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BAD CAD - 10 steps to regain your corrupted data

I often am confronted with files that fatal on corrupted data.  Finding and eliminating that data can be a challenge.  Here are a few tips to help out.  Some are basic but deserve to be mentioned.

  1. Purge the drawing - I am still amazed at how much information is contained in files. You should get in the habit of regularly cleaning your files. Check out my blog for "Purge - The forgotten command"
     
  2. Audit the drawing - does more to correct problems than people think
     
  3. Restore the drawing from an old backup file.  Think back to the last time you had a stable file and retrieve it.
     
  4. Use Drawing Recovery to get the backup - check out Lynn Allen's blog on the subject
     
  5. Cut and paste from the drawing in pieces.  Select small areas and copy them to a new blank file.  Keep checking to make sure that the new file is stable.
     
  6. Erase entities to see if you can find the bad ones.  Kind of the reverse of number 5.  Working your way backwards by erasing areas of the file and then when you find the bad area, dump the file and then go back in and erase the bad entity you found before.
     
  7. Save as an older version.  Save the file back to older versions (2002, 2000, etc.).  This sometimes will jettison the bad data and save the good stuff.  Keep in mind that saving  back may effect the entities you created in new tools.
     
  8. Open in another CAD package, PC or version.  I often use Microstation to fix AutoCAD files.  You could try other tools also.
     
  9. WBLOCK the contents out.  An old trick that still works well.
     
  10. REDRAW – no not the AutoCAD command. I mean re-draw the drawing, or at least the troubled parts.