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Seriously, this feature needs to be turned off.
In lieu of that, here’s some ways that can often times help you get around that wonderfully obscure message.
First of all, I have no idea what causes that message to come up. Maybe one of you SolidWorks wizzes do. From the details of the message, it’s more likely a catch all if something doesn’t go right. Whatever it is, it’s about as fun as your puppy dying, because inevitably you’ve lost countless hours of work. These are the 5 things I’ve found to get past it… sometimes.
- Close all non-essential documents
Shut’em down. It may just be that there’s too much memory being used and something clogging the tube. Shut down everything that is not being worked on. Try saving. If it doesn’t work, on to the next step. - Save the Drawing
I’ve narrowed this down to something not rebuilding correctly. If you’re working in the drawing and model at the same time and getting the error on the model, try switching to the drawing shutting it down and saving. You may get a “Would you like to Rebuild?” Hit yes and see if you get anywhere. - Switch to a different Configuration
Still not working? Try this. Just try switching to a different configuration, preferably one that hasn’t been loaded. In the same vein, you could try, supressing everything and then unsupressing. - Delete and Re-Create a Configuration
If the above doesn’t work I move on to more drastic measure. First, I’ll switch configurations, delete the one I was on and then hit undo to see if that wakes it up. Most often, this gets me result I need. If that doesn’t do it, Ill try deleting and recreating the configuration. - Find References, Copy Files
The final push before giving up and starting over. This is the magic tool that can save you from having to recreate a lot of models and drawings. Again, I think this works because something has not been rebuilt properly. You get to it through File, Find References.This will load everything, so on large items, this will give you a chance to go pour coffee down your gullet. After it loads everything, select Copy Files. In 2007 and up, this will bring up the Pack and Go interface. Sometimes, you’ll be notified that something needs rebuilt. That may be the item causing the problem. Make a note to check it out later.After you go through this exercise, try saving again and see if it works. This one alone has save me and my co-worker a lot of time.
If you’ve rent your clothes and absolutely can’t start over, the last effort is to send that bad boy into SolidWorks for interrogation and wait. Get a hold of your VAR that sold you SolidWorks and they’ll be able to provide an impressive set of questions and the proper assistance.
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I encountered this error quite a few times and I most common is switching configurations.
Josh,
Great tips! I have been running into this periodically since 2007.
Great Tips Josh. I too have run into this message from time to time. Performing a Forced Rebuild (Ctrl Q) has worked for me a few times as well.
Hey, I’ve got to ask you. Are you running some kind of modified Windows XP theme or Vista? The reason I ask is the close icon in your image looks much different from the norm.
Best Regards,
Ricky Jordan
http://www.rickyjordan.com
Thanks guys, That’s also a good one Ricky. I came across another one as well. Make sure the file you’re trying to save is not read-only.
I’m running an optimized windows them called CrystalXP. It looks nice but also reduces RAM consumption.
Excellent info!! We’ve ran into that quite a bit here and it is extremely frustrating. I will keep that around for reference.
Something that has worked for me is “save as”, then reboot Solidworks and resave back to the original file. This method could get complicated if you have lots of references, but it can work as a last resort.
Neil, Hi, you’re right, that sometimes works too. But like you say, with references, If you have a lot of top-down assemblies, your features will go out of context, so best to try the Find References (or Pack and Go to rename) first. Thanks!
I (and a few other co-workers) have run into this problem a few too many times. I have found that using SaveAs and saving the file another drive may resolve the problem.
I have had this happen when working on assemblys only, so far I have always had to shut down the file and start again. This has now happened about 18 times (as we keep a log of all SW 2008 errors). SW has examined the files and so far found nothing wrong. The network was blamed initially, but over xmas it happed a few times when working from C drive only so Im not sure. I am down to saving every 5 changes so that I minimise the lost time. I wil give the tips a go and see what happens.
Thanks Martin
I discovered a work around, in my case the HUGE file wasn’t saving, in the top assembly model I selected on the parent object in the tree, righ clicked on the mouse and selected “set to lightweight”, once completed regenerating, again select on the same object this time selecting “set lightweight to resolved” this preformed a complete regen and the file saved.
Good luck
I have encountered this problem many times with SolidWorks 2008. It only happens to my assemblies because I can continue to work on parts and save them repeatedly with no problem. The failed to save document message will pop up I work on a part but that looks to me like the open assembly file has failed to save during an auto save.
Closing and reopening the assembly file without closing SolidWorks or the part files will solve the problem but any changes made to the assembly before closing, of course, it will be lost. I am generally working with a small assemblies of 10 or 12 parts with 5 or 6 assembly configurations.
Today a light bulb went on in my head and confirmed what I have been suspecting for some time now. I have noticed that sometimes if I am moving or selecting something with my optical mouse, the failed to save message pops up right then and there even though I was not manually saving at the time. I suspect that when an auto save occurs coinciding with certain kinds of mouse activity, somehow the OS can’t cope with those simultaneous commands. After one of the mouse-induced spaz sessions occurs, the assembly cannot be saved anymore while the parts still can.
I am running Windows XP Professional X64 Edition and the X64 version of SolidWorks.
I don’t have a solution but I am curious to learn if anyone else has noticed the mouse and auto save connection. In earlier versions of SolidWorks with Windows XP 32 bit OS on a different computer and mouse I encountered total freeze-ups of the computer when moving the mouse and selecting on the fly without holding the mouse completely stationary. Both of these mouse induced problems only happen once in a while; anywhere from once a week to a couple times a day.