Most of the time ANSYS Mechanical does a great job of keeping track of all our input and output files needed for a particular simulation. Every once in a while though, a glitch can happen which could lead to a corrupt database that gives you errors, say, if you try to reopen the ANSYS Mechanical editor. If you suspect that somehow your project database for a Mechanical model (or any other model that uses the same interface as ANSYS Mechanical) has been corrupted, you just might be able to recover it using these steps:
1. Copy any .mechdb files from the project directory to a different location. Rename them to a .mechdat extension. These will be named SYS.mechdb, SYS-1.mechdb, etc. The easiest way to find these files is to click on View > Files from the Workbench window, then scroll through the list until you find the .mechdb file or files. Then right click on each one and select “Open Containing Folder.” This will open Windows Explorer in the directory in which the file resides. You can then copy the files to a new location and rename them to .mechdat extensions.
2. Copy any .agdb (DesignModeler) files or other geometry files from the project directory to a different location. These will be named SYS.agdb , SYS-1.agdb, etc. (for DesignModeler) and can be found using View > Files as I described above. No need to rename these.
3. Start a new Workbench session.
4. Click File > Import. Set the type of file to import to “Importable Mechanical File”. Browse to the two .mechdat files created in step 1 (by renaming the copied .mechdb files) and import each.
5. If needed for geometry files, in the resulting Project Schematic in the Workbench window, right click on the first block’s geometry cell and select Replace Geometry > Browse. Browse to the copied SYS.agdb file or other geometry file from step 2. Repeat any additional analysis block in similar fashion.
6. Then save the project with a new name and directory.
This should allow you to recreate a Workbench project that allows you to continue working. We hope this suggestion is helpful if the need ever arises to use it.
(Artwork by Eric… Ted does much nicer smiley faces)
