I am the office staff for a small land surveying company. I have Autocad 2005 LT on my computer which is part of a small network (one server - two workstations. Everything is Windows XP. I know: bad bad bad.)
We have two draftsmen who work out of their homes and email me drawings regularly. Each time, I perform the same steps:
1: open email in Outlook
2: open attached drawing
3: tweak as needed (correct misspellings, add legal description and/or certifications, etc.)
4: plot drawing
5: save drawing to network server (SAVEAS)
Been doing that (more or less) for 10 years now.
When I open the attached drawing, I always get a dialogue that says the file is read-only and I always say OK before going on and doing my thing. Never had a problem.
Today, I received a drawing from one of my draftsmen. When I tried to SAVEAS, it says Error Saving/Closing File. I tried to QSAVE. It says Drawing File is Write Protected.
Right clicked on properties -- it is NOT marked Read Only.
My draftsman swears he did nothing different on this file from what he has done with literally hundreds of other files. Says the problem is mine because he can save the file on his computer just fine.
Why does this one single solitary stupeeeed little file keep telling me it is write-protected?
Look back at all the things I tried.
I dumped to a folder on my computer and opened the file with the same result. Neither Save nor Save As would work.
But I went through all the same exact steps with three other files attached to emails and they worked. TODAY.
Only THIS FILE is not working.
PS. I am the IT in this office.
Before posting, I spent a couple of hours perusing various posts where other folks encountered some form of the problem. So I was simply listing all the separate actions I had already tried to get around the write-protect. Each time I tried something, I went back to the starting point and deleted the previous download with all *.dwl, etc. I was trying to be a scientific as possible.
Bottom line, no matter where the file was opened from: my computer, the server or directly from email: it would not allow me to open & then save that file in any shape form or fashion.
The method behind my madness is actually a simplicity thing. Open the file, print it for my boss (who does not use a computer -- ever) and then save it to the server. Downloading to my computer and then moving it to the server are extra & unnecessary steps.
Either way, the draftsman brought in two drawings this morning instead of emailing them to me. One 18 x 24 and one 11 x 17. Yesterday's problem child was also an 18 X 24. Guess which one was write-protected today. So I kicked it back to him and told him he needs to find what he changed in his big sheet template in the last couple of days because only those two 18x24 dwgs are causing this issue. Everything else is (still) working just fine.
I would still appreciate any further ideas. He's an excellent draftsman but entirely self-taught in AutoCAD and utterly computer illiterate. Not to mention I think he's fried a few too many brain cells. I am not confident that he will find anything.
He keeps telling me "but I saved it on the computer at the office. Anything from my computer would be wiped out." Sigh.
Thanks again!