Unexpected File Format Error

Is anyone else experiencing this error message. We have experienced this in SW2004 but have seen a large increase in occurrences in SW2005 SP0.1 This error appears when opening a previously worked on file and to date have no solution apart from re-loading from back-up and therefore loosing all work. This error sometimes shows up by receiving a "Unable to save" dialog, then when trying to open said file it gives a "Unexpected file format" error. Can anyone suggest a cause or better still a solution.

I will be posing this to my VAR, so I will inform you of there response.

Regards Simon Cube3

I get this error sometimes when saving assemblies. It hasn't caused any problems as far as I know. I just ignore it. Brian

Simon, We have been experiencing this error message for about three months now. Our VAR tells us it is data corruption from our network. Are you working locally or over a network? The error is intermittent and really a pain in the neck. It seems to always happen just when I need to do something quickly and I find the file corrupted, sometimes even the back up is corrupted and we get the same error message. I have no idea on how to stop it, Anyone else have an idea? Thanks Ray

I've seen this a lot recently (2005 sp2). It happens when I have the "Open referenced documents with read only access" box checked in Options and after I get write access to a document that was opened read-only. I end up losing all my work. At some point maybe I'll figure out how to make it happen consistently and send it off to the VAR...

Eric

Sim> Is anyone else experiencing this error message. We have experienced this in

response.

Eric, Are you working locally, on your hard drive or from a server over a network? I am just trying to gather data as our VAR says this is likely a network issue. We can not replicate the error but it is very bothersome to loose hours of work when you close and try to reopen a file only to get the "Unexpected File Format Error" message.

be a SolidWorks bug, maybe not a network issue at all. Our IT department can f> I've seen this a lot recently (2005 sp2). It happens when I have the

I've been having the same very frustrating problem. Except that for us every file opened during that SW session gets (corrupted) "unexpected file format" when that happens.

I was able to get it to repeat every single time for a particular assembly so I submitted it and have a SPR # from solidworks. But no word on a solution.

Is anyone else experiencing this error message. We have experienced this in SW2004 but have seen a large increase in occurrences in SW2005 SP0.1 This error appears when opening a previously worked on file and to date have no solution apart from re-loading from back-up and therefore loosing all work. This error sometimes shows up by receiving a "Unable to save" dialog, then when trying to open said file it gives a "Unexpected file format" error. Can anyone suggest a cause or better still a solution.

I will be posing this to my VAR, so I will inform you of there response.

Simon Miller Cube3

We're working over a network (Windows).

Eric

Usually when you see this error, it is because data has been corrupted (as said by others) and definately working over a network can be one of the reason that you could attribute to this happening. One thing you can do is work local. You can also contact your VAR, they might be able to get the data repaired.

When I get this error it sometimes seems to relate itself to having SolidWorks Routing Turned on. Toggling the add-in seems to fix it.

Best Regards,

Ricky Jordan CSWP Dynetics, Inc.

Sim> Is anyone else experiencing this error message. We have experienced this in

response.

This has been a problem for me. We work over the network on a server here.

I've sent corrupted files to our VAR and they've forwarded them to SolidWorks. They've been able to repair them for us. Our VAR says this corruption is typical of bad networking, which I can belive. What is also troubling is that the corruption also seems to effect my backups, which are stored locally. I keep 5 levels of backups now, every 3 changes.

I've found no rhyme or reason to this error, I cannot replicate it. It often destroys several hours or more of work.

It would be very disappointing if this were a SolidWorks error.

Hi

I've had similar problems in the past when working over a network.

1/ DHCP server lease time was set to less than a minute --- This was increased to several days -- Fixed IP's is probably a better solution.

2/ Long file paths was another issue if your files paths are more than

255 characters you will have issues on WINNT, WIN2000 and some variants of Linux. 3/ And this little fella crops up in all flavours of windows This one states of problem if File path is longer than 128 Characters I still have issues when using backup software not being able to delete folders -- thanks to the system admin at my clients -- Try mapping Network folders to make much shorter paths.

Regards

John Layne Solid Engineering Ltd

RageX wrote:

A PDM would probably solve the issues

Ok I'm on a role now--- talking to myself

Type this into google

Long file path issue site:microsoft.com

13,200 Hits

Simon,

A couple things.

1. Clean out temp. The one under Documents and Settings for the user. It is normally hidden.

1. Set backups to 2 in SW options. This will then keep one file back since SW will corrupt the backup file when it corrupts the regular file. Quicker than backup.

2. Turn off AutoSave.

1. If you think you are going to run into this work under SWRx and capture the problem.

2. Do you work over the network or locally?

Sim> Is anyone else experiencing this error message. We have experienced this > in

We're not working on a network and we have been getting it too, since sp2 if I recall. Installed sp3 and am back to getting the disappearing views again. Guess they broke that again too.

I see that the fixed SPR list for SP3.0 includes a couple "Unexpected File Format" ones. Might be worth loading to see if it helps.

WT

Ray, I see the error message saving the file. Starts saving reports the error then finishes the save. Opens fine next time around with changes saved.

I just tried intalling SP3.0. No luck. The files are still getting corrupted. Also these files have never been on the network. So at least in my case that can't be causing the problem.