Laura Ball Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) I really hope someone can help me. My Vectorworks application crashed immediately after saving my work (so I wasn't too worried) yet when I re-booted and tried to open the exact same file I was given the below error message saying that the file is corrupt. "This is an unrecognized file. It may be a Vectorworks file created by a newer version of the application, it may be a very old MiniCad file, it may have been created by another application, or it may have been corrupted by a hardware or system error" I had just finished 2 weeks of work which I was about to submit as coursework (I'm a student studying a diploma in Interior Design). This is an absolute nightmare. I really can't face having to re-do so much work 🙁 If anyone can help I would be extremely grateful as I have a course deadline to meet! Many thanks Laura Project 1D - Nursery - Plan - FINAL.vwx Edited August 10, 2020 by Laura Ball Quote Link to comment
Kevin Allen Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 Try attaching the file, we'll see if someone can open it. Also do you have Vectorworks configured to automatically back up? Do you use Time Machine or other back-up? Quote Link to comment
Laura Ball Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Hi Kevin Thank you so much for trying to help!!!!!! I've just attached the file to my original post. My fingers are crossed 🙂 🙂 Quote Link to comment
Kevin Allen Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 I get the same error. Someone at VWX might be able to help, otherwise, do you have. aback-up? Do you use the VWX back-up system? Quote Link to comment
rDesign Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 I also get the same result. As a test, I opened your .VWX file with TextEdit -- and there is nothing in there, it's completely blank. I'm sorry but no one at Vw will be able to help with that file, it's gone. Your only hope is that you have a backup somewhere, I hope you find it. Good luck. Quote Link to comment
Laura Ball Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Hi rDesign Thank you for letting me know. I'll have to start re-creating it tomorrow then. I'm so upset, I can't believe it can just be wiped like this. Is this a common problem? I'm new to Vectorworks but it's pretty concerning if it is. I will investigate auto back-up however I'm not sure it would have helped in this scenario. Out of interest - the file size on my computer is still showing as approximately 240kb. I would have thought this meant there was still something on the file? Or am I being overly optimistic? 😭 Thanks again both rDesign and Kevin - very kind of the both of you! Quote Link to comment
Kevin Allen Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 It's uncommon, but I the VWX prefs, there is an "AutoSave" Tab. From there you can select a place to have VWX create back-ups. It defaults to the same place as the file is stored, I personally keep a for for back-ups in my documents folder. I have the program configured to auto save and back-up every 15 minutes. These back-ups aren't always perfect, but they do give you a place to restart I'm on a Mac and I have Time Machine back-up every hour and I use an of site bock up every hour or so as well. These are good habits in any program Quote Link to comment
Laura Ball Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Thank you Kevin. Will make sure I do this going forwards. Definitely don't want a repeat of this again! Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee TomWhiteLight Posted August 11, 2020 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted August 11, 2020 Hi Laura Open a new black file, go to Tools - Organization. Under design layers select New Select import design layers Choose... choose your corrupt file. Select the layers in the document and check import layer objects. If this fails try again importing one layer at a time. Let us know how you get on. Quote Link to comment
Laura Ball Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Hi Tom I've just tried this and sadly I get the same error message when I try. Thank you for trying to help though... very kind of you. Enjoy your day 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 If you have not already done so, do a search of your entire disk for files with a .VWX extension and for files with Backup in the file name. Maybe you will get lucky and there will be a relatively recent version somewhere. Did you ever email a version of the file to anyone to review? Do you use Dropbox or iCloud or some other cloud storage system? Are you on the university computers and could possibly see if IT has a backup? Good luck. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee TomWhiteLight Posted August 11, 2020 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted August 11, 2020 Hi Laura, Email the file to UKTech@vectorworks.net Hopefully we can help. All the best Tom W Quote Link to comment
Yorks_LA_Designer Posted July 4, 2022 Share Posted July 4, 2022 I found this error message when opening a 2022 drawing on a 2021 version of Vectorworks as they are not backwards compatible We didn't realise one of our machines was running an older version as it says it is up to date however upon closer inspection this was the issue I hope this helps Quote Link to comment
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