No 3d view showing up

[Anonymous]

Good day all,
I am new to ArchiCAD. We switched over from a basic 2d software.

I am having difficulty with the program. We run a small architecture office and are using ArchiCAD 12 on a windows XP platform. Every once in a while the program either freezes up or it just crashes on me. This is happening about once every 2 months. When i recover the file or open the latest auto save file it seems to open fine but the 3d window does not work properly. Any views that I have created does not show up any more. It starts loading and saying its rebuilding but comes up all white. There is nothing in the view to select or change.
Things that I have tried:
*Selecting all in the perspective view but nothing gets selected.
*Zoom extents in the perspective view but nothing shows up.
*Recalibrate some settings of views but still nothing shows up or is able to be selected.
*I have cleared the preferences as what was reccomended by Graphisoft but this seems not to work. Here is the link of the steps I followed. http://www.graphisoftsupport.com/support/Clearing-out-preferences/caches-on-Mac-OS-X-Windows-Vista-a...

I am not sure if there is a way to recover other data but the project is about 80% CD's and we utilize 3d images on our drawings so this is a big issue. This also makes it so that I can not do finished rendered images. I can use some advice. This is taking up way to much time and becoming very expensive. Any thoughts

[Erika Epstein]

-Do you have a mesh with lots of flat surfaces? this was supposed to have been fixed, but you might try adding even a slight slope.

-Do you have a mesh with umpteen SEOs? Try replacing the mesh. Another work-around is to have some of the SEO operations done with elements that are then left [hidden] on the SEO layer as they must stay in the file. And/or use a roof to trim when possible.

Others should have additional suggestions.
Can you post a screenshot of your project?

[Anonymous]

It sounds like the file has got corrupted if you have lost all the views. You may have some luck merging the data into a blank file, but I believe you will have to recreate the views anyway using this method. You should probably get in contact with your reseller and see if they can recover the file for you.

See these links for further advice -

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=127447
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=103786
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=11241

This problem just happens sometimes. It won't help solve the problem, but a decent backup system and a daily 'Save-as' with todays date will help prevent the disruption that this causes.

[Anonymous]

So the project is pretty simple. Its a small condo renovation. The overall file size of the pln file is only 10megs. I have not made any meshes but I did import some dwg files for some 3dpeople. (the lack of good 3d figures is a whole other issue) Not sure if that could create problems. I removed all the people that I imported in to a library and the perspectives still have not shown up. I am not sure what the screenshots will do but you can see that the prjoect is pretty simple. The screen shot is only 3/4 of the poject but it will give you a sense of the complexity of the project. [/img]

[Erika Epstein]

tj?
please add your name ac version and platform specs etc. to your profile.

Rather basic, but are you sure your saved view is looking at the model?
Did tech support actually open your model?
Do you have the error messages set to show? If not, try turning them on. There may be a problem with some part and the error messages would help alert you and give you the ID of the part(s).
Options>Work Environment>User Preference Schemes> Imaging and calculations> Interrupt with error messages

HTH

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for your comments so far.
They have been helpful if nothing else to verify that it was not an error on my part. Tech Support is currently looking at the file, I am waiting for a response and keep people informed.

I understand that merging the file into a clean document is a viable option. That option is not great because it takes a substantial amount of time to reconfigure all views that you may be working on.

Has anyone come up with a better way to export the entire project into a fresh drawing (including views). The solution for merging the drawing into a new clean file is a good start but the time and effort that this would take to recreate the views is monumental.

[Eduardo Rolon]

This is an old tip that might work to clean the file, I think I discovered it with AC09. Obviously make copies of the file before trying.


forward+merge

[Dukatas]

Try saving an archive (.pla) file of your project to preserve your views etc. Then open your archive and save that as a .pln file. Generally that works well for corrupted files.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all again for trying to assist me.

Quick update:
The file was semi-fixed by ArchiCAD when it recovered the file from when it crashed. The problem that is still happening is that all the perspective view cameras have gone all wonky.
I have tried all the ideas that people have suggested and none of it worked to fix the views, i do appreciate that assistance. I found out today that the perspectives is still there,but the camera has totally gone off the charts. Even in the saved views the camera has moved. Graphisoft is still trying to figure out why this has happened, but in the mean time it looks like once you find your model you have to recreate all the views that you have made, which in my case is a lot.

To find my model I had to utilize both the navigator preview and the 3D projection settings under View/ 3D view mode/ 3D projection settings. In the 3d projection settings i had to located the camera which can be difficult but click around the area the only two items you can adjust is the sun and the camera. from there i had to realign the camera in the navigator preview. Once again this is not a fix but a way to find your model.

I just hope that this helps someone else and know that you are not the only one. I will post when I hear from Grapisoft, but it is a slow process. Working on this one since November.