Repair or recover damaged AutoCAD files

Follow these six steps to repair a damaged AutoCAD file.

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How do I recover an AutoCAD auto-save file?

"Alright, here's the situation. Yesterday, I finally finished a bridge blueprint with exact measurements. I distinctly remember saving it securely on my computer. However, this morning, when I wanted to show my .dwg file to my colleague, it wasn't in the folder where I usually save my AutoCAD drawings. How can I recover a lost .dwg file in AutoCAD?"

Losing long-drawn diagrams in AutoCAD due to either not saving or corruption of the CAD .dwg file on your computer is not a new problem. If you have encountered a similar issue, such as losing your AutoCAD files or having a corrupted CAD file on your PC, don't worry.

Here, you will find a reliable and effective method to recover lost CAD files, and learn how to repair corrupted .dwg files.

Part 1: Recovering Lost or Unsaved AutoCAD Files

When you accidentally delete a CAD file or your .DWG files stop working or opening in your drawing application, don't panic. You still have a chance to get them back. In this section, we'll provide you with three methods to recover lost or corrupted AutoCAD files:

Method 1: Recover Lost AutoCAD Files with File Recovery Software

If you accidentally delete or lose your locally saved AutoCAD files from your computer, check the Recycle Bin first to see if you can restore the lost .DWG files.

If not, a wiser option for you is to turn to professional data recovery wizard tool for help. Here we recommend you try Data Recovery Wizard, which allows you to completely scan your computer hard drive and find lost files in 3 simple steps:

Step 1. Run the Data Recovery Wizard. Select the drive where you lost your files and start the scan. This software lets you recover lost data from all devices, including HDD, SSD, USB drives, SD cards, flash drives, cameras, and more.

Select the location to scan

Step 2: Preview the scan results. You can click the file type filter and choose the file types you need. tools Data Recovery Wizard supports 1000+ file types, such as photos, videos, documents, emails, audio files, etc.

Step 3: Select the files you want to preview. Click “Recover” and set a location to save the recovered data.

Method 2: Recover Lost CAD Files from Backup – .BAK Files

When you lose your saved or edited CAD files, you can also go to the CAD folder on your PC and try the following steps to recover your lost CAD file from its .bak file:

Step 1: Navigate to the local folder where your CAD file is saved and look for the backup file with the .bak extension.

Step 2. Copy and paste the .bak file into that folder, and then rename the copied file by changing the extension from .bak to .dwg. Press Enter to continue.

Step 3. Click “Yes” to confirm the conversion of the .bak file to .dwg. You can then double-click the DWG CAD file in AutoCAD.

That's where you'll find any drawings you've lost or failed to save, and you can save them to your computer from there.

If you have AutoSave turned on in AutoCAD and you've lost half a drawing that you didn't save, try this.

Method 3: Recover an Unsaved CAD File from an Auto-Save

If you have AutoSave enabled in AutoCAD, congratulations – you can easily recover unsaved drawings in case the program crashes or the file gets closed without saving. Here's a step-by-step guide to recovering unsaved AutoCAD files:

Step 1. Open AutoCAD and click on the icon in the toolbar, then select “Options.”

Step 2. Go to the "File" tab, expand "AutoRecover file location," and see where your AutoSave files are located.

Auto-saved files are usually located at the following path: C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp.

Step 3: Copy the path to the AutoRecover folder, paste it into File Explorer, and press Enter to open the AutoRecover folder.

Step 4. If you don't see the AutoRecover file, show hidden file extensions by going to File Explorer > View > unchecking “Hide extensions for known file types” > OK.

5. Locate the AutoCAD temporary .sv$ file, copy it, and then rename the copied file by changing the .sv$ extension to .dwg. Press Enter to confirm.

Step 6: You can then double-click the DWG file to open it in AutoCAD.

You can continue painting, or save it to another secure drive on your computer.

Part 2: Repairing Corrupted AutoCAD Files That Won't Open or Work Properly

If the recovered files cannot be opened or used in the Drawing Manager, do not worry; you can find a solution in this section.

Method 1: Repair Corrupted or Non-Working CAD Files Using a Drawing Utility

If you receive the “Drawing file is invalid” error when trying to open a CAD file, try these tips to resolve the issue:

The “Recover” command lets you restore your AutoCAD files directly in case they get deleted or lost. Here are the detailed steps.

Step 1: Open the corrupted DWG file in AutoCAD and click on the Tools tab > Drawing Utilities > Recover.

The Recover option automatically repairs damaged drawing files.

Step 2: Once the repair process is complete, check the repaired CAD file. If it looks fine, save it back to your local disk.

If the “Restore” option doesn't work, proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Repeat this to launch the Drawing Utility and select Audit.

Step 4: In the Command Prompt window, select “Yes” to run the command and fix errors on your local disk.

Then wait for the auditing process to complete. This command repairs all checked errors in the disk and in the AutoCAD program.

This way, you can check the corrupted AutoCAD file within the AutoCAD application and continue working with it.

Method 2: Run the RECOVER command to fix the damaged DWG AutoCAD file

Step 1: Open a blank DWG, and then run the RECOVER command > select the problematic file. AutoCAD attempts to recover the file and open it.

Step 2. Open a blank DRW file, and run the RECOVERALL command > select the problem file. AutoCAD attempts to recover the file and open it.

3. Open a blank DWG and try to INSERT > select the problematic file, and see if it can be inserted that way.

If not, explode the blocks by running the EXPLODE command. Then run AUDIT and PURGE. Save the file as a new DWG.

4. Go to C:\Windows\Temp, and look for a file with the .SV$ extension. If you find a file with a similar name as your damaged .dwg file, rename it to .dwg and check if you can open it.

Step 5: Try to open the damaged drawing with DWG TrueView.

If possible, save the drawing in an earlier DRW version, and then try to open it again.

Method 3: Repair Corrupted .dwg Files That Open But Are Unresponsive

Step 1: Open the damaged .DWG file and type -PURGE on the command line, then press Enter.

Step 2. Type R and press Enter.

Step 3: Type N and press [Enter].

Step 4: Type PURGE and check all the options & click Purge All.

Step 5: Type AUDIT and press Y to fix all errors, then press Enter.

Alternatively, you can try the following solutions to fix the corrupted CAD file issue:

Step 1: Open the damaged .dwg file and start a new drawing.

Step 2 In the damaged drawing, press CTRL+A and then CTRL+SHIFT+C. The origin is 0,0,0.

Step 3: Paste (CTRL+V) into the new drawing and insert at 0,0,0.

Step 4: Save the new image.

After that, you should be able to use your corrupted CAD file again.

Additional tip: Ways to back up and protect your AutoCAD files

In addition to recovering lost or corrupted AutoCAD files, we recommend that you implement a backup plan to protect your valuable CAD drawings.

Here are some practical tips to help you back up your AutoCAD files on your own:

# 1. Enable Auto-Save in AutoCAD

Step 1: Click on the AutoCAD icon in the toolbar and select “Options.”

Step two: Go to the Options window's “Open and Save” tab, check the “AutoRecover” box, and set how often you want it to save (every 15 minutes, say).

Click “Apply” to confirm.

Step 3: Click OK to enable the AutoSave feature in AutoCAD and save all changes.

Now, when you accidentally close AutoCAD without saving or lose your DWG file, you can go back to the first part's Step 3 to recover your lost or unsaved drawing.

# 2. Run the file backup software to automatically back up saved CAD files

For CAD files saved on your local PC, we also recommend backing them up regularly. You can do this manually by copying them to an external hard drive, or use a feature-rich file backup software with scheduling options to ensure comprehensive protection of these CAD files.

Here, you can try using Todo Backup for a simple file backup process. It allows you to create scheduled backup plans, automatically backing up your needed CAD files and other valuable data on the computer with just a few clicks.

Step 1: If you're backing up your files for the first time with Todo Backup, click Create Backup on the main screen and then hit the big question mark button to Select backup content.

Step 2. Since you're backing up files and folders from your computer, choose the "Files" backup mode. You can select photos, videos, documents, and other types of files to back up here.

Step 3: Browse and select the files, folders, or directories you wish to back up, then click "OK".

Step 4: You will now need to select a backup location to save and keep your backups.

Step 5: Todo Backup allows users to save backup files to any convenient device, such as a local hard drive, external USB drive, SD card, network drive, or NAS drive, as well as to the vendor's cloud drive. We recommend saving important backups to a cloud drive for easier, more flexible, and secure access.

To access the Tools cloud, you need to register with an email account and log in.

Upload backup files to the cloud

Step 6: If you're interested in automatic and smart backup schedules for your next file backup task, proceed with the "Options" settings. Here, you can encrypt your sensitive file backups, compress backup image sizes, or customize a backup schedule to tell the software when to start the backup next time.

Create an advanced and automated backup task right here: