Hello,

I'm getting started with 7.3, and have the auto save on. Stardraw crashed (PC, who knows why), and when I restarted it found 3 auto saved files and asked if I would like to use them. However, the files did not contain the drawings I made...
So I started over, and at some point needed to shut StarDraw down. I made sure to save the file, but when I re-opened the software and the file - no drawings...

Please can you email the .S07 file(s) to techsupport@stardraw.com and include in your email a list of the drawings you expect to see in the project?  We can then investigate further - thanks.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 10/7/2019 11:06:54 AM

Please can you email the .S07 file(s) to techsupport@stardraw.com and include in your email a list of the drawings you expect to see in the project?  We can then investigate further - thanks.

I am having an issue.  As I work on projects in 7.3, I make a point to hit save often.  Last night I opened a drawing to make some changes.  When I opened it, the file name reflected the last version edited, but the drawings were incorrect.  They were a previous version.  I REALLY hate doing things multiple times and I am not wanting to do my work again.  Is there anyway you could look at my file?  Is there anyway to recover the previously saved drawing or am I screwed?

Hi Brent,

We can take a look at the file, certainly, but I think it will be unrevealing; we can only see what it contains - as you do - and not what it doesn't contain, plus we don't know what you're expecting to see, only what is there now.

The Save process is, of course, reliable so I can only think that you may have opened a different file, or one from a different location.  Has the file always and only been saved to disk, locally, or have you for example opened it at any time as an attachment from an email?  If so, your saves may have been made to a temporary folder used by the email program.

Or, is your file saved in a 'live' folder like Dropbox? We do not recommend working on project files in live folders because the monitoring application - again, I cite Dropbox because this is a suspected behavior - may backup, save or overwrite the file while it is itself in the process of being saved, and this can lead to loss of data or unexpected results.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 12/1/2019 4:25:29 PM

Hi Brent,

We can take a look at the file, certainly, but I think it will be unrevealing; we can only see what it contains - as you do - and not what it doesn't contain, plus we don't know what you're expecting to see, only what is there now.

The Save process is, of course, reliable so I can only think that you may have opened a different file, or one from a different location.  Has the file always and only been saved to disk, locally, or have you for example opened it at any time as an attachment from an email?  If so, your saves may have been made to a temporary folder used by the email program.

Or, is your file saved in a 'live' folder like Dropbox? We do not recommend working on project files in live folders because the monitoring application - again, I cite Dropbox because this is a suspected behavior - may backup, save or overwrite the file while it is itself in the process of being saved, and this can lead to loss of data or unexpected results.

The file originated and has been stored on the same computer.  For speed of access, it has been stored to my desktop.  I am using the latest version of Windows if that means anything.

Hi Brent,

I assume the computer is, and, while you have been working, always has been licensed.  If the computer is not licensed then Saving would be disabled.  Can you confirm that the computer on which you have been working is licensed?  Check Help | About Stardraw Design 7.3 to see license status..


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 12/1/2019 5:58:09 PM

Hi Brent,

I assume the computer is, and, while you have been working, always has been licensed.  If the computer is not licensed then Saving would be disabled.  Can you confirm that the computer on which you have been working is licensed?  Check Help | About Stardraw Design 7.3 to see license status..

The computer was licensed before I started doing the drawing. I have completed four other projects on the same computer and while I never saved them, exited star draw, closed windows and rebooted between those projects, all of the data for those appears to be in place.

+x

 

Brent Handy - 12/1/2019 6:24:32 PM

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 12/1/2019 5:58:09 PM

Hi Brent,

I assume the computer is, and, while you have been working, always has been licensed.  If the computer is not licensed then Saving would be disabled.  Can you confirm that the computer on which you have been working is licensed?  Check Help | About Stardraw Design 7.3 to see license status..

The computer was licensed before I started doing the drawing. I have completed for other projects on the same computer and while I never saved them, exited star draw, closed windows and rebooted between those projects, all of the data for those appears to be in place.

By the way, I would like to thank you for replying to my posts on a Sunday. This is truly an oddity in this industry where we must serve our clients 24/7 but seldom receive the same service ourselves.

Hi Brent,

Thanks for the kind words - we do what we can, and if you're working on a Sunday at least you know you're not alone!

I have to admit that I am somewhat at a loss at this point; if the machine is licensed and there is nothing special about the location from which the file was opened, then I have to return to my earlier hypothesis that the file has been saved somewhere, but the most recent opening of it has been from somewhere else.  I realize this doesn't help you much but it's hard to know what else to suggest; perhaps a search, in Windows Explorer, of all .S07 files (search for *.s07) at a point fairly high in the folder structure, perhaps even C:\.  If the data has been saved, it must be somewhere, but if it hasn't - or it's been overwritten -  then a comprehensive search with particular attention to timestamps should at least give the whole picture of what exists, and what does not.

I hope this is helpful.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

We've seen similar issues sporadically over the last month or so.  We save all customer related data on a shared drive that is backed up daily, and we've had several cases where we've lost files.  It has been different behavior in each case, so I can't be sure it is specific to Stardraw. 

In the most recent occurrence (last week), I saved my work manually before I left for lunch around noon.  I returned from lunch and continued working.  I manually saved again when I left for the day around 6:30PM.  When I opened the project the next day, the file was back at the point where I had saved before lunch, but the file indicated it was saved at 6:30PM. 

In another instance one of our designers saved a file when he was almost done with a system on a Friday night, and Monday the file size was 1kB and un-openable.  This required restoration from backup from the previous day, which cost him 12 hours or so work. 

There doesn't seem to be a pattern so far, but as a precaution I've started manually saving periodically with a new revision name just in case the data gets corrupted/lost somehow.