MXD Doctor

MXD Doctor is a programming tool designed for analyzing broken or damaged ArcMap documents. It is a standalone program but comes bundled with the ArcGIS Developers Kit. After analyzing MXD files, the program may recover some items from the broken file then copy such items to an existing or new map document. However, the program’s ability to recover items depends on the result of the analysis.

The program’s interface is a single dialog box with two main tabs – Diagnosis and Treatment. The Diagnosis tab analyzes the chosen file while the Treatment tab fixes detected broken items. The application is mainly intended to extract valid items from the chosen MXD file. However, users can also retrieve items from valid/unbroken MXD files as a means to copy items from one document to another.

After starting the program, the only active button is the Browse button used for choosing the MXD file to be analyzed. After choosing the file, the program automatically analyzes the document. The items that the program can analyze include Page Layout, Style Gallery, Maps Data Frames, Thumbnail Preview, and VBA Project. Users can find the results from the Document Status Frame. The program shows whether each of the items can be recovered or not. Users may also preview the content of the chosen MXD file. Generating diagnostic reports for all items in the broken MXD file is possible as well and can be printed or saved as a text file. After analysis, users may recover some items from the document. Users have the option to transfer all items (including non broken files) or select which items to recover.