How to recover a corrupted vectorworks file?

[AnaT]

Hi,

A file I have been working on is corrupted, along with the backup file that I have been saving to. Can someone please explain to me how I can recover a corrupted file?

Thanks,

Ana

[michaelk]

Is it corrupted so bad you can't open it?  Or just going bonkers?

 

Have you tried the layer import trick?  This is my go-to fix when things get crazy.

 

Start with a new drawing.

Start to create a new design layer

In the New Design Layer dialog box select Import Design Layers

Click Choose… and navigate to your broken drawing.

Select all the layers

Make sure you check Import Layer Objects

 

That should recreate all your design layers.

[rDesign]

I just tried the Layer Import trick outlined above with a file that is making my Vw 2023 hard crash whenever I try to open it, and it hard crashed again while I was trying to Import the Layers.

 

I had already reset my User Preferences, and restarted my Mac & Vw 2023.

This file that was working fine yesterday, has now become unrecoverable : At least I have a recent backup.

 

I think sometimes a file can get so badly corrupted, it may be unrecoverable.

[rDesign]

The other problem with using the Layer Import method to try and recover a Vw file, is that it does not work when using Stories or Levels. It will bring over objects from the Layer, but anything that is Story or Level bound is broken.

 

You are left with trying to manually recreate the Stories and the Levels, which can be problematic at best. Especially since you cannot get into the file to see how the Stories & Levels are structured.

 

EDIT: I created a Wishlist request that Stories and Levels could be imported into a new file HERE. Please go up-vote.

Edited November 19, 2022 by rDesign
added link to wishlist request

[gfilippini]

Hello,

 

If anybody can help me it would be great.

I´ve lost one of my vectorworks 2024 files After my laptop crash and restart last friday due to unknown OS or hardware error. It´s  a174 MB BIM model on which I was working during all last week.

I´ve tried to import layers as suggested by michaelk with no success. All layer, design layer, class, all objects gone.

I don´t know if its possible to recover a previous version from Cloud Service. I do not keep additional backup files on my drive.

I can send a copy of the file to recover for test if neccesary. It is 174 MB but with nothing inside apparently when I open the file now.

 

Thanks!

[gfilippini]

Solved quickly: This is what I do:

 

1) I found on my VW Cloud Services desktop folder two temp files referred to the file I was working on. Fortunately I didn´t erase them before and for some reason this files couln´t be syncronized on WV Cloud.

2) I made a copy of one of this temp fies on my Desktop (or any other HD location)

3) Changed the extension of the file to the correct ".wmx"

4) Reopen the file and save it again. Got my file working again.

5) Relax; all objects layers, classes, sheet layers, etc. were there and I can continue my job tomorrow without having to rebulid everything,

 

Hope this help anybody in the same stressing situation.

[Pat Stanford]

For the future, take a look at this post on backups.

 

 

[gfilippini]

Thank yoy Pat, I´ll take a look at it!