Am I missing something obvious?

smashey

Using AutoCad 2007 here and recently found an old backup file (***.bak). No sign of the actual dwg file. Anyway, I tried to rename it as a .dwg file to open it but that didn't work.

Am I missing something obvious here?

Turbulent Bill

Could you have deleted/renamed the DWG file previously and just left the backup? There should be an obvious way to open the .bak file (otherwise what's the point!), but I haven't used AutoCAD in a while.

smashey

Possibly Bill. I'm the only one left in our office here and I found the file on one of the other lads' PC. I checked the name of it and couldn't find any other files with that name.

Renaming it always worked on earlier versions of AutoCad so I'm just a bit baffled.

3dsteel

Are you sure the file was created by autocad? Other applications also use the BAK extension. Try opening the file with notepad. If it's an autocad file the first line of the file should read something like "AC1015" followed by a load of bs:D. Scroll down to the end of the file and you might recognise some of the text such as "SHADEPLOTF" or "ACAD_ROUNDTRIP_PRE2007_TABLESTYLEZ"?

Rabidlamb

Make sure you're actually changing the extension & not just adding .dwg to the name.

Go My Computer/Tools/Folder Options/File Types

Select DWG file extension, click Advanced & make sure the "Always Show Extension" box is ticked.

Repeat for BAK files.

Now try & rename the full filename including the extension.

KoNiT

rename it in DOS..

should work then.

Quazzie

I usually right click, then Properties then change .bak - .dwg in there. Alays works for me right up to 2008 AutoCAD