FATAL ERROR when opening specific drawing

Hello all,

I am using AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 on an HP Pavilion dv7-1285dx laptop with Windows Vista. This morning I tried opening a dwg file I was editing on Friday, and AutoCAD crashed and gave me this message: "FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0038 Exception at 59522e00h". I had just copied the file for a backup, and the copy also crashed AutoCAD. My previous backup, from Friday, opened just fine, but is missing a day's work.

I tried restarting my system, but that didn't work. Per a forum comment, I tried typing "RECOVER" at the command line of Civil 3D and choosing the problem file. AutoCAD found problems in the file, and said it fixed them, but when I open the file, none of my surfaces/alignments/etc. are shown in the Prospector. In fact, my alignment and stations don't even show in the drawing itself. Additionally, I get a message saying, "This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D. All entities created by Civil 3D within the drawing are in a proxy state. Additionally, all commands, settings, and displays of Civil 3D are disabled for this drawing."

Is there anyway for me to get my drawing back?

Did you also run AUDIT?

I am not sure , that might be included in the RECOVER command, but is worth a shot.

Since you have a backup copy, you might also try the commandline -PURGE (include the hyphen).

First choose RegApps, then run it again and choose ALL.

Then Audit.

The problem with my backup is that it was created by copying the original corrupted file, so my backup won't even open in AutoCAD without crashing. Therefore, unless I am mistaken, I can't run -PURGE or AUDIT on the backup.

From some of the messages that flashed while running RECOVER, it looks like AUDIT is included in that procedure.

I'm pretty sure that the file was corrupted by inserting a corrupt title block. That would make sense because the title block file also displays the "proxy state" error message I mentioned, and all my backup drawings from before I inserted the title block are fine.

I've now rebuilt the drawing from a combination of backup files and components copied from the partially recovered file, so, though not ideal, the issue is "resolved".

Thanks for the reply.

I get a message saying, "This drawing was created with a newer version of Civil 3D. All entities created by Civil 3D within the drawing are in a proxy state. Additionally, all commands, settings, and displays of Civil 3D are disabled for this drawing."

 

Is there anyway for me to get my drawing back?

This is your clue. You need to recover the drawing in the version that it was created in, or a later one. This could be why you are missing your Civil stuff.

You need to recover the drawing in the version that it was created in, or a later one.

The interesting thing is that I both created and recovered the drawing within Civil 3D 2008, on the same computer. So, it seems that the message about being created in a newer version is just a byproduct of the RECOVER/AUDIT process.

Another interesting thing is that a friend was able to open the un-recovered drawing in AutoCAD Mechanical 2013 without a fatal error. It showed some of the civil stuff, but not all of it, so maybe a newer version of Civil 3D would be able to open the drawing correctly.

Was this created entirely from scratch without inserting (with any method) anything (It doesn't have to be a C3D object, text, line, literally anything.) that could have been created in a newer version?

I think it's unlikely, given that all the machines in the office are running Civil 3D 2008, but it's possible that the title block I inserted originated in a newer version-maybe downloaded from the city. I used the title block from another drawing, and that title block file also displayed the message about newer versions & proxy states.

The title block is probably the source of the newer objects. Convert it using Drawing True View available free from AutoDesk. I have no idea how it would be effecting your model space stuff unless it is overwriting the definitions.

At this point it's kind of an academic issue, since I've already rebuilt the work I lost. Also, since the title block is already inserted into the drawing, I don't know of a way to remove it without opening the drawing, which is impossible due to the fatal error.

Thanks for taking the time to look into this. I appreciate it.