MARI: Project File Broken in Crash

I remember our 3D modelling teacher at University of Teesside, Paul Docherty, explaining to us how a file is sort of a box containing things, where the lid has been opened and things have been taken out, while it is open in a 3D application. If your workstation crashes while the file is open, it is like the lid and the things have not been put back properly, and the file may not work anymore.

No doubt a very simple analogy, but it works for me. Hence, every so often when MARI crashes, you hold your breath as you reload the project file.

Yesterday, this beauty greeted me:

My heart sank, although I had recently exported all my nearly finished diffuse maps from that project. Before importing them back in and starting (almost) over, I tried a simple thing:

Select the broken file in MARI's project overview.

Click Copy

It took MARI a fair while to copy the project, but once it was done, the copy opened as if nothing had happened.

Oh MARI, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways!