DWG Recovery Toolbox - User Manual

DWG Recovery Toolbox (download) has an extremely simple interface, ruling out the possibility of errors. You do not need special knowledge or experience to recover corrupted AutoCAD DWG files. Simply follow the instructions on the screen. Although DWG Recovery Toolbox is easy to use, you will be able to handle the program more effectively if you read this manual. Read the manual before contacting the technical support service.

If a DWG file is corrupted too seriously for DWG Recovery Toolbox to recover the data automatically, click the Send source file button in its window or select the relevant item from the main menu. This feature allows e-mailing the source file to the program's developers. The developers will try to recover the corrupted DWG file manually and will contact you if they succeed.

Note: you do not have to have the AutoCAD software package installed on the computer in order to analyze the source DWG file and preview the recovered data. AutoCAD is required only in the final recovery step when the tool exports the recovered data to the AutoCAD environment.

Recovering DWG files

Step 1. Selecting the corrupted DWG file

In the first step of the recovery process, you specify the name of the file to be recovered. There are several ways to do this:

• Enter the name of the corrupted DWG file and the path to it in the field in the center of the window
• Open the standard Windows Select File dialog box by clicking the button to the right of the file name input field
• Select a previously recovered file from the drop-down list by clicking the button at the end of the file name input field.

After you enter the file name, click the Analyze button at the bottom of the window to move to the next step.

You can reduce the time needed to analyze the source file, if you manually specify the version of the DWG file. This is done by using the relevant item on the DWG Version menu. The following options are available on this menu in the current version of DWG Recovery Toolbox:

• R2000 - used in AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD 2000i, AutoCAD 2002
• R2004 - used in AutoCAD 2004, AutoCAD 2005, AutoCAD 2006
• R2007 - used in AutoCAD 2007, AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD 2009
• R2010 - used in AutoCAD 2010, AutoCAD 2011

By default, the program uses the Auto Detect option.

Step 2. Analyzing the file

In this step, the program analyzes the structure of the corrupted source file and tries to identify the elements and objects stored in the file. The time it takes to analyze the file depends on the size of the source file and the performance of your computer.

No menu items are available in this step. You can interrupt the analysis and go back to Step 1 (click the Cancel button) or exit the program by clicking the Exit button.

Step 3. Viewing the recovered data

When analysis of the corrupted DWG file is complete, you can view the data recovered from the file right in the program. DWG Recovery Toolbox allows you to move, rotate, or zoom the recovered project using the mouse and keyboard.

Buttons and key combinations used to control the image:

• Press and hold down the left mouse button to move, rotate, or zoom the drawing depending on the mode selected.
• Right click to open the context menu where you can select the mode: Move, Rotate, or Zoom.
• The (+) and (-) buttons are used for quick zoom.
• The mouse wheel is used to quickly zoom the drawing.

The View menu contains two additional items:

• Reset view - go back to the initial image parameters
• Line weights - Enable/disable line weight display.

Click the Start recovery button to move to the next step.

Step 4. Selecting the installed version of AutoCAD to which the recovered data will be exported

DWG Recovery Toolbox does not save the recovered information to new DWG files. The program sends the recovered data directly to AutoCAD instead. This requires you to have AutoCAD installed on the computer where you are restoring the data. If no version of AutoCAD is installed on the computer, you will see the following warning.

If several versions of AutoCAD are installed on the computer, the program will ask you to select the version of AutoCAD to which the data will be exported.

It is not mandatory to use the same version of AutoCAD in which the source file was created. However, note that exporting data from a DWG file to an earlier version of AutoCAD can result in the loss of some properties and attributes of the objects. For example, you cannot export a 32-bit true color value created in AutoCAD 2004 to AutoCAD 2000, because the original value will be lost and replaced by a close value.

As soon as you have selected a version of AutoCAD, click the Next button. The program will try to start AutoCAD and export data to it. If this attempt is unsuccessful for some reason, you will receive an error warning and the program will offer the opportunity to choose another version of AutoCAD for exporting the recovered data.

If you have only one version of AutoCAD installed, the program will suggest that you check if it is working correctly.

Step 5. Exporting the recovered DWG data

If the tool starts AutoCAD and connects to it, it will immediately start exporting the recovered data to AutoCAD. You will see the AutoCAD window on your computer. We strongly recommend that you NOT CLOSE, MINIMIZE, MAXIMIZE, OR DO ANYTHING ELSE WITH AUTOCAD during the entire data export process. You can see how the objects are drawn in the AutoCAD window and you can see the export progress on the progress bar in DWG Recovery Toolbox.

Step 6. Log file

In the final step, the program will display the final statistics on the source file recovery, as well as any errors that occurred during recovery of the DWG file.

In this step, you can exit the program by clicking the Finish button or you can go back to selecting a source file for recovery by clicking the Back button.

Possible initialization errors

The program initializes the graphics subsystem to display the recovered objects on the computer screen. If the program fails to start the graphics subsystem or any errors occur during the process, you will see an error message. In this case, you should update your video card driver.

Another error may occur when the program sends the corrupted DWG file to the developers directly from the program.

To fix this problem, make sure that there is a mail client installed on the computer and check if the installed mail client is configured correctly.

Note: the program can only recover files of the AutoCAD version 15 (AutoCAD 2000) and higher. The program does not recover AutoCAD data files of earlier versions.