top of the old file and delete the "_recover.dwg" file. Don't work in the recovered drawing file.

If you can't recover your drawing then move onto # 2.

2) Rename your .bak file to "temp.dwg" and see if that is corrupted too. If that's gone then move onto # 3.

3) Go to your local AutoSave directory. Look for the "{file name}.sv$" file Refer to my previous post "AutoCAD Automatic Save Feature" to recover from that.

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS you can open a New Blank drawing and Insert the corrupted file as a block. If this works you'll only get items in Model Space. Paper Space is kyboshed.
Posted by M. Rieben at 2:03 PM
Labels: Auto Save, AutoCAD 2005, Recover Drawing
0 comments:

http://autocad-for-civils.blogspot.com/2006/12/recover-drawing-data-when-all-seems.html

I apologies for acting like a cunt. I was in a disfavourable mood, for obvious reasons.
Thanks for taking it on the chin and persisting to such extent. You're a champion, the problem is 99% solved.

P.S. Never ridden a horse?! Who are you kidding? I didn't just pluck this name outta the air. You're pretty much talking to a real cowboy (not an overstereotyped movie / pretend cowboy). I got everything and, naturally, that includes a half dozen horses (actually only 4 at the moment), and have probably clocked up more hours riding mine than you have on the TV & Internet combined. Prefer motorbikes though ;).

What's a cowboy doing with CAD and motorbikes? Hey, it's the 21st century and perhaps you're only familiar with movie cowboys.