How to Recover a Corrupt Part File

Error message, “An error was encountered while trying to open your file. Contact Technical Support for a possible solution”, indicates the SOLIDWORKS file is corrupt. An image of the error message is seen below.

If a user finds the SOLIDWORKS part file is corrupt, then steps can be taken to recover the geometry of the part file. This article describes how to recover the solid data of a corrupt file.

Determine Whether or Not the File is Recoverable

This section of the article is only viable for SOLIDWORKS versions 2014 and earlier. However, skip to the next section for versions 2017 and earlier. Users can determine whether or not a part file is recoverable by using the 7-Zip. 7-Zip is an open source utility program to help extract and create compressed files in several different formats that can be downloaded from the following link. http://www.7-zip.org/

7-Zip File Manager can be used to open a SOLIDWORKS part file that returns error message, “An error was encountered while trying to open your file. Contact Technical Support for a possible solution”, within SOLIDWORKS. To open the SOLIDWORKS part file in 7-Zip File Manager, browse to and select the part file. Then go to File>Open Inside within 7-Zip File Manager.

Once the SOLIDWORKS part file is opened within 7-Zip File Manager, there are two outcomes. We can either discover folders listed within the 7-Zip File Manager or the file will not open.

If the file does not open within the 7-Zip File Manager, then the SOLIDWORKS part file is not recoverable.

However, if folders are listed within the 7-Zip File Manager, as seen below, then the SOLIDWORKS part file is recoverable, using the instructions in the next section.

Recover a Corrupt Part File

The corruption of a part cannot be removed quickly from an existing part. However, there is a quick method to recover the solid body data of a model and allows users to keep working on an existing body.

Open the corrupted part in the previous service pack 5 version of SOLIDWORKS. If the image of the body is shown, then save the file as a parasolid(*.x_t) file. Open the imported body into the current version of SOLIDWORKS. 

For further assistance, please contact our HawkSupport team at 877-266-4469(US) or 866-587-6803(Canada) and support@hawkridgesys.com.