How to repair a Corrupt SOLIDWORKS Electrical Drawing file

If an electrical schematic drawing ever becomes corrupt you may see the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Unknown File Format error messages shown below when attempting to open the drawing file.

Unknown file format Error

Cannot Rebuild Error

These error messages are an indication that there has been some form of file corruption within the specified drawing file.  Luckily we have a few options we can go through to attempt to repair a corrupt drawing.

Rebuild the Drawing

The first and most simple resolution is to right-click on the specific drawing sheet and select “Rebuild”.  If the “Rebuild” fails, you can also try a “Delete and Rebuild”.

Rebuild Drawing

Note that when a ‘Delete and Rebuild’ is performed any graphical items such as text, lines, and blocks will be lost.

Delete and Rebuild Manually

If a rebuild did not resolve the SOLIDWORKS Electrical Unknown File Format issue when opening the file again, then you can try to delete and rebuild manually by:

1. Locating the .ewg file that the specific drawing is associated with.
2. Right-click the drawing and select “Properties” to find the File Name.
3. Once the file name is known, you can manually delete this file from the Application data folder (default C:\ProgramData\SOLIDWORKS Electrical\Projects\###\Drawings)
4. Then rebuild the drawing by again right-clicking on the drawing and selecting ‘Rebuild”.

If none of the following techniques have resolved the issue, then contact your local Value Added Reseller for further support.

Learn more about SOLIDWORKS Electrical

Attend a SOLIDWORKS Electrical training course either in a Canadian classroom near you or live online. For more information about electrical software and training solutions call 1-877-219-6757.