Models disappearing permanently after hiding them

has anyone experienced loosing parts of a model after hiding them ?
Ive been working on a project for months, hiding and unhiding parts as I go, I opened it yesterday and the unhide feature did nothing. tried the usual and then noticed the file size is only a few kb - so its not just hidden, its gone. thx

im on 2020 Pro, Mac book pro, Catalina

I haven’t experienced it myself but I have seen cases where others have inadvertently hit Erase instead of Hide in the Context menu. Could that be what happened in your case?
Screenshot - 4_26_2021 , 7_18_02 AM

Unfortunately if you were erasing groups or loose geometry, those things would be gone. With components you would still have them In Model and could bring them back out from the Components panel. Generally using tags assigned to objects (groups and components) to control visibility is a better and safer option.

What does Outliner look like for that model?

Please update your forum profile with that info.

Turn on View->Hidden Geometry and View->Hidden Objects. If none of the missing things appear, they are gone, alas!

Indeed, I dont use the context menu for that reason. (ive had that happen as well)
thank you for your response.
updating profile . .

hmm, yea its all gone - except the last part that wasn’t hidden.
(deep sigh)

thank you

So nothing in the Outliner?

No backup file (the one with the tilde)?

Increasingly, I use the newly available visibility control in Outliner to hide specific Groups/Components when modelling.

Yes. That’s good although it is still just hiding. And it’s actually been available since Outliner was introduced. They just made it easier and safer to use.

True, but I think your point was that using the menu Hide option is dangerous because it is right next to the Erase option.

Aren’t there a few extensions out there that will remove hidden geometry from your model?

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Yes. That was my point.

no, just what’s left.

no, unfortunately

Well, that’s a bummer. As Aaron suggested, there are extensions that will erase hidden geometry. Were you hiding objects or geometry?

Time Machine?

I usually use CTRL + ALT + WHISKEY for this situation. It can help a bit.

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Do you find that doing it twice helps?

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Yes, however several entries of that combination can cause your system to enter the black screen of forgetfulness.

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Or a spinning kaleidoscope of beachball colours - if you’re on a Mac.

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