Project redo

[Jroper]

I have a small project that is giving us problems.  What steps do I need to take to simply start over with it?

[TomislavGolubovic]

What are the problems?

[PeterQuinn]

Create a new project and add copies of your drawings to it.

But I'd really like to know the answer to the question Tomislav asked. What's going wrong with your project?

[Jroper]

Thanks for the reply. Sorry for the late response. The project and many other projects have problems so it's not a simple issue.

This project in particular has some history.

In early Nov, we were unable to open the Project.xml file. Error was 'Project data file missing'. After restoring the project to an earlier date, the project was once again able to be opened.

Various other projects had this same issue. We were simply unable to open Project.xml to some failure.

FailedToLoadCache

PnPCompletionStatus.FailedToOpenDatabase, Login failed for user ".

Cannot open project because data file is missing.

Failed to load Project file.

Please see my other post for details.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-plant-3d-general/failed-to-load-project-file-not-fixed-by-pnpl...

As a workaround, it seems that when we use UNC paths for everything, we can open the project. I don't really understand why this works, but it does. But we still don't have any answers to the real problem.

For now, I thought I would focus on a project to see if I can get some insight into what is going on. We now have a project for which our workaround is not working. They are still getting, 'Unable to open the project' errors. So, I have rebuilt the project. I made a new directory in the network project file to specify where the program-generated files are stored. It is on SQL Server 2008 standard instance. SQL Authentication. New database prefix.

Project seemed okay. I started to add P&ID to the P&ID section. After adding them and trying to open the drawing, I got a few of these problems:

Error dialog

"The drawing contains custom classes that do not exist in the project. The drawing will be added to the project, but data for custom classes cannot be added and their annotations will be lost."

"Unknown error. PnpCompletionStatus.TableDoesNotExist. [(table_name=<Flange_Pair>)]. And we have a few other table_names that don't exist.

But the drawings and project still opened. Then I gave it back to the user to complete adding drawings.

Today, we are getting the typical "unable to open Project.

FailedToLoadCache

PnPCompletionStatus.FailedToOpenDatabase, Login failed for user ".

Yes, I ran PnPLocalDataCachePurger.exe.

Can anyone give me an insight as to what the program is going through that hits a snag when it tries to open Plant? What does plant want to see in the Project.xml? I've had a room full of Network admins, SQL database managers, other IT architects look at this and examine everything we can think of. What we really need is an inside perspective of what is happening under the hood that sends Plant 3D 2014 into a tailspin.

[Jroper]

Update - I am able to open the project, but only with another strange workaround.  I'm not confident will last.  I was wonder if someone could explain why this happens. 

In the Project.xml, I find only 2 out of a usual 4 or 5 ProjectParts entries (Piping, Ortho, PnId, Iso and sometimes Misc) 

<ProjectParts>

   <ProjectPart name="Piping" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PipingPart.xml" relativeFileName="PipingPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PipingPart.xml" />

   <ProjectPart name="Iso" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\IsoPart.xml" relativeFileName="IsoPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\IsoPart.xml" />

</ProjectParts>

By forcibly editing the xml code and placing the missing attributes back (PnId and Ortho) with a text editor, I am able to open the project without an error.

  <ProjectParts>
    <ProjectPart name="Piping" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PipingPart.xml" relativeFileName="PipingPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PipingPart.xml" />
    <ProjectPart name="Iso" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\IsoPart.xml" relativeFileName="IsoPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\IsoPart.xml" />
    <ProjectPart name="PnId" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PnIdPart.xml" relativeFileName="PnIdPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\PnIdPart.xml" />
    <ProjectPart name="Ortho" fileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\OrthoPart.xml" relativeFileName="OrthoPart.xml" uncFileName="\\BOIFS1\Projects\134505\DD\CAD\config\134505B\OrthoPart.xml" /> 
  </ProjectParts>

What mechanism is altering the Project.xml code to delete these lines in the first place?  How can we prevent it from happening at all?

[Jroper]

Update - New development.  User was trying to open project this morning and got a

Read-only Project

..\PipingPart.xml is read-only. 

Then I tried opening it and didn't have any problems.  Then he tried opening it and didn't get the error again either.

[TomislavGolubovic]

If you want to rebuild the project, I'd test by creating a new blank project, then importing your drawings from the old project. Do this as a test and see how it comes across first. Create it locally for example, then maybe test by creating another test project on the network and see how the other users see that new test project.

I'd be leaning towards a path not being connected in time? path name is too long? not entirely sure

[Jroper]

I did re-create the project a couple of times. None locally. But I did get some strange errors for my first try.

- Created new project called 134505A on the network drive. SQL Server.

- Tried adding all of the P&IDs to project. Got several errors

This drawing contains custom classes that do not exist in the project. The drawing will be added..but annotations will be lost.

PnPCompletionStatus.TableDoesNotExist

- these errors kept re-occurring until I ended acad.exe. Table_names included Flange_pair, ROOFUNIT, Trap. I think I tried adding too many at a time.

- deleted 134505A folder and started again with 134505A

- After re-creating project, this error occurs. The Test Connection succeded earlier.

"Cannot create project because of failed in database connection." Failed in what?

- Third attempt, deleted 134505A folder and tried again. Same setting. Project called 134505B.

- This time project opens. Connected one PID to drawing at a time instead of trying to copy all of them.

- Project was okay for about a day, then another user couldn't open it. That is when I checked the Project.xml and added the PnId and Ortho sections back to ProjectParts. Then it started working.

- Had another error with "..\PipingPart.xml is read only". Then it stopped being a problem suddenly.

Right now the project is okay and opens, but we are nervous that any of them can bomb at any time. I don't know about the path name length. We have started using UNC paths as a standard to see if that make a difference. None of them are too long, like over 256 characters.

We have had problems with drawings turning into Read-only before. We suspected problems with timing between client and network save location. Perhaps that is what is going on here. The save process for a dwg file is rather complex itself. Saving a Plant drawing probably has even more steps that can trip up because database connection must be closed and data written to the dwg file, etc.

[vakhtang]

did you try to clean cache? helps a lot. Had problems with project not opening on my PC, cleaned cashe and it worked.

"C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2015\PLNT3D\PnPLocalDataCachePurger.exe"

[Jroper]

Most definitely.  I have shortcuts to that .exe for all Plant users.  I have had some luck a few time with it when a project would not open.  But this problem seems to be deeper. 

[Anonymous]

This is an ongoing issue with me. I am not sure why Autodesk is taking forever to rectify this problem. Like you said previously the purging method doesn't work. At least not in my case. I have tried deleting the locked file as well and still I get the same PnP error like you. I came to the conclusion that it's a networking issue or permission access problem. Yet, in my case I have exhausted everything I know that I've seen in the forums. Hoping Autodesk takes an interest in helping loyal consumers.  

[patpat79]

I think your project problem has a very deep root behind it. We are using 2014 version here in ou office and yet the only moment designers cannot access to the project XML is when the IT does not give permission to the WorkStation/PC/Desktop he/she is using. Other than that, so far we dont have any problems. Be fore creating a Project, i have done first a test project, then created a Template Project which contains our company standard, which we use in creating new projects. I do not want to think that there is carelessness in your project creation but as per your tests and errors, the problem does not lie on "AP3D" software itself. By the way, does any of your users, used Plantcalculatedproperties and had deleted it? Just asking, thanks.