my first corrupt project

[ws]

A rite of passage of all Revit users I guess

Create a project yesterday, will not open today - 'Data in file corrupt... must be manually recovered.... Contact Autodesk Support' (which I've done).

3 Backups same and only one journal file - which I tried dragging and dropping on the Revit icon (amazing trick that... wish I could work as fast as the journal replays itself )

Anyway, the question is - can you interrupt a journal file to stop it short of the point where it exits, presumably because of the corruption - in my case very nearly at the end?

[dhurtubise]

You can open the journal file in notepad and delete actions

[mccurdyks]

Worked for us on an 8.1 project:

Open the file with "audit" checked and under open worksets pick "all" if workset enabled.

Saved us from contacting support.

[ws]

thanks Daniel - I opened it in Ultraedit32 which has the benefit of showing line numbers
( http://www.ultraedit.com/index.php?name=UE_MoreFeatures if anyone is interested )

I imagine this is an unsupported feature of Revit...
but any tips welcome.

@mccurdyks - thanks, I did try opening with Audit but same error message appeared (I must have done something really naughty )

[ws]

Hmm, I notice that if you open the journal that was created when the backup journal was run, it tells you the line number at which the backup journal exited...

[dhurtubise]

You would be amazed at what you can do with a journal file

[ws]

Indeed

Very educational, if a bit time consuming.

Reading up on the Revit API and suchlike I see that journal files are used for regression testing. From bits and pieces of posted information it seemed to me that the journals must be a series of commands followed by user actions(?) within the commented out lines. I read that there is a limited amount of space for storing user actions.

Anyway, the main thing is... I have fixed my project

(Autodesk support have just been back to me by email with a standard series of questions - it will be interesting to see what they say - eventually)

Now that I knew what were commands, I deleted from the end back up to what seemed a sensible point, just before I loaded some 3D sanitaryware.

Ran this trimmed journal file and Revit stopped at just the right point, allowing me to save 99% of the project - and all seems well again.

Phew!

[rjcrowther]

Thanks for having this open discussion with us. I have no doubt it will come in handy at some stage.


Rob

[ws]

Umm, just as well I fixed this project myself because Autodesk support have not replied beyond the 24 hour first reply asking for a standard list of information I had already posted with the initial 'critical' support request (doesn't surprise me but it is disappointing).

Is this sort of timescale typical in other users' experience?

Perhaps I'll have a reply by the time I return from holiday

[Justin Marchiel]

i have not had any experience with corrupt files, but when i put in a support request (usually as moderate) i have an answer same day, and if not early the next morning.

maybe there is more wrong with your file then you think (I am not trying to be mean!)

Justin