Repairing Corrupted .cae file

Have you ever encountered a situation trying to open a .cae file, which you spent a lot of time working on it, and surprisingly the .cae file could not be opened?

Do not get upset with it! There is another chance: It may be possible to recover the .cae file. Using .jnl file. A file that Abaqus create automatically and saves as you create and save your .cae file. In addition, it has the same name as your .cae file. This .jnl or journal file contains the Abaqus/CAE commands that will replicate the model database saved to disk.

First, rename the corrupted .cae file (or delete it completely).

Then you must use the following from the command line of windows (CMD):

abaqus cae recover=<cae_file_name>.jnl

For example, if the corrupted .cae file was named cae_assistant.cae, then use the command:

abaqus cae recover=cae_assistant.jnl

And press Enter.

You should run the above-mentioned command in the directory of .jnl file. To know more about how to use CMD and run CMD in the current directory more easily, follow the instructions prescribed in this Q&A:

Can I pause an Abaqus analysis job I submitted? How?

The recover option executes the commands in the specified model database journal file, and Abaqus starts recovering the corrupted .cae file:

Therefore it is a good idea to keep the .jnl file always beside the .cae file when moving or copying the main .cae file.