My Schematic is gone!  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2015, 08:22:11 pm
content: Hello people in here =)I was just working on a project in Altium Designer 2009 as one of my schematics in that project vanished.Thats what I exactly did: I closed Altium to move my project files into an other location/folder. As I opened them again in Altium, one of the schematic documents was completly empty. All the placed components are gone.Does anyone know about that bug (?)? And what I could do now to get the schematic back?Kind regards and thank you,Patrick

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 22, 2015, 08:49:22 pm
content: that's not a bug. user error. you NEVER modify the folder contents of an altium project. you need to do that from within altium. you broke the relational links for the project.Most likely that schematic file was not stored in the project directory but somewhere else. by moving the project the relational link is now broken. if you move documents from within altium the software can keep track where everything isto solve : move the data back to where it was and reopen the project. most likely the schematic will come back. then right click that sheet name in altium and do a save-as and find out where it is stored. fix that path.

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 08:36:53 am
content: Thank you for your reply!I tried this already, but it did not wirk out.I think I explained myself a littel wrong:All the files (.SchDoc(s), .PrjPCB, .PcbDoc, .PcbLib) were always saved in the same folder within Altium.I moved all those files with Windows Explorer into an other location and opened the .PrjPCB from there.The .SchDoc that I am referring to is not deleted. Its size is 395kB but when I open it (with the .PrjPCB or alone), it shows up as an empty schematic doc in Altium. Even when I update the PCB I do not get a room for this schematic sheet and no components from it.

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 09:10:52 am
content: Quote from: Maister on January 23, 2015, 08:36:53 amNever use Win Explorer for Altium file management.Use File/Save As/ select location.Best to do this as you create/start your PCB Project, then it becomes the default location for the whole project.Sorry for your loss, I hope others have the tricks to help you.

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 10:04:06 am
content: ok. thank you.I will do so in the future

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 10:48:53 am
content: But I don't really get it, because in the company I work for, we are always sending Altium schematic docs via email around. I never had this failure there before.

author: Maister
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 11:25:26 am
content: I just discovered that there is a folder called "History" in my project folder. Thankfully there are many .zip archives with all the versions of all the schematic files in it.So I got the latest working version of that particular schematic back now.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 23, 2015, 05:35:40 pm
content: Quote from: Maister on January 23, 2015, 10:48:53 amwith single docs that trick works as there is no prjpcb so altium treats is as a 'free document'you have the reverse problem. you open a prjpcb but one of the links in it is invalid as you moved that file outside altium so altium cannot find it. altium does not scan the windows file system. it looks in the prjpcb to find the pathyou can edit theis prjpcb file. it is ascii text.that may give you a clue where the file should be.

author: jbryan2
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 24, 2015, 02:50:00 am
content: Quote from: Maister on January 23, 2015, 11:25:26 amOpinions to the contrary notwithstanding, I believe that it really is a bug. I'm still using Summer 09 and I've seen it a couple of times, and the History folder is what I was going to suggest.I'm about to pull the trigger and jump back in to Designer 15. I just installed the two-week trial version yesterday. It's been interesting to read some of the Altium commentary here.