Unable to save project

[SteveCooper]

I get this error message when trying to save a project:

 File I/O Error: Unable to open file: Win32 error (2): The system cannot find the file specified.
: C:/Users/Dr. Cooper/AppData/Local/Temp/~PI~773IMBXZM3E35VIK~Mean_Witch_Lum_D.swp

Any ideas?
    Thanks,
       Steve

[drmikevt]

Steve

I've run into this before, and I'm pretty sure what it means is that PI can no longer find a certain swap file  that is needed in order to create the project correctly.  If PI runs out of swap space, it starts to throw out the older files to create space for new ones (more or less).  If you go too long without saving, you run the chance of the program throwing out something you need, as you experienced. The only way forward, I think, is to delete the file that is associated with the swap.  Then, you can save the project minus that one file.  Once you get burned by this issues once or twice, you will learn to save your project at the end of every processing session.  Since it now only updates changed files, it only take a minute to run, usually. 

Mike

If the above info is wrong, someone please correct me.

[pfile]

i think drmike is correct though i'm not sure if PI would ever delete a swp file. as far as i can tell this always happens because some other program has deleted the file in a misguided attempt to clean up the disk.

for instance, on OSX, apple has scripts that are bundled with the OS that go in and clean some of the directories that are not visible to the user in the Finder. i guess this is to prevent the disk from filling up mysteriously from the perspective of a 'regular' user, if some program starts stashing files there. indeed PI used to use /tmp (or some directory below /tmp) to store the .swp files, as this is a perfectly reasonable place to stash temporary files on any other unix-based machine. but OSX would go look at the access times of the files under that directory and delete them if they were not accessed in something like 3 days. i think juan has fixed this, and has also added a warning dialog that tells you if you've chosen (or PI had previously chosen) a directory that is "volatile", so to speak.

anyway yes unfortunately the only way to move forward here is to close the image called "Mean_Witch_Lum_D" and then re-attempt the save. you can of course save the current version of that image using the Save command before closing it but of course it won't be in the project, and all of its history will be lost.

rob

[SteveCooper]

Thank you Mike and Rob for commenting and the helpful suggestions!
Fortunately I do save my projects often and did so in this case too.
I was able to start a second instance of Pixinsight  and open the last saved version of this project.
I then "recreated" the missing steps contained in the project that I was unable to save. I was able to do this by going back to the unsaved instance and save
any masks and process icons and then open them in the saved instance. I was then able to resave the updated project!

I hope this explanation makes sense to somebody else because it doesn't to me. 
                       Thanks again,'
                             Steve

[pfile]

that is a great technique - i had never thought of transferring stuff between two instances like that!

rob