"Drawing cannot locate the project"

[Anonymous]

I had a file crash that has a couple of other data shortcuts in it and when I try to reopen or recover it I get a notification in my command bar "Drawing cannot locate project" the file also freezes up. I can move my cursor around but I have no control of autocad and have to use task manager to shut down the program. I have no problem opening any of the other files that contain the same data shortcuts and I also Have no problem opening my Sheet Set that has that file x-ref in it.

*side note before my file crashed I did not have those merging contours in white and green I had them as the red and grey design and the ones you can faintly see behind them are the proposed yellow and green. not sure why that is different now or if that helps.

Any ideas?  

Brandyn

[Jay_B]

Have you tried restoring the file from a backup or autosave file?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I found an old version as well as an old restore from this week. Those do not work. One from a month ago works but that was before I added a lot of pieces that are there today.

Thank you for your question

Sent from a mobile device.

[Jay_B]

On the file with the "Drawing cannot locate the project" issue try right clicking on it in Win Explorer > Properties Tab > Previous Versions.

If you are so lucky as to see any dates here try restoring the file here.

Sometimes the dwg can be recovered following the steps in this Being Civil Article

Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, I'll give it a try when I get to the office tomorrow.

Sent from a mobile device.

[Anonymous]

Did you try to insert your drawing in to a working drawing, then doing a saveas?

[Joe-Bouza]

Can you locate the project?
Have you tried ASSOCIATEDWGWITH PROJECT. Right click the DS node

[Jay_B]

@Joe-Bouza, The OP indicated the drawing Freezes up when opened.

[Jay_B]

Nevermind, I guess that could be tried w/out opening the dwg.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your quick replies!

I sent the file to a coworker in another office and he says re ran an audit on the dwg and it came up with 3 fixes. I'm not sure if the file was frozen to him when he opened it or not but the file he sent back to me works fine now. If anyone believes that their answer was basically what my coworker had done I would like to give you Kudos. I'll talk to him and get more clarification later.

Thank you again.

Brandyn

[Anonymous]

Hello! I am having the same issue as OP. 

So I have been trying to disassociate my project from the current drawing, but whenever I attempt to select "none", the change is not made. As a result, my dwg continues to freeze my program upon opening. Any other workarounds you all might know?

Thanks,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Try to inser the dwg with option "explode" on.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the suggestion. It may be brute force, but I was able to brute force my way into the .dwg by hitting ESC a few times once it the dwg froze (I suppose it wasn't a true freeze, but couldn't get past searching for the data shortcut). ESC cancelled the DS search and, since this is my drawing, I was able to fix the broken references.

Thanks for your response!

[sboon]

Typically with an error like this, where CAD becomes unstable after a crash and a drawing won't work properly I check the TEMP folder.  Both ACad and C3d dump a lot of data there while you're working with drawings.  The software is supposed to clean up the folder on exit, but it doesn't do a good job of that, and with a crash it doesn't do it at all.

What can happen after a crash is that the software will find those leftover data files and attempt to use them.  This leads to all sorts of problems.  If you have a drawing that seems like it should work but the software is acting strange then I recommend flushing out everything in the TEMP folder.  For most users it will be in:

C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp\

NOTE - Do NOT do this immediately after a crash, the Autosave files that you need to recover a drawing may be there also.

Steve
Please use the Accept as Solution or Kudo buttons when appropriate

[Anonymous]

An additional suggestion to go along with Steve Boone's post: 

Open Explorer and make sure there are no lingering lock files of your crashed drawing (.dwk). Remove them from your folder because they impede the correct process of opening a drawing. Open C3D from your desktop folder then close it again. Sometimes this helps to clear hidden junk. Then re-try your crashed drawing. If multiple people are accessing that drawing, make sure they don't have .dwk files of the drawing on their computers either. Perform an audit on your newly opened file before writing new data to it.

These lock files may be in a folder other than the project folder and make sure you don't delete any while a drawing is open.

File management and removing clutter are key components to working in C3D. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to misspell your last name!