We're not able to open the design because it references designs from a deleted project.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

after some issues having with one part of the project.. decided to create a new project with different name.. copied all the content from the old project - which has been archived and eventually deleted. Now some designs in the new project can not be opened, exported, nor copied.

Could you please advice how to get these designs back in the state as before to operate? Would be possible to freeze or tear off all dodgy references from an old project?

Thank you.

[Phil.E]

The online view of your project data has a garbage can. You can restore items from that.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately the whole project has been deleted.. after the copies have been made. I'm now able to open all of them in different project name through "WIP.EnableAsmOpenWithMissigRefs /true" in command window.. but not able to save nor export. 😞

[Phil.E]

Glad to hear you can open the designs. Perhaps using Save As or Save Copy As can help here?

[Anonymous]

Still not able to do anything else but open the design.. Not sure what's going here as I'm the Project admin of it. Won't save, won't export with all the timeline history. Any solution please?

[Phil.E]

The error message makes it sound like you are trying to upload an .f3d. Is that true?

And to confirm, you tried to use "save copy as" or "save as", not "save"?

If you can open the design, can you copy the components and paste into a new design? 

[Anonymous]

That error message comes with "save as" / "save copy as" into the new project. Trying also to "save" to the same project folder.... "could not be saved" will always appear with the same note about the references. Getting basically the same errors.

I wish to not use the command (WIP.EnableAsmOpenWithMissingRefs /true) anymore and of course have all the timeline history into the new project folder.. 

..but somehow blocked.

[Phil.E]

What happens when you try to make a shared public link for the design? Does using it allow download the .f3z?

Have you tried copy/paste to a new file?

[Anonymous]

Nope.. getting the same.. "We cannot perform this operation - We're not able to open the design because it references designs from a deleted project"..

Either copy/paste doesn't work.

Any solution please?

[Phil.E]

That's really strange.

To be clear:

1. You can open the design and see timeline commands, and a browser with components, bodies, etc.
2. You can select components in the browser but cannot copy/paste them.

What happens when you right click on a body or component in the browser, do you see "copy" on the menu? At this point a screencast or other video, or a screen capture image would really help. 

[Anonymous]

1. Let say Yes.. once the magic WIP.. command is entered.. 

2. Yes for selection, No for other manipulation (in other words blocked)

["right click on a body"] I can see copy option (paste only in the same design) so cannot duplicate/spread within other projects.

Could you please send me your email here, will add/invite you as a participant/member.. you can check then 😉

[Phil.E]

Thanks for inviting me.

Yes it seems that you archived and deleted some reference designs. This dialog is the warning you were shown when doing this:

Warning 1

And then later when deleting the archived project, this warning restates what's about to happen:

When this experience was designed, it was hoped that the two warnings would be sufficient to avoid problems like this. As you have found, it's not.

The only workaround I can find for you is to ensure any remaining bodies are inside a sub component, then copy and paste/new the sub component to a new design. You will lose the parametric history that is left over outside the deleted components history.

Wish I had a better answer, sorry.