Message: File being read is terminated early

The information in this article applies to:

QUESTION

When I try to open one of my files, this message appears: 

• "#272004602 - File being read is terminated early." 

What does this mean?

ANSWER

This message indicates that the file you are trying to open is corrupted and can no longer be used.

One known way to cause the corruption that results in this message is to exit out of the Chief Architect program while it is in the process of saving the file. Because the save action is not complete, the program prompts the user to save their work, and when s/he clicks Yes, a crash occurs that results in file corruption.

This series of events is not common: it can only occur in situations where a saving a file takes an unusually long time, such as: 

•  If the file is particularly large 
  
• If the computer is particularly slow 
  
• When saving across a network or onto a removable storage device.
  
  

If you have encountered this message and now cannot open the file that was terminated early, you will need to open a backup copy of the file and resume work on that file. Please refer to the Related Articles section to learn more about accessing Archive and Auto Save backup files.

To avoid this problem

1. Never save your files across a network or directly onto a removable storage device such as a USB flash drive. Copy the file onto your computer's local hard drive, work from that copy, then close the program and copy the file back to the storage location.  
   
   
   
2. Use the Close and Exit commands to close files or to exit the program, and wait until any progress dialogs are gone before closing.  
   
   
   
3. Save your work before closing a file or exiting the program.
   
   If you close the program and it prompts you to save your work, always click Cancel. Then, save your work by clicking the Save  button.