Badly Corrupted File

[gwyn]

Hi, I am the systems administrator for a university architecture program. A student has just approached me with a VectorWorks v9.0 file that seems to have been corrupted. Now, it seems that she has loaded the file up pretty heavily with image files to make a poster for plotting. the entire file is 150 megabytes!!!!! So I don't know if that is why it is problematic.

Now as for what happens. It loads up normally then says: "This file has been damaged, It will open with as much data as possible"I click OK, then it says"-39 end of file reached during Read"Click Ok then it says:"Vectorworks.exe has generated errors and will be closed by Windows."

So, as its opening you can see the line work of the drawing, but then it crashes, is there any home for this student, or is it lost for ever. ThanksGwyn

[MikeB]

Try to use Workgroup referencing to import the layers from the corrupt file into a new file.

I'd also suggest she start doing a staggered back up of her work.

[gwyn]

Thanks for the help

I am actually up at the School of Architecture at UBC, so I am in Vancouver as well.

In response to your question we are using:windows 2000 on a pentium 4 1.5 gig system with 512 megs of ramVectorWorks 9.5 ArchitectThe file is both on a CD and on our network

I just tried MikeB's suggestion, it seems that her file is made up of three layers. The bottom layer is a large image file, the second layer had a few color blocks on it, while the third had the line drawing of her plan or elevation or something. The first and second layer could be extracted, but the top level with her line work, gives an error message this time it says:

"The layer "Layer-1" could not be extracted from the referenced document "newlibposter.mcd" (probably out of memory). Any existing version has been retained."

Now, I am pretty sure the student in question has just carried on from a previous file and redoing the work, so it is no longer pressing, But if anyone has any other suggestions or comments, it would be appreciated, simply for my own education for potential problems in the future. MikeB's idea, I'm sure will come in handy for some future incident. Thanks.

[MikeN]

I've run into a similar problem and there are a few ways "troubleshoot" this scenario. But first:

What OS?What version of VW?What's your hardware setup?What media is the file on? (cd, zip etc.)If it's on a CD, who's the manufacturer?

I'm based in Vancouver, If you're in the area and you still need help, feel free contact me at mnelson@infotectus.net

Mike

[MikeN]

Change the reference on "Layer-1" to update the reference "manually by command". I've found that the auto-update can cause some errors and as soon as you switch to manual, it works.

I've also discovered that if a cheap no-name CD-R is used to copy a file, when you open it on another computer the file is sometimes corrupted.