Error and Warning Messages

When you open a VDX, VSX, or VTX file in Microsoft® Office Visio®, any error or warning messages that might result appear in message dialog boxes and then are saved in a log file.

The log file includes details on why a problem has occurred and the action Visio has taken in response to the problem, and, if possible, the line number where Visio has detected a problem in the document.

Note To be able to see warning and error message dialog boxes, make sure the Show file save warnings or Show file open warnings check boxes are selected on the Save tab of the Options dialog box in Visio (Tools menu) .

VDX files must always be well-formed, and any XML data in a file (including XML in SolutionXML elements) that has schema references must pass validation or Visio will not load the file. If you subsequently modify a file that has passed validation so that it contains invalid XML, it will fail to load the next time you try to open it in Visio.

Validation problems
Parser initialization problems
Empty, invalid, inappropriate, or unexpected elements, attributes, or values in attributes
Duplicate elements where only one element can exist
Elements in the wrong order (where order is important)
Elements that are missing required data, subelements, or attributes
Element or attribute data that is valid but inconsistent with the rest of the file (often occurs when formula attributes are syntactically legal but have unresolved cell references)
Unknown XML or solution XML that is not well-formed
Invalid references, including invalid master references and invalid or circular style references
References to nonexistent text property rows, or to text property rows that are not referenced from the shape's text

When MSXML is unable to parse or validate the file, it stops trying to load the file, displays an error message like the following, and records the error in the log file.

An example of an error message that could be displayed when Visio attempts to load a DatadiagramML file.

Typically this type of error is caused by one of the following:

A file that contains XML that isn't well-formed or does not coincide with the DatadiagramML schema.

An MSXML.dll file that has become corrupted or has been uninstalled.

When Visio encounters a file that contains XML that it does not understand (for a variety of reasons) but can still load, it displays the following dialog box:

An example of a file-open warning dialog box.

To see the line number and details of the warning message, click Show log file.

After you click OK or Show log file, Visio finishes loading the file.