Hey there! I posted a little while ago about an error I was having with the most recent version of pencil and it was recommended to download the newest nightly build. It was working fine but then when I tried to open the projects I had been working on, the program kept crashing. I have lost 2 projects already and I don’t want to lose any more. Since they are the new .pcxl files, I can’t open them in the “stable” version of pencil and therefore can’t work on them. One was around 20 frames and the most recent project was only 4. Any help would be appreciated 
Hey, sorry to hear you’re having issues with Pencil2D again. Please use .PCL extension for now, the .PCLX seems to have several critical issues that have yet to be fixed.
However also since I worry about our users If you need to finish a project or want to try out other options we have an alternative software list for animation posted on our tumblr blog.
Hopefully this will work out for you if you find yourself not being able to cope with Pencil2D until we finish fixing it. Sorry about any inconvenience and have a great week.
Hi, @abbzzz
I am pencil’s developer.
Could you send me the .pclx file?
Maybe I can fix that with the broken file.
Thanks.
Sure thing! Should I email it or post it somehow?
Both are ok.
my email chchwy (a) gmail dot com
I had the same problem. I tried changing the files as .pcl format but that didn’t work. Then I opened main.xml and found this:
<object>
<layer visibility="1" type="5" width="1920" height="1080" name="Camera Layer"><camera dy="0" m21="0" frame="1" m22="1" m11="1" m12="0" dx="0"/></layer>
<layer visibility="1" type="1" name="Bitmap Layer" id="3">
[child elements with frames here]
Using a working file, I copied and pasted the following, overwriting the first <layer> element:
<layer type="5" width="1920" visibility="1" name="Camera Layer" height="1080"><camera frame="1" m21="0" m22="1" m11="1" m12="0" dx="0" dy="0"/></layer>
<layer type="2" visibility="0" name="Vector Layer" id="2"><image src="002.001.vec" frame="1"/></layer>
(I had a vector layer, but it was hidden. If your file didn’t have a vector layer, that element may be omitted.) The file opened as I had left it last.
We are having this (or REALLY similar) issue too! I’ve seen issues like this posted in different places but so far haven’t found a specific solution/fix. Basically our issue is:
- Create new Pencil2D file / Save the file / Close Pencil2D
- Open Pencil2D and open the file we just made
- Pencil2D locks up when opening the file (usually at 89% or 99%) - see screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/aqaxP
We’ve tried Nightly Builds, the latest build (0.6.0), running as Admin, installing Visual C+ libraries, etc … nothing works! Any help/tips?
Thanks.
@EM3R50N Sorry to hear you’re having this issue, It seems there is a problem with the saving feature on Windows. Developers have also identified this, but I can’t say what’s causing it for sure. Perhaps you can speak with @chchwy who’s the lead developer, and he’s more aware of this particular issue and possible workarounds.
Please post your computer specs, your operating system, and stick to a relatively new nightly build in order to help pin-point the issue.
Also If possible please upload any of the saved files that have caused you the crashes and link to them here. You can use any service you prefer like dropbox, google drive, mega.nz, etc This will help the devs to review why this particular problem is happening.
Also, just a question, do you have any kind of program that tends to lock files to scan them? Like an antivirus with so called “real-time” protection.
For now I may also like to suggest to please visit Pencil2D’s DISCORD server in case you want to talk in real-time with developers. The link is on this page http://pencil2d.org/community
@EM3R50N Hi, lately other user have seem to be subject to similar issues, thanks to taht the developers were able to pinpoint the cause and issue a patch. If you’re still in need of assistance, please download the latest development build from February 26th in order to test if you are able to save without crashes or lock-ups.
It seems the other users that had a similar problem stopped experimenting this problem while using this version.
If this worked for you or not please let us know in order to address it or mark this thread as solved.