Losing saved chart drawings

[maggiej12]

It seems every few months i lose all the drawings and notes from my old saved workspaces. Can you tell me what is causing this? I backup my workspaces every week... is there a way to restore just the workspace that i have lost drawings for rather than the whole backup file, which will replace the new files i have created since??
Please help, this is extremely frustrating!

thanks

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hi maggiej12,

Drawing objects will be removed if not viewed within 20 days. This may explain why you do not see yours. If you view them at least once per 20 days this counter is reset.

If you are comfortable working with files in windows, you can save only the xml files from Documents\NinjaTrader 7\Workspaces to preserve your workspace.

The backup file will restore everything in it, but you can also open it up and manually extract the contents you're looking for. We do not provide support for this, but if you change the extension from .ntbk to .zip, you can open it up like a regular zip file.

[maggiej12]

If i make a copy of my workspaces folder in windows, how can i import a single workspace to view it in Ninja?

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

You can place the workspace .xml file you want in Documents\NinjaTrader\Workspaces.

We only recommend this if you are comfortable working with files in Windows. The only supported technique for preserving custom items is the backup / restore feature. It's possible to create a backup of only your workspace files.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/backup__restore.htm

[maggiej12]

none of my backed up workspaces have any drawing objects on them either...
how could this happen?
I have opened up the backup files i have saved for each of the last 3 weeks and none of the workspaces in them have any drawing objects on them!
I have spent hundreds of hours backtesting and making notes of my charts, i need to have this information available for reference!

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Sorry for any frustration caused by missing the work put into the drawing objects. I'm not sure what may have happened to your previous drawing objects, but could be lost due to workspace corruption or overwriting files without the objects. If they were previously functional in a backup file, then they should still be preserved in this backup file. Can you please try a simple test: Draw on chart, save workspace, and restart NinjaTrader. See if the objects are preserved.

If basic functionality works fine but your backup files do not, we need to be able to break down the steps that lead to this. I'm also happy to take a look at your backup files to see if anything can be recovered. You can send in to support 'at' ninjatrader 'dot' com Attn: RyanM.

[maggiej12]

i am able to save new drawing objects. Workspaces i have saved with data and notes from June 27 thru today are intact. All workspaces from before June 27th have no drawing objects just data.
I will email you some of my backup files.

[maggiej12]

Ryan,
My backup file is over 600MB and I am not able to send it through regular email. I can extract my workspace folders from them and send those to you. will this be ok?
All also have a dropbox folder i can invite you to and you can access the entire file through there.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi maggiej12,

That should be fine - just please be sure to include 'ATTN: Ryan' and a link to this forum thread in your message.

[kinderlich]

I have the same issue. I hade 100s of hours of drawings that I haven't viewed in 1 month and now they are all gone. This default of removing drawings which have not been viewed in 20 days is crazy wrong. Please tell the developers to remove drawings only if confirmed. It shows that the platform cannot really be used for serious long range chart work.

Edit: I found a workaround!

You edit the workspace xml .. I replaced the lines that read

<LastSeen>2011-11-05T22:50:38.766545-04:00</LastSeen>

with
<LastSeen>2011-11-25T22:50:38.766545-04:00</LastSeen>


And the drawings are visible again. (I'm unhappy I have to do this workaround though)

[maggiej12]

i'm glad you found the workaround. I was going to send it to you if you hadn't.
It is a bit of a pain to have to do that though. I agree with you that Ninja should not erase drawings on saved charts without asking.
One thing you want to be careful of that i did a couple times out of habit: if you pull up a blank workspace, be sure to not hit save when you close it. Otherwise you will lose all the drawings you had on it even if you go in and change the last seen date.

[alexbourne]

I have to say that this has to be one of the dumbest features I've ever heard of. I just about had a heart attack when I opened up my workspace and thought that I had lost several months of data. I would recommend changing this in the future. I'm glad that there is a workaround at least.

[NinjaTrader_RyanL]

Hello alexbourne,


Thank you for your post and welcome to the forums!


I have added this submission to our development team for further tracking on this suggestion and will update this tread with the suggestion ID after hearing back from development.

[geoninja]

Seconded. This is an exceedingly irritating "feature", in the worst MS sense. Forcing this onto the user without an option to turn it off is terribly inconsiderate. Ninja Devs can do much better than this.

Geo

[NinjaTrader_RyanL]

Hello geoninja,


Thank you for your feedback, I have submitted your suggestion to our development team to add another request for drawing objects to remain longer than 20 days and I will update this thread when I hear back from development.