Hi Mike,
Thanks for the reply. I am not much of a computer expert so have not played with the Registry (Scared). The funny thing is that I had been saving regularly to a zip disk up until recently when I had a problem related to running out of space on the disk, so had only been doing it when I needed to transport the files from, home to Batleship Cove where I print them out for display.
My low tech. solution is to save regularly to another directory, switching back and fourth sor of.
Anyway now that I have taken the dog for a walk in the woods and have poured myself a beer. I thought it might be helpful to describe what happened and my inexpert opinion about the cause.
This is a large drawing physicaly and complex in that it is supose to be a photo realistic representation of a WWII destroyer. It is drawn at 1/8"to 1ft. and has a lot of detail that is not really visable when zoomed back to see the whole image. The reason is that, once complete parts will be used in numorous illustrations throughout the ship to give visitors an idea of both where they are and what they are currently looking at ("No that is an antenna not a rocket launcher"). I know I am pushing the envelope but have not had problems on maybe 20 other similar drawings (My be not quiet as complex) In addition I often have photos of details of the ship imported into the drawing for reference as I put in all the fussy details. (In some way this is more like model making than art...so be it.)
What happened was that maybe half an hour be fore the end of the world, I haad made a shadow of a specific shape by creating a solid in dark grey below a narrow rectangle (it was too narrow to us the shadow tool) I gave it a linear transparence and used the feather slide in the pick tool bar to soften the edge. (I suspect that this is where the bug is but it is just a feeling I have.)
I was doing some unrelated things like making simple rails. (A 1.4 pixel line in dark grey with a .25 Pixel line on top with round end and a three step blend between them)(did you know you can blend lines?).
Suddenly the drawing seemed to freeze. I have a feeling the image was frozen but the Drawing was not because if I draged an object the handles would move but not the image. I though oh oh and without thinking I hit save. The program locked up.
I waited maybe 5 minutes and kept looking at the drive indicator hoping it was woeking (it was not) Finally I Hit Cntl/Alt/Del and got the message XaraX was not responding and ended the task. End of game.
Frome the time I made that feathered shadow the program seemed to slow down. I know it is an old feature, but it is not one I have used much so that is the one new eliment in this situation.
Hope this helps
John