Lost Data

[Anonymous]

I don't know if there is any help to be had since my problem looks pretty terminal. All my data simply disappeared from the screen in front of me and the storeys reverted to the default set. On reopening the file, nothing had changed and no sign of the data.

The file itself, which was 3.6M is now 1016Kb, so as I say, it looks bad.

I have been duplicating files every so often, and the .bpn file—not that I understand the role of that file—indicated that it had last saved 6 hours previously. I've lost 6 hours of work, but what the heck could have caused this? I have been using complex profiles extensively over the last month but nothing like this has happened before.

I am using v10 on a 17" MacBook Pro with OS 10.4.9

Great Forum....

[Dwight]

Not much to be said except condolences.

This is catastrophic. I hope you can figure it our before it happens again.

Perhaps you should lock the cat in another room just in case.

In future, use the .bpn (backup plan) file to recover from corruption of your main .pln. Consider making a backup every few steps. See the AutoSave settings for how Archicad can be set to do this automatically.

It is also a good practice to make a copy of the file at the end of each day. This is your REVERT strategy and a decision making archive of sorts. You might keep the last five days this way.

Working from a laptop is also risky unless it is chained to your seat at the coffee shop. So you should consider backing up to a remote volume as well.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dwight for the thought. It was a sobering experience. Makes you kinda insecure though! But maybe that's a good thing anyway.

PS. I will remember about the cat.

[Anonymous]

One more thing. At a certain point in the development of this file, for no particular reason I can place, it seemed like all of a sudden that when performing operations like new sections or rebuilding the 3D window, the processor really cranks up and puts the fans on. Any idea on the cause of such activity?

[Laszlo Nagy]

alroma wrote:
One more thing. At a certain point in the development of this file, for no particular reason I can place, it seemed like all of a sudden that when performing operations like new sections or rebuilding the 3D window, the processor really cranks up and puts the fans on. Any idea on the cause of such activity?

The fans usually turn up when there is heat to be taken off.
There is heat when the processor works hard.
The processor probably works hard because there is model data to be generated so it starts running at or near 100%.

[Anonymous]

Lazlo,

Thanks for taking an interest. I kinda understood the physical reason for it, certainly from the point of view of the computer. I realise, too, that the model data is ramping up as well. I was not specific enough in what I said, I think, as what I was meaning to get at was the fact that it seemed to happen all of a sudden, as if something had changed in the file, something corrupted that is, and that this could be a cause. (I also lost all the data from said file and it reverted to a default file, so something was wrong with it.) I just want to understand all this stuff.

So, generally, should I be surprised that sections and the like are taking finger tapping time to generate? My problem is that this is my very first model in ArchiCAD (in 20 years, that is) and I have nothing to compare with. The model itself is a single house. The only other details I can supply is that it is stuffed with composite sections, complex profiles and SEO operations!

Actually, there is one more thing, which is that on one of the SEO's, which is into a composite floor to take walls down to the slab, a plane of colour shoots out to join nodes together, which of course should not happen, but which annoys and intrigues all at the same time!

[Laszlo Nagy]

alroma wrote:
Lazlo,

Thanks for taking an interest. I kinda understood the physical reason for it, certainly from the point of view of the computer. I realise, too, that the model data is ramping up as well. I was not specific enough in what I said, I think, as what I was meaning to get at was the fact that it seemed to happen all of a sudden, as if something had changed in the file, something corrupted that is, and that this could be a cause. (I also lost all the data from said file and it reverted to a default file, so something was wrong with it.) I just want to understand all this stuff.

So, generally, should I be surprised that sections and the like are taking finger tapping time to generate? My problem is that this is my very first model in ArchiCAD (in 20 years, that is) and I have nothing to compare with. The model itself is a single house. The only other details I can supply is that it is stuffed with composite sections, complex profiles and SEO operations!

Yes, 3D Window Sections/Elevations and Photorendering all take much more time then regenerating a Floor Plan. In case of each of these it may take considerable time to generate the 3d model (even minutes of larger or more complicated projects). The Open GL capabilities of the graphics card count only when the 3D model is actually generated and you navigate in the 3D Window. So that is completely normal.

Actually, there is one more thing, which is that on one of the SEO's, which is into a composite floor to take walls down to the slab, a plane of colour shoots out to join nodes together, which of course should not happen, but which annoys and intrigues all at the same time!

I would have to see a screen shot of this because I do not quite get it at the moment.

[Anonymous]

Hi Lazslo,

Thanks for coming back once again. I have not seen my problem appear in my model for a while, so I did not have an image for you to see. But it's back! Here it is. You can see how that the floor appears to break the elevation and take a short cut across the internal angles. (It also fills in a gallery inside the entrance hall.)

If you rotate in 3D, it will disappear when viewing it from below.

If I dump the SEO and redo it I can restore the model but that's a pain.

Regards,
Alec Macleod

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MacBook Pro running 10.4.9 and ArchiCAD 10