QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

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TreestumpExhaustpipe
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QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:08 am

This is disturbing.
After spending a day on a design, qcad just ate all my blocks and the block list is now empty.
All my layers are there, but all block shapes are gone.... ALL of them!
There is no way I could have deleted all blocks.

All I am left with that is intact is my construction line layer which were not blocked.
The orther layers are still there, but the blocks associated with them are gone.
This is sad and really takes all my trust in Qcad.
There is no way I could have done this. Completely impossible.

I noticed this on previous occasions last year but not at such a level of destruction.
Sometimes QCAD will just stop rendering some parts of my design or on rare occasions blocks would just disappear.
I then have to close it and restart and it will be back working.
seems like a bad memory leak.

This time though it is all gone with a good 14 hours of design down the tubes literally.

If there is any way how I can get blocks back let me know.
All my layers are still there, just all the blocks vanished.
There are just two default entries in the blocks window now, namely Model and Layout1
the DXF file on disk is now only 60kb size.

This is disturbing and means I now have to keep minute by minute backups with a CRON script !!

Does Qcad have a sequential backup feature, say backing up every minute and keeping an hour window of backups ?
Maybe it is done at a system level and I cannot access it normally.?
Would be nice to get my work back.

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Husky
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by Husky » Mon Feb 22, 2021 7:35 am

That sucks! However, here is what I think what happened ...
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:08 am
After spending a day on a design, qcad just ate all my blocks and the block list is now empty.
All my layers are there, but all block shapes are gone.... ALL of them!
There is no way I could have deleted all blocks.
First of all - working on a drawing for 14 hours without any manual triggered "Save" isn't recommended praxis. Not with a CAD program and not with any other program what is used to "produce" something. The golden rule is: Do it every time when it would annoy you to lose the accomplished status of your work. That can be every 2 minutes or every half hour or every 2 hours. BTW - I learned this rule on the hard way ....

Secondly. I work since many years with QCAD. QCAD has never deleted blocks or layer on it own. When that happened it was always something what I triggered. :oops:

Here is what I think what happened to your drawing: You designed a lot of blocks for your drawing. You got a nice "long" list in your block list. But you haven't used the blocks in your Model_Space or you used them and deleted them afterward for some reason. I'm right?
Then, accidentally, you hit "BP" (Purge unused blocks). That command will delete ALL unused blocks in one go. And it works quietly .... :wink:

In the case you noticed using the wrong shortcut then you can just use "Undo" and your blocks are back. If not, and you save then the drawing, the lost is unrecoverable.
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TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:08 am

Nope:

1) I saved at regular intervals. I ALAWAYS save periodically.
Where did I say I never saved my work ?
What I didnt do was to "save as" to a new file periodically. Surely you dont suggest that is default ?
Since there is , to me a serious problem with Blocks in Qcad, that is exactly what I will have to do now.
Every 5 minutes save to a new file. It is harsh and cumbersome, and definitely non-commercial, but I will keep my work at least.

2) The Blocks were all used and were referenced in my layers. No way out of this one. Each and every one was used.
There were no unused blocks. So this possibility is "not possible"

3) Undo didnt work as the file size automatically became a measly 60kb. No return.
It was just one destructive swoop of each and every block.

Sorry, but there was something else going on.
There is no way I could destroy all blocks.
It must come from Qcad.

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Husky
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by Husky » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:54 am

TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:08 am
Nope:

1) I saved at regular intervals. I ALAWAYS save periodically.
Where did I say I never saved my work ?
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 1:08 am
After spending a day on a design, qcad just ate all my blocks and the block list is now empty.
Well, when you saved periodically your design and you then lost all content of your drawing why you haven't just closed the current drawing without saving it and and then loaded the last working version ? That is the idea of periodically saving a drawing ...

Question: The blocks are designed by you or provided by an internet source? Any chance to post a drawing with those blocks before they "disappeared"? A proofed disappearing block in the past would be ideal ...

Howsoever, if my theory of what happened is wrong then it is wrong. If you are right that QCAD has a general problem with blocks then other user will report it too. So far you are the only one. Time will tell ... :wink:
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TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:29 pm

Husky wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:54 am
Well, when you saved periodically your design and you then lost all content of your drawing why you haven't just closed the current drawing without saving it
I did EXACTLY that. Qcad deleted all blocks and then autosaved the damage. No way to recover. It just came back with my construction lines and no blocks.
Husky wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:54 am
Question: The blocks are designed by you or provided by an internet source? Any chance to post a drawing with those blocks before they "disappeared"? A proofed disappearing block in the past would be ideal ...
It is my own blocks.
How can I get back a drawing with blocks if they were all deleted ?
That is not possible. It would have been nice as I would get my work back.
that is the entire point. Qcad just deleted all the blocks in one swoop and autosaved the damage.
Husky wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:54 am
Howsoever, if my theory of what happened is wrong then it is wrong. If you are right that QCAD has a general problem with blocks then other user will report it too. So far you are the only one. Time will tell ... :wink:
Blaming the user is fine, if you can come up with a rational way why the user did that. What you proposed is definitely not valid for me, as all the Blocks were used in about 10 layers and there is no way I could Bulk Erase all blocks in use. This is clearly a QCAD issue.

It's fine, Developers can blame me and I can blame Qcad. Neither of us are fools, but in the end it drives me further away from accepting it as a commercially viable CAD option as I have been working with CAD programs too long to be hoodwinked.

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J-J
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by J-J » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:31 pm

I tend to follow Husky rational, I have worked with QCAD for over 10 years and never noticed such an issue. There must be something else e_confused
JJ Win7 pro-64

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Husky
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by Husky » Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:16 pm

TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:29 pm
Blaming the user is fine, if you can come up with a rational way why the user did that. What you proposed is definitely not valid for me, as all the Blocks were used in about 10 layers and there is no way I could Bulk Erase all blocks in use. This is clearly a QCAD issue.
It has nothing to do with blaming the user! The only reason why I deal with your complain is because I believe you that something unexpected happened with your drawing.
If I could stand behind you and watch what you are doing I'm pretty sure it takes me only a few minutes to see what is going on (regardless a QCAD or a user issue) but I can't stand behind you what makes me asking a lot of awkward questions here in the forum. I understand that can sound for an experienced user like "Does he think that I'm incompetent. No, I don't waste my time with incompetent user!
Unfortunately that is the only tool what we have to figure out is it a software issue which has to be addressed or is it just a misunderstanding of how QCAD ticks or even a bad habit from the user. If we figure out it is a reproducible QCAD issue then I'm happy to support or file a bugreport by myself. If we figure out the user did something what can be "misunderstood" by QCAD then I expect the user has the courage to admit that he did something what leaded to the issue.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:29 pm
I did EXACTLY that. Qcad deleted all blocks and then autosaved the damage. No way to recover. It just came back with my construction lines and no blocks.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Mon Feb 22, 2021 6:29 pm
... Qcad just deleted all the blocks in one swoop and autosaved the damage.
"autosaved the damage"?

Sounds to me this two statements explain everything. You never saved the drawing manually. You trusted in autosave, correct? That is at least what you are telling us with this two statement ...

Autosave is not meant to save your drawing on a conventional way. Autosave will create a "Rescue" file which is ONLY used in the case that QCAD crashes for what ever reason. The rescue file has a name with a preceded tilde like ~example file.dxf. This rescue file will NOT overwrite the original file with the name example file.dxf. If QCAD wasn't terminated by a crash - this rescue file will be deleted by QCAD.
If you never saved your drawing for 14 hours with CTRL+S or the Save Icon or the Menu command below Menu / File / Save then everything is lost. Autosave will not help you to recover the drawing ....
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TreestumpExhaustpipe
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by TreestumpExhaustpipe » Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am

You completely misunderstand.

While I was using QCAD, I noticed all my blocks disappeared. ( You do not address this automatic destruction of data)
I deleted nothing. How I save or not save it wont destroy ALL blocks right ?Only maybe the last hours work can be impacted.

Everything on the canvas disappeared. I did nothing to cause that.
Only my layer containing construction lines remained.

I then decided to close it to see if it comes back.
Before I closed I received a popup if I want to save the file.
I saved the file.

The reason I saved before I closed it is due tio the fact that QCAD autosaves in 2 minute increments.
The missing blocks issue was already there for more than two minutes. Therefore relying on autosave did not make sense as QCAD would save the document with missing blocks and just crashing qcad and let autosave recover the last state would not work.

I then saved and closed Qcad. I looked at the disk file..
It was a measly 80kb or something that low.
It was clear that all the blocks were gone anyway from the filesize.

I started QCAD. The bocks were missing and the document destroyed.

THAT is the story.

It is a pity I just started to really like Qcad due to other help I received last year and recently, and started to do more complex designs on Qcad.
I will have to take a step back as I dont trust it anymore.
To finish my existing Qcad designs I will have to save hardcopys every 5minutes under a different filename.
It is the only workable way with QCAD for me to trust it.

It is however not really workable in long term.
I was really hoping to move my design work over from Windows to Linux using Qcad eventually in my business as Linux is just so much better for what I do.
I really want to drop my Windows / Autocad licenses and continue with Linux / Qcad Professional, but it seems that cannot happen.
Cannot have these unexplained losses.

Nothing more either of us can do. I put a hiatus on Qcad, sadly for good reason.
If I could blame myself, believe me I would, but I cannot find anything I did to have caused all my blocks to disappear. Literally about 40 blocks which all were in use.

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Husky
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by Husky » Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:43 am

TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
You completely misunderstand.
Ok, that can happen. :oops:

TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
While I was using QCAD, I noticed all my blocks disappeared. ( You do not address this automatic destruction of data)
As I already told you - I can't address something what never happened to any other user or myself.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
The reason I saved before I closed it is due tio the fact that QCAD autosaves in 2 minute increments.
The missing blocks issue was already there for more than two minutes. Therefore relying on autosave did not make sense as QCAD would save the document with missing blocks and just crashing qcad and let autosave recover the last state would not work.
You are still not familiar with the Autosave function.
1. A 2 minute interval for Autosave is in my opinion an overkill. What is so important in your work that you can't lose more than 2 minutes? 30 minutes would be a much more realistic value. Does your computer crash every few minutes? That would be a case where the Autosave file kicks in ...
2. What makes you thinking that QCAD will crash when blocks are missing. There is no reason for QCAD to crash ...
3. The logical procedure in this case would be to close the drawing without saving it. Then load the same drawing again to have the status from the last proper backup.
You instead saved an nearly empty drawing which has then overwritten the drawing with all the blocks from the last backup. Ok, that fits your description but i don't see how you can blame QCAD for it.
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
To finish my existing Qcad designs I will have to save hardcopys every 5minutes under a different filename.
It is the only workable way with QCAD for me to trust it.
I wouldn't do that! If you don't trust QCAD then get rid of QCAD. What ever negatives happen to your drawing will then be blamed on QCAD - regardless who is responsible for any "accident".

I still think the problem is not based in QCAD itself. Maybe a misunderstanding by the operator, maybe an OS issue, maybe an improper installation of QCAD, maybe an addon etc. etc.

If you don't see a way to trust QCAD again - get rid of it.
But, if you will give it another shot I recommend to de-install the current version inclusive the QCAD ini. Download the proper version from the official QCAD source which has to match your OS. Do the installation "by the book"!
Try to get more familiar with the Autosave function and adjust the save interval to something like 30 minutes or so.

BTW: Do I see this correctly?
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
I really want to drop my Windows / Autocad licenses and continue with Linux / Qcad Professional, but it seems that cannot happen.
Cannot have these unexplained losses.
Well, if you would be serious about this then you would test it with QCAD Pro. 40 bucks or so is a good investment if your plan is to save thousand on software every year. Even when QCAD doesn't fits the bill ...
TreestumpExhaustpipe wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:31 am
Nothing more either of us can do.
Agreed. If something similar to this topic is reported again - I'll come back to pick it up. Otherwise ...
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John Hyslop
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Re: QCAD automatically Deleted all my blocks in a design

Post by John Hyslop » Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:32 am

Hi all
Just posting my 2 cents worth here.
I also came from Autocad to Qcad.. Over 30 years in Autocad and now almost 2 years with Qcad.
I have used Qcad professionally for this period all my drawing templates have blocks within them and I can honestly say I have never lost any as described on this post 🤔..
Is it possible you are using some sort of hotkey combination that is activating the purge all layers and blocks?"is there a hotkey for this"?
It took me a while to drop my old hotkey habits from Acad..
Or maybe as mentioned are you running any custom scripts?
I'm sure this must be quite stressful for you but I think it's very strange that nobody else has had these problems..

I hope you managed to get to the bottom of this.
Cheers
John
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