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Opening & Saving Projects

This chapter covers opening existing projects and saving your work. For creating a brand-new project, see Creating a Project.

Opening a project

A SimGe project is a .fap file (Federation Architecture Project). You can open one in several ways:

  • SimGe — Get Started dialog → Open a Project, then browse to the .fap.
  • The application Open Project command.
  • Recent Projects — pick a recently used project from the Get Started dialog or the menu.
  • Double-click a .fap file in Windows Explorer (the installer registers this association).

When a project opens, its models hydrate, the Project Explorer fills in, and the Start Page shows the dependency graph.

If a module's files cannot be found while opening, SimGe flags the module and offers recovery rather than failing — see Project Explorer → Recovering Missing Module Files.

Recently used projects (MRU)

SimGe remembers the projects you open most recently and lists them in the Get Started dialog and the menu, with a relative "last opened" time. Selecting an entry reopens that project. Entries that no longer exist on disk are shown as file not found.

Saving

Use Save to write the current project to disk. A single save persists:

  • the project file (‹ProjectName›.fap),
  • the object-model index (‹ProjectName›OM.fom),
  • each module as its metadata + content pair (.sfom + .xml) in the Fom folder.

The status bar reflects save state:

State Meaning
Unsaved changes The project has edits that are not yet saved.
‹ProjectName› saved. Transient confirmation shown right after a successful save.
All changes saved Everything is persisted.
Read-only sample A bundled sample is open; in-place Save is disabled (use Save As).

Save is blocked by validation errors

If the project settings or code-generator settings contain validation errors (for example, an invalid project name), SimGe blocks the save and shows which settings to fix first. Correct them, then save again.

Save As (snapshot)

Save As writes the project to a new name and location, effectively creating a copy/snapshot. After a successful Save As, the project now points at the new location, so subsequent ordinary Save operations go there.

Common uses:

  • Keeping an editable copy of a read-only sample (Save As stays available for samples and defaults to your Documents folder).
  • Branching a project to try changes without touching the original.

If a save fails

SimGe reports clear reasons instead of failing silently:

Reported problem What to do
Access denied The target location is not writable (e.g. a sample under ProgramData). Use Save As to a writable folder.
Directory not found The project's folder was moved or deleted. Use Save As to re-establish a valid location.
Path is empty/invalid The project name or location is not set correctly — check the project settings.

See Project Structure & Settings for what lives where, and Troubleshooting for more recovery guidance.

Next: Project Structure & Settings