Recovering a corrupted LDD file

[Zerobricks]

No idea what happened, but I can't open or import the following file. There should be only around 2000 peices, so the size is not the issue here.

https://www.bricksafe.com/files/Zblj/Lego digital designer models/Wildcat V3.lxf

Any help would be appreciated.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Zerobricks

[Calabar]

The file is corrupted. It happens, sometimes, when using LDD (and that's why my suggestion is to make a backup copy periodically).

I tried to resume it using an hex editor but it seems the damage is too heavy, so I was not able to obtain any good result.
Maybe somebody else will have more luck!

[Zerobricks]

Thank you for trying, mate! Funny enough 3 out of 4 files in the same folder ae corrupted.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Zerobricks

[Calabar]

You're welcome.

If the corruption is not due to some kind of error produced by LDD when saving the model, well... maybe it is time to check your disk! 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Calabar

[roland]

I tried some of my tricks from this thread:

But the file seems to be far more corrupt, I don't think it's even part of a zip just random stuff.

 

[Calabar]

It is not a bad hypothesis. Inside the file I was not able to find common references I usually find in lxf files.
Besides I found large areas of "zero" inside the file. I tried to replace as much as parts seems legit to do but without good results.
Unfortunately this time the file seems to be too much corrupted.

[MatthewRC]

This is why I've decided to switch to BrickLink's Stud.io, in case of corrupt data in the LDD program itself.

[SylvainLS]

54 minutes ago, MatthewRC said:

This is why I've decided to switch to BrickLink's Stud.io, in case of corrupt data in the LDD program itself.

I fail to see Studio’s advantages on that point.  Au contraire:

• LDD: ZIP archive of a picture and a readable, convertible, XML text data.
• Studio: Password protected ZIP archive of modified, undocumented, LDraw files.

If your models are corrupted, tough luck with any program, tougher luck with Studio as you can’t try and salvage anything if you don’t know the password.

If your program is corrupted (or if you can’t install or run it on your new computer), you can at least read your LXF files with other tools.  The only thing Studio has, for now, is that you can still download recent versions.

 

[MatthewRC]

1 hour ago, SylvainLS said:

I fail to see Studio’s advantages on that point.  Au contraire:

• LDD: ZIP archive of a picture and a readable, convertible, XML text data.
• Studio: Password protected ZIP archive of modified, undocumented, LDraw files.

If your models are corrupted, tough luck with any program, tougher luck with Studio as you can’t try and salvage anything if you don’t know the password.

If your program is corrupted (or if you can’t install or run it on your new computer), you can at least read your LXF files with other tools.  The only thing Studio has, for now, is that you can still download recent versions.

 

So far, Studio hasn’t had any corrupt data on my computer. I’m still good.

[SylvainLS]

“So far, so good,” says the guy falling from the 30th story while passing the 10th.

Not saying that Studio will “corrupt your data” but that there’s no difference with any other program.

Version control and backups will certainly help better than “oh it’s shiny new and didn’t bite me in the rear yet.”

 

[M2m]

On 7/4/2019 at 1:04 PM, Zerobricks said:

Thank you for trying, mate! Funny enough 3 out of 4 files in the same folder ae corrupted.

I guess then your computer should be also checked for if RAM and/or HDD working correctly. I have used LDD quite a lot and (knock on wood) so far didn’t have any corruptions. But I also tend to create multiple (sequential) versions of files (not only LDD - but also Excel, Word, ...).