failed to save? not on my watch!
November 25, 2009 4 Comments
So how many of you have ever seen the dreaded “Failed to save document” message like the one on the left? Usually this warning appears after you have spent ALL day working on an uber complicated assembly and there you sit, right?
Well, I think I have found a way to not lose all of the work you put into that assembly since your last save. Here are the steps to save yourself from the wrath of you boss when you have to explain to him that the last how many hours have been lost on that hot project you are working on.
- Do a “Save As” of the assembly with a different name inside the same folder as the original assembly.
- Close all SolidWorks files, saving what you can.
- Delete the original assembly (take note of the EXACT file name).
- Using Windows Rename, rename the new assembly to the file name of the original assembly.
- Open assembly and you should be where you left off.
This method especially works well when you have in-context relations in that assembly. By renaming the newly created assembly to the name of the original you will regain all of your in-context relations.
I hope this works for you as well as it worked for me.
Image courtesy of SolidSmack.





I’ve had to do this recently on a couple of drawings…
Activating and rebuilding all the configurations in the offending assembly will also workaround this nasty message.
“Do a “Save As” of the assembly with a different name inside the same folder as the original assembly.”
This doesn’t always work as even “Save as copy” yields the same error.
Jason: Did you get this with SW2010. I hope not. I had hoped this type of error was resolved. I know the trick before was to change/add configurations. Must keep your tip in mind. Thanks.