Revit files corrupt after upgrade from 2013 to 2014

[mp_thompson]

We worked on two seperate projects in Revit LT 2014 on Saturday for the first time (previously 2103). We didn't have any issues throughout the day.

Both files and their back ups state that the file is corrupt when attempting to open them.

These are live projects and we cannot afford to be a day behind.

[rosskirby]

Just out of curiosity, why do you think there should be a special technical support section for students?  The student version of the software is extremely cheap (if not free), unless I'm mistaken.  Is that not benefit enough?  You deserved dedicated technical support, too?  Did you try filing a service request (via the little help menu in the top right corner of the Revit window)?  In my experience (both as a student user and a commercial license user), they've been quite prompt in responding (24-48 hours, max).

Your person objections aside, could you elaborate on the problem you're having so that the Revit forum community (of which Autodesk is only a part) can offer our assistance?  We've almost all lost a file at some time or another, due to any one of a number of reasons.  If you could describe what happened, perhaps we can come up with a solution to resurrect your file and prevent it from happening in the future.

[stefano_pasin]

Well considering my project was due at 11 am and people such as myself being a student that don't know all the navigations of the site, it's quite difficult trying to find technical support for assistance when your stressed because your file is corrupt and you can't submit your 20% grade project 2 hours before it's due. As well, when I see that your site says " with technical difficulties, call your local sales provider, and I call, the only thing they can help me with is how to install the product, after which I have been on the phone waiting for 30 min at 10am in the morning, I think that is pretty ridiculous regardless if my software is free or 10 million dollars. Any program that is established should have a technical support line or live chat to be able to help with a crisis on the spot.

Any who, my problem consisted of having a corrupt file. When I would try and open it, it would say "data in file .... is corrupt and needs to be manually recovered. Please contact Autodesk Support." So I tried to contact Autodesk Support to no avail. How does one fix that problem?

Sent from my iPhone

[tbryanm]

Stefano,

I was the one who originally posted this question and I wish I had good news for you. Autodesk isn't going to do crap. Roughly a year ago I lost 40 hrs worth of work and their response was "why did you wait 40 hrs to save'. One, it showed how little the really new about the problem, and two how much they really don't care. I did however get a tech rep who spent a great deal of time trying to fix my file. But was not successful. It ended up costing me north of $6,000.

Essentially the problem is that when you upgrade to 14 you MUST do a 'save as' for the file to convert. The only problem is they didn't tell anyone. And obviously they still aren't telling anyone.

The only good news is that you should still have your back up files in 13. Find the last back up and start redrawing from there. That, I'm sorry to say, is your only solution. Give up on Autodesk, they offer only conjecture and frustration.

Good Luck,
Bryan

Sent from my iPhone

[stefano_pasin]

Thanks Bryan,

I can see Autodesk just cares about their product and not the people using the product. If they cared they would offer more help or feedback to this type of situation.

Unfortunately the issue wasn't an upgrade from 2013 to 2014. At midnight the day before, I tried to save my project after finishing up some details that I worked on for roughly 6 hours. It froze at 50% while saving as I was able to see that in the green bar in the bottom left hand corner of my screen. I then saw a Revit symbol pop up in another screen located in the middle of the screen box. When I closed that (which had no relevance to my project, or so I thought), it closed the entire program. Thankfully I saw my project had saved on my teams work share file for 12:06am. But when I tried to reopen it, I received the error message for the corrupted file. From there I tried to find my last saved files which miraculously disappeared. Luckily we found another one on a computer at school in the c:// drive that we worked on earlier in the day. Although, there was still 2-3 hours of work missing from it.

And that's my situation. Ultimately, I think if technical support knew about these glitches as people have been posting, something should be done about it. Not like Autodesk doesn't have the money to open a technical support hotline or live chat.

Sent from my iPhone

[stevecoburn]

I would like to say something on behalf of us resellers out here.

Although you tried tech support you should of had a number to call given to you from your professor for the reseller of record. They will be your first step in the process. They will have the information on your account to certify the license and your support contract. If they could not have helped then they have resources to push it directly to Autodesk tech support.

I'm not saying this is a perfect setup but this is how it should work. Yes, if you call in to Autodesk yourself, you may get a generic answer as the first step. Seeing that you were stressed out and had a tight deadline, you most likely got as much as possible.

Don't knock them for what they did. They follow protocol just like the rest of us. If you were to pay for their support out right you would most likely not have even tried to call because of the expense.

I'm sorry this has happened, but there is a process behind doing things correctly within Revit and if its not followed then things go differently. There is a tool on the exchange website that will open your 2013 projects, families and templates and save them as 2014. I suggest you download it and use it. It's free.

Have a good day.

[dtiemeyer]

I'll add one thing to this discussion that should seem obvious to anybody who has read this after their painful situation that brought them here, but I think it makes sense to spell it out perfectly clearly. Please take this in the neutral, non-condescending way that I say this, it comes from more than 15 years experience with Autodesk 3d/BIM software.

Never, EVER, upgrade your files before doing a test upgrade on a 'scrap' file. This was true for ADT/ABS and it remains true for Revit. Similarly, never, ever upgrade while under the added stress of a deadline. Rarely is a 'new feature' worth it.