won't open the regular way. A project over a year in the making won't open tonight. I'm trying to find a way around losing the work.the error message is one of those helpful ones:"File open failed"Bob B

Hi Bob,How nice such an error message that tells you nothing about the problem :).Have you tried if there is an automatic backup of the project that you can open? Also have you tried if it makes a difference if you load it via the menu or by just clicking on the file?

Hi Arno, tried both...no autobackup of this one. I'm trying to put a brave face on it. It was in fs2002 style, and I was going to rework the parts using the fs2k4 gamepack. But much is lost if I must redo. bummerB

Very strange, for the GMax file there is no difference between the Fs2002 or Fs2004 style, so that can't be the problem.I assume you have already tried to restart GMax and maybe also reboot your system?Can't think of something else at the moment. All your other GMax files load fine?

Wasn't there some problem that after a security update, saved files in GMAX (or other Discreet products) could not be opened again later ? The security patch was then later patched by a better version. I only found this here, but it doesn't exactly sound like what I seem to remember:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...kb;en-us;824136Regards,Siggy

Yes, but with that problem you could still open old files, only when you saved them after installing the patch you could not open them anymore.Also this patch was a long time ago and every user should alreay have the further security patches installed :).

I meant perhaps he saved that file at that time ... ?Siggy

thanks for trying and caring, Arno, Siggy. I've slept on it, and I've tried most everything I can think of and all the ideas you've offered. time to begin the recovery of the work.Luckily, I had been saving in seperate files backups for some of the model, so its not going to be as bad as it seemed last night. Live and learn.B

Bob,Try this it worked for me once. Open a new project. Then merge this project with the corrupted project. It should give you the option to import at least the objects in the corrupted project file.Shez

thanks for the idea, Shez....I'd tried that without success, but I do appreciate your offering an idea. Much appreciated.So this happened to you also. I don't read much about how a gmax file can become corrupt. I'm wondering how safe my other files are. It would be nice to understand if the risks go up as the file gets big...or some indicators of when the risk exists.Was your file that became corrupt large? B

Well my file was large but am not sure if that can be correlated to the corruption of file. Logically the more objects the greater the chances of something getting tangled up.What message do you get when you try and merge? Does it allow you to select the objects? I guess this is not the case of the old MS patch?Shez

I get no response at all, like I never had executed the merge command. No selection box or anything.B

Hi Bob,I can only suggest to send the file to another trusted designer to see if they have the same problem or can open the file.W. Sieffert