Project not in database

A project in my folder was copied for someone else to work on and somehow they remained linked meaning that when he deleted his copy it also deleted the original. Within project manager it now says the project is not found in the database. The pages are still there via windows explorer and can still be opened but not via project manager. Our IT system does have a back up but rather than restoring the whole database I was wondering if anyone can tell me which part of the database is causing this problem so we can just restore the relevant parts?

  • What you describe sounds consistent with what would happen if someone tried to just copy the raw project folder with Windows, outside of Promis.e, to a new location instead of using the built in Promis.e Project Manager to properly copy the project and all its database records.  The project folder contains the raw drawing files (dgn) and a few configuration files, but is not the complete project.  The database records for the project are stored in the main project database.  So if you copied the project drawings folder, you end up with two separate sets of files both linked to the same single set of database records, which is a very dangerous situation.  The two users can make conflicting sets of edits to the files and both affect the same set of database records.  In this case, when the one user deleted their copy of the project, it deleted the single set of database records to which both projects were pointing.  Now the second project still has drawings, but no database records.

    The best case scenario would be to restore a recent backup of just this project that would have been created through the built in Promis.e Project Manager, which contain all the records for that project.  If you do not have a current backup, then you could potentially try to retrieve those database records, which now may not match the drawings the second user has, by restoring the SQL database from before those records were deleted, which could disrupt other projects which may have also been in progress during that time frame.  You could potentially use an SQL Manager tool outside of Promis.e to figure out which records correspond to the same Project ID number that is assigned to the desired project name from a restored copy of the SQL database and then copy all the records related to that Project ID number from every table to the corresponding tables in the existing current SQL database.  Both of those last two scenarios would be unsupported actions done outside of the Promis.e structure and again, the records may not exactly match the current state of the other set of drawings.  

  • I'd just like to add to what Tani wrote and say that you could restore the database backup to a new name to avoid disrupting work on other projects. After connecting to this temporary database on promis.e Setup you should then be able to access the problem project and back it up using Project Manager. Then connect to the production database on proms.e Setup and restore the project backup.



  • @Matt / Tani,
    If I've understood the SS8 changelog correctly, I believe Promise SS8 can import 'orphaned' promise files and rebuild the intelligence. I don't know to what limits but in theory could this user import the latest copy of their files for it to rebuild intelligently?

    SS8 Notes:

    • The Import Drawings command in the Project Manager is now able to import an orphaned Promis.e DGN file and rebuild the intelligence of the drawing upon import. You can now import DWG files as well. Some additional UI enhancements were also done to improve the usability of the tool.
  • Using Import Drawings would be a last resort. Rebuilding intelligence from only drawings means pending changes (changes due to occur on pages when they are next opened based on new information in the database) are lost. This in turn can result in discrepancies between pages. Ideally the solution is to restore a database backup and project folder backup that were made at roughly the same time. But yes, in SS8 pages that result from Import Drawings have some recovered intelligence, at least if they originated in promis.e/Bentley Substation in the first place.



  • I think a database restore is potentially quite dangerous, depending on the number of other users and/or number of other projects that's been worked on since the restore.

    If the database is restored, I assume you'd either have to restore all files (from all projects) that have been worked on since the restore date or run a manual backup within promise on those projects and restore through promise after the database has been restored?

    p.s is there any news on the SS8 date? :)