File Not Saved Error

[sfaust]

We recently started getting a "File not Saved" error on one of our projects when saving to central. It was working fine, then just gave that error.

We first used one users local file (fortunately there's only one person really working on it right now) and made a new central file. We just saved over the existing central and this seemed to work fine at first, save to central was functioning, etc. However, after about 2 days it started doing the "File not Saved" thing when saving to central.

This time we re-created the central and immediately the STC did not work. That's when I submitted to support and came on the forums to try to find the problem.

I saw here some mention that you shouldn't overwrite the existing central, you should just make a new one with a new name so we tried that. That seemed to work at first, so I hoped that we had fixed the problem, but after a couple hours of work the same thing happened.

I am not sure what to do next. I know we've had memory issues in the past that caused this error, but I'm pretty sure that's not it this time. We can save locally just fine, task manager shows low memory usage, and this is a small project in schematic design, so the file is only 16mb.

Does anyone know what might be happening? Have not received a response from Autodesk yet.

[sbrown]

Do you have a quota on your project folder size. this usually happens to us when we reach or near that quota.

[cliff collins]

1. Correct--do not overwrite existing Central File--make new one.
2. Open local copy and Audit--maybe even "detach from central"
3. Save local as central
4. save-as local
5.STC

see if this fixes problem.

Also, as a habit--have all users open Central file 1st thing in am, save-as to local, and save back to central.

At end of day, STC and relinquish.

Cheers....

[dhurtubise]

Just a note here
Don't open the Central, copy paste, rename then open. It will create a local and avoid issues

[davidcobi]

I've seen the same problem. Try closing down most of your running apps and see if it will STC ok. That's what we have to do when we run into this on one of our workstations.

It even happens when working on families. A save to the local desktop works but a save to the server doesn't when we get this issue.

[sfaust]

thanks for the suggestions. It shouldn't be near any folder quotas. We tried not overwriting the central, closing all open programs, etc. We can do the detach and audit thing and it seems to work for a while, but then does the same thing later on.

However, we did it a couple days ago again so we could get a journal to support with it actually messing up. Of course it has been working fine since then. Well let you know if we find anything else out.

[trmpublic]

We have the same problem with the exception that we are almost always able to STC a few times before the "file not saved" error. Often the save will get to around 50% before the error happens. To solve this we've tried a lot:

1. Auditing, detaching from central, renaming (thus creating new backup folders), creating new local files.

2. Our IT staff has looked at the network settings and say there is no difference between the pre-problem settings and the current settings.

3. Splitting the file into two halves.

4. I've consulted with several people more expert than I (including autodesk.) Each has different initial thoughts of the source of the problem: network permissions (ie anti-virus software action), folder permissions (not enough space in the project folder), corrupt elements (we're awaiting analysis from Autodesk, old build (we've since loaded the latest build), file & folder size (this project file is the same size as another revit project and the other project has no problems - we even did a test with the same people opening up the good project and doing lots of manipulations for an hour and we couldn't get the problem to repeat itself.), groups (the bad project has a lot of groups. The good project has few (or none))

5. And some ideas found in AUGI: rebooting the server (didn't work), the 3GB switch (did this last year), shutting down other programs (didn't work).

6. I have a hunch there's a problem with something visible in our site plan. Before any of this started, the site plan was really slow. There is nothing exceptional about the site plan -- there is not a lot of line work or any topography (we constructed the site with floor elements) -- but it's barely possible to even work in this view. This afternoon I'm trying to find the bad element if it exists in the site plan.

We're desperate here. There's talk of switching this project to Autocad. Blasphemy!! Any additional suggestions will be tried.

[dhurtubise]

How many warnings do you have? What are theyre nature?
Can you create a new central file locally then create a new local one and work on it for a while tosee if you can STC correctly?

[trmpublic]

How many warnings do you have? What are theyre nature?
Can you create a new central file locally then create a new local one and work on it for a while tosee if you can STC correctly?

There are 419 warnings. None seem like file crashers. Attached is the list.

I've created local central files and there isn't a problem. We've also noticed that if only one person is accessing the central file on the network with his local file (meaning nobody is working on that project), that person can work and save to central just fine. It's when two people access the central file that we have STC problems.

[al]

When this happens, can you then open the central file without any error or warning messages? Why is someone working in the central file?

[trmpublic]

When this happens, can you then open the central file without any error or warning messages? Why is someone working in the central file?

My mistake. Nobody is working directly in the central file. (I edited the previous post).

To answer your first question, when one person is working there is nothing abnormal. To this person, the project file seems to function perfectly.

[al]

I have seen the error a couple times. The most recent was when the central file was opened and saved so that it became a local file overwriting the central file. When another user tried to save to central from the local file the File not Saved message appeared immediately. I'm still not sure how this happened exactly. Our procedure is to never open the central file unless it needs to be moved or there is a problem with it -- local files are copied from central. I seem to recall seeing it when the local pc was out of memory or disk space -- not sure though.

[hand471037]

I was getting this error due to file locking settings on our new file server. Everything but Revit was able to write to it no problem. Once we worked out proper permissions and locking, the problem stopped. Not certain why it was just effecting Revit, but there you go.

So you might want to check in with your IT department and see if anything on their end changed, like moving you over to a new file server or something.

[jlr]

So you might want to check in with your IT department and see if anything on their end changed, like moving you over to a new file server or something.

Interesting, but we have not made any changes since our last successful project 3 weeks ago. Is it possible that a windows update has cause the permission? We have done tests with other revit files with the same computers and users without the problem. Does it affect all projects?

Thanks for your help!
Jeremy Rich
CarrierJohnson IT

[trmpublic]

I've spent much of today thinking it's an corrupt element, not a network thing. I can recreate the error on my own computer by opening two revit sessions under different user names. The central file and both local files are on my local workstation. When I delete every model element, I was able to STC as both users. When I deleted most of the project, I still get the error. Now I'm trying to work in between those states to find the problem element.

Any ideas on whether opening two revit sessions might re-create the problem with a shortage of memory? I've opening two sessions of much bigger files before and had no problems.... I hope I'm not barking up the wrong tree.

[hand471037]

Does it affect all projects?

It did for us, and I would imagine that it would if that was the problem. If nothing changed on the server (other than the update) and other projects work fine then I doubt it's the server that's causing your trouble.

[trmpublic]

In case anyone finds this thread in a search, I thought I'd summarize how the problem was resolved.

Despite the attempts of several experts, it was the support team at Autodesk that fixed the file. They didn't specifically tell me the source of the problem, but apparently it had to do with central file creation and permissions for multiple users.

To ensure proper creation and opening of local files, we have been using the file from this thread to open files since resolution and all is well.
http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=65897

The whole support request process took nearly 2 weeks. I recommend going to a back up version immediately if you have this problem with your file.