Sheet Effects Vanished

Hello all,
I'm working on a map with around 70 sheets. I'm paranoid so I make backup copies quite often so at any time, no more than a few hours work could be lost.

Today I did a "Save As" with a new file name because I was going to make changes I wasn't sure about. All was well both with the old and new map at that point. Effects were all there and could be enabled/disabled.

I worked about 3 hours with interim saves to the 'new' file name. I was disabling effects temporarily while working to speed up redraws. All was well. I saved it with effects both off and on at various times during this period. When done, I enabled effects and noticed that there was no change to the display.

Come to find out, every sheet effect on every sheet had been deleted somehow. That is, their definitions no longer appear in the Sheet Effects popup at all as I click on all the various sheets. I know they're grayed out when effects are disabled. But they're not even there at all. I re-opened the previous map (from which I made the copy to work on) and all the effect definitions are there.

To be clear, all of the sheet effect definitions have disappeared for all sheets completely.

Running CC3+ v3.65. Yes, I know it's old/beta but didn't want to upgrade in the middle of a large map project and it's worked flawlessly for me so far.

Anyone seen this before? Is it a known bug? Is it 'operator error'? Is there a workaround such as exporting/import effects from one map to another (my sheets and their effects would be identical in both maps).

I can always redo the work .... just a bit frustrating. Any ideas welcome.

Thanks!
-Mike

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    I don't know what could have caused it, but as for your last question, yes, you can export the effects and load them into another map, just follow this procedure.

    From the map with the working effect, bring up the effects dialog. Under 'Effects Presets' click the New button, and give it a name. This saves the effects in the current map as a preset.
    Then, go to the map without effects, and simply choose your preset from the dropdown, this should load the effects (Not sure if you need to restart CC3+ for this dropdown to be populated with new entries)
    Note that the Effects Presets will only be active when you activate sheet effects in your map, otherwise it is greyed out.
  • Hi Monsen,
    I saw the presets dropdown in the sheet effects dialog. That makes perfect sense - hope it works!

    I'll let you know - and many thanks for replying!
    -Mike
  • Huzzah! Success!!

    The only thing that surprised me was that upon choosing the new preset in the new map, a dialog popped up identifying sheets that were not present in the current map. They were layers I had deleted long ago (i.e. many, many weeks ago with intervening 'Save As' backups) and did not need. Interesting that their definition is still present somewhere. It asked me if I wanted to add them and I chose 'No'.

    It worked like a charm!!! Outstanding. And good info to know for defining/using sets of effects.

    Can't thank you enough. You, sir, are a life saver!
    -Mike
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 81 images Cartographer
    Glad to be of assistance.

    Yes, old sheets seems to somehow stay behind and become part of the definition. What I do that usually fixes that is that I say yes to add the sheets, then delete from the drawing, then I resave the effect preset. Now the preset shouldn't contain those sheets any more. Maybe it works just as well saying no to add them and then resaving, just haven't tried that.
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