Hi Everyone,
I recently bought a new desktop PC system and in transitioning my files from my laptop I have found that I can’t open a Layout file. I get “Error reading LayOut file…”.
I am still able to open the file without issue on my laptop, so I saved it directly to a USB stick and tried to transfer to my desktop directly that way - no dice.
Am I missing something?
I can’t figure out how to compress the file to share here either.
Thanks,
JG
It sounds like the file is being corrupted in the process of copying to or from the USB stick.
Where have the references for the file been saved?
You might try collecting all the references and the LayOut file into a common folder and then copy the entire folder to the USB drive and then to the new computer. Another thing to try is uploading that folder to DropBox and then downloading it from there to your new computer.
When you installed SketchUp and LayOut did you do it correctly? That is, did you right click on the installer and choose Run as administrator?
Hi Dave,
Yes, I ran the setup as Admin, but there is a good chance I missed something. I will try to figure out the reference files, but I feel out of my depth. All of the reference files for this project are on the new PC, but I’m not sure how to arrange them so the LO file will recognize where they are. How do I go about doing this from the laptop?
You could try repairing the installation. Close SketchUp and LayOut, find the installer in Downloads, right click on it, choose Run as administrator, and choose the Repair option when it is presented.
Open Document Setup>References. This shows the paths to the references used in the LO project. Here is an example from a project of mine. The spreadsheet and SketchUp reference are in the folder with the LO file so there front part of the path is truncated. The logo image is embedded in the template file so its path is currently to the temp folder created when the LO file opens.
My suggestion is that you should create a folder specific to the project and keep all references related to that project in the folder along with the LO file itself. This makes it easier to “transport” the project because you “take” the entire folder. If you are working between machines this will make it less likely that you will create two different versions of what ought to be a single version of the project.
FWIW, do not work on files saved directly to USB, cloud, or other external storage. Always copy the files to the internal drive before opening them.
And with your new computer make sure that you aren’t actually saving directly to One Drive. Commonly, Windows out of the box sets up save locations on One Drive but a quick glance will lead you to think those locations are local.
Thanks again Dave! You always seem to be first out of the gate to come to our aid!
I never save to a stick, as a rule, but I do save to a file on my desktop which does show up in my One Drive. What is the issue there? Does this pose possible problems regarding the very issue I posted about? (sorry for the alliteration!)
I think I now understand how I should set things up going forward regarding the reference file locations in the same folder - I will try this after lunch!
You’re quite welcome.
We’ve seen a lot of cases in which files, especially SketchUp files become fatally corrupted when saved directly to One Drive or other cloud/server locations. It’s difficult to identify exactly what happens when the file becomes corrupted but evidently there’s a process that occurs sometimes during saves that results in the data or at least a large part of the data in the files being replaced with zeroes. When that happens there’s nothing left of these files to work from.
It is possible that something related to where the file exists is problematic. Might even be something fundamental like accessing the One Drive location taking too long.
I would make sure that you are saving to a truly internal drive location on your computer. If you want a copy of the file on One Drive, manually copy the folder from the internal location but never work directly with files saved to One Drive.
Enjoy your lunch and good luck.
BTW, for your SketchUp files also make sure they are saved internally, again, in a folder specific to the project. Also save a copy to your Trimble Connect storage as a backup.
