When Good Drawings Go Bad: How to Repair Corrupt AutoCAD Files

When Good Drawings Go Bad, What Options Are Available?...

This has happened to all of us at one time or another, the notorious AutoCAD error dialog box pops up with nothing but 'bad news'. A file may appear 'lifeless' locking up your workstation, or perhaps one of the following issues:

• File will not open; or hangs/crashes AutoCAD
• Slow performance
• Error messages when opening or working on the file
• Considerable delays when running commands
• Display Problems
• Missing drawing elements.

Some of the common causes are:

• Third-party applications running inside AutoCAD
• DWG files created or saved by non-Autodesk products
• AutoCAD crashed or terminated while attempting to save the drawing
• Old Drawings (created many AutoCAD versions ago)
• Network Anomalies (file locking, latency, transfer errors)
• Storage Issues (bad hard drive, sectors)
• Defective or Failing Hardware (RAM)
• Operating System Issues
• Power Surges
• Outdated Software (Update Drivers, Hotfixes, Patches)

These issues can be extremely frustrating to all AutoCAD designers, regardless of being a novice with the software to highly experienced CAD Managers. Of course, they tend to always occur when a project deadline is looming, am I right? GGGRRRrrrrrrr......

Luckily, there are multiple options available to assist with cleaning, repairing and recovering the affected drawing(s) and hopefully resolving the problem outright.

Recently I came across a posting on the Autodesk Knowledge Network (AKN) which includes multiple ways to resolve a broken drawing. 

You will definitely want to bookmark this article as it will no doubt be a useful reference for when you run into a drawing corruption issue you are trying to resolve, either as a CAD Manager or an AutoCAD user.

Rather than repeat all the potential solutions from the article in this blog post, I have provided a summary (below) of the various topics that are covered including a direct link to the Autodesk Knowledge Network article.

The article includes valuable information and solution options:

• If the drawing file (DWG) will not open at all
• If the drawing file (DWG) will open but has errors
• If the drawing persists with problems, steps to try
• If the drawing problems will not go away

Autodesk Knowledge Network - How to Repair Corrupt AutoCAD Files - CLICK HERE