Overview

Design Database projects may stop functioning or generate a Timeout error on opening.

Introduction

Vital project information and data in relation to your CAD model is saved in your project folder in the form of Microsoft Access Database files.

Should any of these files contain invalid data, or be incomplete, then Design Database may struggle to open the project. This can result in the aforementioned "Timeout accessing the database" error, or the Design Database menu refusing to appear. However if you inspect Task Manager you should find that it is actually running in the background:

Solutions

If possible a back up copy of the project should be sourced. If no backup exists, or a lot of data has been added to the project since the last backup then you should contact Bentley Hevacomp support who may be able to recover the project data.

Please note that while Bentley Hevacomp support will do their utmost
to recover a damaged project, success cannot be guaranteed.

Prevention

These issues are caused when Design Database is prevented from updating the project folder. The following are some reasons for this, and should be avoided if possible:

• Forced shutdown while project is open
• Machine crash
• Manually editing data files within the project folder
• Insufficient Windows permissions to the project folder
• Server reboot while project is open
• Communication issues between server machine and client