Drawings crashing

I have been trialing BricsCAD, as we are thinking of going over from AutoCAD LT (rubbish), hopefully soon. When my trial was over, I resumed drawing in AutoCAD LT 2015, and found my drawings crashing randomly - 'Unable to save .dwg. Drawing saved to \savA000.tmp. - .dwg dissappeared. I can get the drawings back to .dwg's, but I am concerned that if I send CAD drawings to clients perhaps (very rarely) that this might happen at the other end if they are using AutoCAD.

My question is, has anybody had any 'complaints' in this regard?

or is this a case of 'too bad - get BricsCAD? :):)

Ami

Comments

  • I send As Constructed dwg files for every project I work on (working full time).
    While I don't have direct contact with the various receivers I do know some are opened, but not sure what stress they get really.
    I'm sure I would have had complaints if there was trouble.
    Occasionally I send a file to someone I know and had no comment about compatibility at all.
    Have you tried Auditing files? Maybe there is an issue which Bcad tolerates, but Acad can't abide.
  • Hello Ami,

    if you file a support request and attach a sample drawing, we will be glad to investigate what causes the problem.
    FYI, you don't need to have purchased BricsCAD to file support requests.

    Kind regards
  • Hi John,

    Thanks for the response. Actualy I did purge and audit (old habit) :). You might be right and its probably just a glitch.

    Kind regards

    Ami

  • Hi Hans, thanks.

    It was happening randomly, after I opened drawings in AutoCAD LT, it worked and saved fine. Then suddenly it would do the 'disappearing into a temp file' thing. I am unable at the moment to send you the actual drawing file, but I have attached the message I got. (apologies for the white-out)

    I'm back on trial version (recommended BricsCAD to company, so they widened the trial to other users as well). I will keep an eye on it and if I come accross it again, or it becomes a problem, I will put in a support request.

    Thanks again

    Ami

    imageLT crash.PNG
  • Apparently this can happen when the file is stored on a network path , see acad knowledgebase .
    But we'd still like to make sure the drawing is alright.
  • Alexander, I think you have nailed it!! :)

    From ACAD Knowledge base:

    3) AutoCAD tells if a drawing is in use by the existence of a DWL and DWL2 file. These are hidden, system files so you will need to set your folder options accordingly in Windows Explorer to see them. In some cases these DWL files can become 'stuck' and this may not allow the file to be saved. In these cases deleting the DWL files should restore the ability to save the files. Please close AutoCAD and then browse to the folder where your files are located. Delete any DWL files that are in existence. Can you now open and save the DWG files?

    I did find it odd that there were so many DWL1 & 2 files. I did get rid of them at the time, so that may be why the tmp saves were so random, as I think we were having some server problems at the time as well.

    Many thanks to you and everybody else that responded :)

    Kind regards

    Ami

  • Ami, our server is littered with DWL files too. They're supposed to be automatically deleted when the DWG file is closed, but apparently that's not happening in many cases. The Autocad users tell me they don't know what causes it and they think our server is haunted. The server works fine for me.

    I've been sharing files with Autocad users for many years, not only with clients but with co-workers and consultants. I haven't had any problems except for some sort of glitch involving attributes in blocks in xrefs in files created by an AEC program, and that was solved by converting the AEC DWG file to plain Autocad DWG format before opening it in Bricscad. The only questions I've ever gotten from people opening my files were from inexperienced cad operators frightened by Autodesk's warning that the file was created by another program.

  • In regards to DWL (lock files) being left behind;  I have some experience with them from many years ago.

    Any time AutoCAD does not exit properly, the DWL files are not deleted.  This could be because AutoCAD crashed, or a power failure.  I suspect they get deleted, if you later open the same drawing, and then close it. But, if the individual never re-opens the drawing, the DWL files linger.

    -Joe
  • Hi Joe,

    Thanks for your comments. They are helpful and I feel more at ease that there is such a great and friendly network out there :)

    Ami

  • Hi Anthony,

    Maybe AutoCAD drawings come with ghosts installed :) to ward off future BricsCAD users. But thanks to all the comments, I am not put off.

    Thank you for your comments

    Ami :)

  • Same here:

    We use architectural xref's.
    As soon when there are small errrors within the xref drawing, autocad 2014 (the full version) crashes while opening the drawing.

    Bricscad and draftsight have no problem to open the drawing.

    As soon when the problem Xref is openened by Bricscad V15.1.23 , audit en purge then save.

    Then autocad can open the drawing.

    Always audit and purge xref's  and sure when the xref's are from different sources.


  • Be forewarned that auditing a drawing can introduce a large number of sub-blocks that contain nothing.  The purge command will not remove them. Rather, each block containing one of these audit blocks must go through a series of manual steps to select and delete these empty sub-blocks.  

    These empty blocks will propagate as you use the blocks elsewhere. So, even though it is a big pain, put the effort into cleaning the ones inside blocks you may use elsewhere, or you will have the empty blocks propagating like rabbits.

    -Joe
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