Drawing Won't Open

You may be able to xreference it and use the copy nested command to get critical data.?ÿ If it will xref in, you can use the Xclip command to "clip" the drawing to an area of interest.?ÿ This will help with large file/memory issues, that may be part of the problem.?ÿ HTH!

If the images are separate (xrefd or data linked) files from the drawing itself, perhaps remove the images from the the folder path you suspect the drawing is referencing.?ÿ That way you might get a message about missing rasters, but at least the drawing would open.

I would try inserting it as a block into a blank drawing. Once in, placed and saved, I would explode the block, purge and re-save.

If this doesn't help, I'd be happy to take a look (feel free to back channel me at lnelsonATcarlsonswDOTcom).

I hope this information helps.

Another workaround to try:

Download, setup and use the free (free as a beer) ODA Drawings Explorer, then recover/audit, purge all, audit and save.

It helps me some times, when my SurvPC's DXF causes AutoCAD crash. It's also a lightweight viewer with the ability to open latest releases DWG, but it?ÿ lacks autoregen (command : regenall).

Thanks for all the suggestions.?ÿ I tried the ones that were posted before I left the office.?ÿ Unfortunately nothing seemed to be working.

Ended up digging one of the backup drives out of my safe and found a copy that would open.

Posted by: @arabicaboy

Another workaround to try:

Download, setup and use the free (free as a beer) ODA Drawings Explorer, then recover/audit, purge all, audit and save.

It helps me some times, when my SurvPC's DXF causes AutoCAD crash. It's also a lightweight viewer with the ability to open latest releases DWG, but it?ÿ lacks autoregen (command : regenall).

In case anyone is searching and finds this thread for future use.?ÿ I also tried ?ÿArabicaBoy's suggestion with the original broken file in the background as I was doing some other things.?ÿ In case you don't have a backup off site to fall back on, his suggestion worked well.

That software just finishing the conversion and worked like a charm.?ÿ There is an option to audit as the conversion takes place and the software suggested must have found the issues that made the file so large and fixed them.?ÿ It is now just under 2MB, but all the information is still in place.

I must have done something silly to have made the file so large in the first place.

Nice.

@jon-payne?ÿ

@jon-payne I'm happy to read it worked for you. Keep it in your toolbox! ????

To close the loop, we can notice that Carlson is member of the ODA, Open Design Alliance... which makes ODA Drawings Explorer!