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Don’t Open; Recover Instead
Tip# 4106 By Bill DeShawn On 22-Apr-2013
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Categories : Saving Files
Software type : AutoCAD 2014
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This practice virtually eliminates drawing errors, and fixes those made by others.

Tipster Bill DeShawn shares a tip that could help you fix errors in AutoCAD files before they become a problem.

“Having trouble sharing drawings with users who have various releases or vertical products of AutoCAD? Getting notices about proxy objects? Are drawings failing to work, with things happening in the drawing that just aren't supposed to happen? Here is a very important preventive practice: Never use the Open command. Instead, use the Recover command to open all your drawings. Audit before saving. If that takes too much time, create a routine, menu macro, script, or combination to do it.

“By editing ACAD.PGP in Notepad, or with AliasEdit, you can change the alias therein to help you. OP doesn't have to be options. It can be your version of the Open command — Recover. OPT can be options, for example. SV can be a function name to audit before saving:

     (defun c:sv () (command "_.audit" "Y")(command "_.qsave")(princ))

This practice has virtually eliminated drawing errors for me. It catches drawing errors that I receive from other users and fixes them. I have fewer headaches now.”

Notes from Cadalyst tip reviewer Brian Benton: This is likely to help you out and is a way to automate the repair of errors. Working with files from outside sources that have been backsaved to older versions or exported from other design software can cause issues. When your software crashes, it could have undesired effects on your data. There are many reasons why files can get corrupted.

Changing the command aliases to work this way is a great way to implement this policy; it makes it automatic. Users won’t have to remember to do it, and it doesn’t add an extra step to the process.

 

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User comments
Comment by Sanders,Richard
Posted on 2013-04-22 21:55:11
Many of us have *never* opened an AutoCAD drawing from 'within' AutoCAD. Our company uses a file utility for accessing all project files, similar to having a pair of "Windows Explorer" open in parallel side-by-side. It saves project folders in quick TABs across the top like a browser, which you can rename, to allow easy drag-and-drop updating between a local drive or file server to a corporate WAN backup ('overwrite-older' is your new friend), browses right into zip files as if they were folders, connects to ftp sites as if they were a folder, etc...hence my question: Is there a way to setup the shortcut hand-off with Windows so that double-clicking a DWG automatically sends a "Recover this drawing" to AutoCAD, rather than a simple "Open"?
Comment by Maeding,James
Posted on 2013-05-24 18:49:37
interesting idea. I would guess the recover simply deletes any custom arx objects whose object enabler or full program is not available. That is likely a bad thing. Its fine for invisible stuff like c3d styles, but not good for surfaces and alignments which do show in a drawing. They would be gone, and you would never know. I like the idea that you do not need a higher version acad to use it, but I still recommend running incoming drawings through the civil batch converter, with explode (aec) objects set to yes, bind xrefs set to no. That cleans better than anything. Not that there is a bug with it where it rotates drawings with a viewtwist and ucs set to user.
Comment by Maeding,James
Posted on 2013-05-24 18:49:48
interesting idea. I would guess the recover simply deletes any custom arx objects whose object enabler or full program is not available. That is likely a bad thing. Its fine for invisible stuff like c3d styles, but not good for surfaces and alignments which do show in a drawing. They would be gone, and you would never know. I like the idea that you do not need a higher version acad to use it, but I still recommend running incoming drawings through the civil batch converter, with explode (aec) objects set to yes, bind xrefs set to no. That cleans better than anything. Not that there is a bug with it where it rotates drawings with a viewtwist and ucs set to user.