Solidworks 2007 - crashe and all part files come up empty

Has anyone ever heard of this one?

I've been using Solidworks 2007 (it's happened on multiple service
packs so i wont bore you with that).. And i'll sometimes crash
(usually the one that has caused this is a quick-exit, but i've had it
happen when solidworks has completly locked up and i've had to close
the process). I'll then load the assembly i was working on, and even
though i'd been saving my progress all day.. basically every part that
i had created in the last 12 hours (even the stuff i did the night
before, which had been saved, closed, and reopened), everything
reverts to a part file of 58.5kb in size, and is basically a shell of
a part ie: it's only a part file without any actual features.. they're
all empty. So now i have an assembly with a bunch of empty parts.. I'm
not using any kind of PDM, but i do save all my parts to a server
(connection to the server is stable, and it's quite a nice server at
that, no complaints on that front)

I called it in to tech support at my VAR but they had never heard of
this happening. It's happened to me twice, and to a colleague of mine
once. All times losing hours worth of work.

Now i'm usually naturally paranoid about solidworks' stability, so i'm
constantly rebuilding and saving.. but it doesn't seem to help with
'this' kind of crash happens.. it'll take it all with it.

It would be great if atleast one other person has had this happen to
them.. maybe we can find a common element.. At the moment my VAR's
clueless, but he's 'researching' it as we speak so i'll reserve
judgement until he gets back to me

André Richard
-Still working at midnight trying to catch up with the crashes..

 

Hi
Could it be that You have double versions of the part files? I have a
vauge memory this
happened a couple of yrs ago and I found out that after I've saved an
assy to a step or something,
I had double versions, and the current assy linked some of those empty
parts.

// Krister

 

Watch the datestamps & attributes/properties on the files. There
might be clues there.
Sounds like a filesystem problem ... ?
Are there any log files?

 

Unfortunatly, i really didn't have time to inspect the files as i had
a deadline and worked through the night so as to not be behind.. I'll
check next time it happens, but it all seems very mysterious to me..
it's happened on more than one computer also, so there's a variation
in configuration and hardware involved..

Thanks

Andre

 

You said you were using a server.
Are the mounts going bad?
Check of files both locally & on the server(s) ...
And look at the order of things in your (SW?) $PATH variable.
First *found* first used IIRC.
Might be falling over to a local disk or someplace else.
Also, next time, try pinging the other boxes ... a bad or
failing cable, adaptor, etc. might make something be not
found at times depending on how determined the software
actually is to find such as a flakey mounted networked drive
before defaulting to another location.
Just in case .. reseat YOUR network cables anyway. Might
be a little loose.