Vectorworks Suddenly Won't Open

[sfatelier]

All of a sudden, when I try to open a file a window appears stating that "Vectorworks has encountered a problem and needs to close." Under the program list, VW12 has mysteriously disappeared. I tried reinstalling the program but it didn't help. I had VW v12.5, Windows XP Home. What happened and how do I fix this!!?? Help!

Edited November 9, 2006 by sfatelier

[P Retondo]

Sounds like a problem deeper than VectorWorks. I would contact your computer company for some diagnostics on the hard drive.

[Guest]

Did you recently update the OS, install any other software, update a video card, or update QuickTime?

Have you tried to uninstall and reinstall VW?

[Israel]

I just encountered the same problem and will try to uninstall and reinstall the program

[Tsquared]

I've had this happen 4 times since installing VW12.5, and the first time I tried reinstalling without any success. I was advised that the problem was caused by a corrupted Workspace (!) and given the following solution - Locate the VW12.5 folder on the hard drive, open the Workspace folder, remove the Workspace that was open when you last shut down, I simply drag it onto my desktop, go back and try and open VW12.5, which should open in one of the other Workspace options. If it works just reinstall the removed Workspace from your install disc - I have now copied the 'uncorrupted' Workspaces to another folder so I can pick from there. It has worked every time for me but I'm too new to VW to understand how and when the Workspace becomes corrupted particularly when everything is fine when I shut down.

[P Retondo]

Not sure why the corrupted Workspace file would cause VW not to appear on the list of programs, but it's a known problem that causes booting VW to fail, and certainly worth trying. Just delete or move your custom workspace, if you have one, and try to open VW. If it works, you'll have to rebuild your custom workspace, and then be sure to keep a copy of it in another directory so that in the future instead of deleting you just substitute the old, uncorrupted copy.

Katie, I thought that this issue had been dealt with in version 12.5, no?