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Cannot Create an On-Screen Takeoff Bid Package (export file *.OSP) - OST

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Issue - Cannot Create a Bid Package

When you try to export a project to a Bid Package (*.osp file) it fails.

Discussion

There may be something wrong with the Bid structure or file security that is preventing On-Screen Takeoff from creating the OSP file correctly.

Resolution

Here are some troubleshooting steps that may assist you in creating a perfect Bid Package file.

Remove any and all special characters from the Project Name and Page Folder Names. See Related articles for a list of characters that must not be used when naming databases, bids, or Conditions. Special characters interfere with the export process.
Make sure image paths do not Exceed the Windows Limit of 128 Characters.
Your Window's account requires Full Control access to several directories/folders during the bid export process including:

C:\Program Files (or Program Files (x86))\On-Screen Takeoff 3 (and all subfolders)
C:\OCS Documents and all subfolders
Your USER folder, depending on your Windows version, may be C:\Users\<your name> or C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>
Any other directories/folders where image files or databases are stored

Bid Packages containing all images in a project may be very large. Please allow enough time for your computer to pack up these files as well as unpack them on the recipient's computer or consider including only those images/pages the recipient requires.
Make sure there is adequate space on the device (hard drive, thumb drive, etc.) where you are saving the OSP file.
We recommend collating your plans and keeping all plans related to a project in the same main folder (rather than the Cover Sheet pulling in images from multiple, different locations). The User Guide explains how to prepare your project, including collating plans, before sending to someone else.

Issue - Bid Package is Created, but no Images are Included

When you try to "Export to a Bid Package" it appears to work correctly, but the bid package doesn't contain any image files (the osp file size usually is very small, also).

Discussion

On-Screen Takeoff is limited to a maximum osp file size of <1GB. If your bid package exceeds that size (including the images...), the export will fail.

Resolution

There are a few things you can do, the most obvious is to include only those images necessary (by selecting a Custom Range when including images).

Alternately, you could duplicate the project and remove blocks of plans that are unnecessary.

You can also zip up all images manually, load them to a cloud drive (such as DropBox, OneDrive, or Google Drive) and then create an OSP file that does not include images - you will have to send the osp file and a link to download images separately.

Issue - Recipient only Receives some of the Image Files you Selected to Include

When you "Export to a Bid Package" the recipient is only receiving some of the image files.

Discussion

This can happen when the Cover Sheet is pointed to multiple locations (for example, in the Pages grid, you have numerous different folders your Bid is referencing, not subfolders of a master Project Files folder of some sort).

This can also happen when some of your Pages are linked to image files whose filepath/filename exceed 128 characters.

This can also happen when some of your Pages are linked to image files whose filename includes special/reserved characters (see Related Articles).

This can also happen if your database is corrupt.

Resolution

Here are some troubleshooting steps that may assist you in creating a perfect Bid Package file.

The very first thing to do whenever you run into something strange when using OST is to run a Compact & Repair and try again (see Related Articles).
Remove any and all special characters from the image files/Page names. See Related articles for a list of characters that must not be used when naming databases, bids, or Conditions. Special characters interfere with the export process.
Make sure image paths do not Exceed the Windows Limit of 128 Characters.
When creating Projects, copy all the image files into a single "Project Folder". Create subfolders within that folder to separate out trades, sections, or revisions.