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When trying to open a model, the following error message is generated:
"Error: External component has thrown an exception"
While this is a vague error message that could have a couple of causes, one possible cause is a corruption in the database file. Database corruptions are rare, but they can occur. The corruptions that tend to generate the error message above are difficult or impossible for Bentley to manually repair, however, if the steps below to not help, we encourage you to contact Bentley Technical Support so that we can look into the issue.
There are a couple of things that you can try to resolve this issue.
First, if the model is from WaterGEMS or WaterCAD V8i SELECTseries 3 or older, you can try to repair the database in Microsoft Access. You do this by opening the database file in Access, then going to File > Manage > Compact and Repair database.
If that does not work or if you have WaterGEMS or WaterCAD V8i SELECTseries 4 or later (which uses SQLITE as the database instead of Access), try to rename the backup file. Browse to where the model file is storeed and find the backup database files. They will have file extensions like ".mdb.01.bak" or ".sqlite.bak". Rename the file so that it reads ".mdb" for Access files or ".sqlite" for SQLITE files. You can then try opening the model or importing the database. The error message should be resolved.