Message says drawing in use or read only

[mkhudson]

Sometimes when I try to open a drawing I get a message that it is in use or is read-only. Even though it is not. No-one else is using the file. It does not show up as read-only in Windows Explorer, but it is "in use" if I try to move it. In order to progress I have to save the read-only version with another name, which is a PITA for xrefs. Apparently it is somehow open in 360, somewhere. Sometimes I have to wait for days until this passes and I can overwrite the old, now obsolete, file.

This happens for other workers/workstations as well. Frequency at least once a month. I have not seen a fix that applies on similar posts.

[Kent1Cooper]

One possible cause is that the drawing lock file didn't get eliminated when the drawing was closed, as it normally should.  That can happen if there's a crash, and possibly for other reasons.  If you are really sure no one has the drawing open, look for a file of the same name but with the .DWL filetype, and delete it.  By default, I think it will be in the same folder as the drawing, although there may be an option to put it elsewhere, as there are for certain other file locations.  You can check by opening the folder of a drawing you do have open to see whether its .DWL file is there -- if not, look around in the Files tab in Options for possible locations to check.

[mkhudson]

Thanks. Darn I wish it were that easy. No .dwl file in the same folder - I had already looked there. Not a lot of scope in other file paths - they all seem to lead to the appdata\temp folder and nothing there but a surprising amount of copies of drawings (not this one) and some pretty old files. I've checked the 360 folder and automatic copy sub-folder as well. It may be a network issue but somewhere along the line I got a message that it was open in 360.

At this point my work-around is to continue editing the file with a different name, and wait for the problem to go away.

Myron K. Hudson CSI
Vice President
Douglas Engineering Pacific Inc
55 Merchant Street, Suite 1812 290 North Main, Suite 6
Honolulu HI 96813 Ashland OR 97520
808 524-2434 ext 303 541 482-3938 ext 303

[Yorx57]

You will need your Windows Explorer set to show "hidden files" in order to see the .dwl (and .dwl2) files.

[dekrem]

Has there been any resolution on this? I'm having the same issue.

I opened another dwg from the same folder and the .dwls pop up, so I know they are not hidden.

[pendean]

Location of file is where? What did your IT/network administrator suggest?
Are you sure you don't already have it open? Or you/some user is using it as a reference but did not set references to read only in his OPTIONS (demand-load Xrefs need to be set to 'enabled with copy' on everyone's PC)?

If you move that problem file to another folder or PC, can you open it from there? If yes, can you use SAVEAS to over-write the first? if not, can you create a new file and can you then qsave it?

[mkhudson]

Dekrem we have found no solution yet. It still occurs. .dwl files are visible to us, but there are no .dwl files associated with these files when this happens.

Dean, these files cannot be moved when this occurs. The workaround remains: open as read-only, save to a different name (we use a TEMP suffix) and wait for the problem to go away. Then overwrite the original file.

Between the Users and the network administrator, we believe it is somehow connected to 360, but that's only becuase it never occurred prior to 360.

[pendean]

Then unplug/log-out of 360 and see if the problem goes away: you file(s) must be open on 360 more than likely and that is your read-only tag source.