diff --git a/Gruntfile.js b/Gruntfile.js
index c84ecc8a..c5cbbef5 100644
--- a/Gruntfile.js
+++ b/Gruntfile.js
@@ -129,8 +129,10 @@ module.exports = function (grunt) {
 			options: webpackConfig,
 			build: {
 				plugins: webpackConfig.plugins.concat(
+          // minimize the deployed code
+          //new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin(),
 					new webpack.optimize.DedupePlugin()
-					// new webpack.optimize.UglifyJsPlugin()
+
 				)
 			},
 			"build-dev": {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ead0547b..f01b936d 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 {
   "name": "webvowl",
-  "version": "1.1.6",
+  "version": "1.1.7",
   "dependencies": {
     "d3": "^3.5.6",
+    "grunt-cli": "^1.3.2",
     "lodash": "^4.1.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
diff --git a/src/app/js/loadingModule.js b/src/app/js/loadingModule.js
index ee763cb4..e065b71a 100644
--- a/src/app/js/loadingModule.js
+++ b/src/app/js/loadingModule.js
@@ -502,11 +502,12 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
   function loadPresetOntology( ontology ){
     // check if already cached in ontology menu?
     var f2r;
+    var loadingNewOntologyForEditor=false;
     if ( ontology.indexOf("new_ontology") !== -1 ) {
       loadingModule.hideLoadingIndicator();
       graph.showEditorHintIfNeeded();
       f2r = "./data/new_ontology.json";
-      
+      loadingNewOntologyForEditor=true;
     }
     
     loadingWasSuccessFul = false;
@@ -532,11 +533,58 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
           ontologyContent = request.responseText;
           parseOntologyContent(ontologyContent);
         } else {
+
+          if (loadingNewOntologyForEditor){
+            ontologyContent = '{\n' +
+              '  "_comment": "Empty ontology for WebVOWL Editor",\n' +
+              '  "header": {\n' +
+              '    "languages": [\n' +
+              '      "en"\n' +
+              '    ],\n' +
+              '    "baseIris": [\n' +
+              '      "http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema"\n' +
+              '    ],\n' +
+              '    "iri": "http://visualdataweb.org/newOntology/",\n' +
+              '    "title": {\n' +
+              '      "en": "New ontology"\n' +
+              '    },\n' +
+              '    "description": {\n' +
+              '      "en": "New ontology description"\n' +
+              '    }\n' +
+              '  },\n' +
+              '  "namespace": [],\n' +
+              '  "metrics": {\n' +
+              '    "classCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "datatypeCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "objectPropertyCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "datatypePropertyCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "propertyCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "nodeCount": 0,\n' +
+              '    "individualCount": 0\n' +
+              '  }\n' +
+              '}\n';
+            parseOntologyContent(ontologyContent);
+          }else{
           // some error occurred
           ontologyMenu.append_bulletPoint("Failed to load: " + ontology);
-          ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint(" <span style='color: red'>ERROR STATUS:</span> " + error.status);
+          if (error.status===0){ // assumption this is CORS error when running locally (error status == 0)
+            ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint(" <span style='color: red'>ERROR STATUS:</span> " + error.status);
+            if (window.location.toString().startsWith("file:/")){
+              ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint("<br><p>WebVOWL runs in a local instance.</p>");
+              ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint("<p>CORS prevents to automatically load files on host system.</p>");
+              ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint("<p>You can load preprocessed ontologies (i.e. VOWL-JSON files) using the upload feature in the ontology menu or by dragging the files and dropping them on the canvas.</p>");
+              ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint("<p><i>Hint: </i>Note that the conversion of ontologies into the VOWL-JSON format is not part of WebVOWL but requires an additional converter such as OWL2VOWL.</p>");
+              ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint("<p>Ontologies can be created using the editor mode (i.e. activate editing mode in <b>Modes</b> menu and create a new ontology using the <b>Ontology</b> menu.</p>");
+            }
+          }else {
+            ontologyMenu.append_message_toLastBulletPoint(" <span style='color: red'>ERROR STATUS:</span> " + error.status);
+          }
+
+
+
           graph.handleOnLoadingError();
           loadingModule.setErrorMode();
+          }
         }
       });
     }
diff --git a/src/app/js/menu/exportMenu.js b/src/app/js/menu/exportMenu.js
index 0a441a87..7d5d545c 100644
--- a/src/app/js/menu/exportMenu.js
+++ b/src/app/js/menu/exportMenu.js
@@ -50,10 +50,10 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
   function exportTurtle(){
     var success = exportTTLModule.requestExport();
     var result = exportTTLModule.resultingTTL_Content();
+    var ontoTitle = "NewOntology";
     console.log("Exporter was successful: " + success);
     if ( success ) {
       // console.log("The result is : " + result);
-      var ontoTitle = "NewOntology";
       // var ontoTitle=graph.options().getGeneralMetaObjectProperty('title');
       // if (ontoTitle===undefined || ontoTitle.length===0)
       // 	ontoTitle="NewOntology";
@@ -79,8 +79,6 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
       console.log("Stay on the page! " + window.location.href);
       exportTurtleButton.attr("href", window.location.href);
       d3.event.preventDefault(); // prevent the href to be called ( reloads the page otherwise )
-      
-      
     }
   }
   
@@ -387,7 +385,7 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
     var i, j, k; // an index variable for the for-loops
     
     /** get data for exporter **/
-      
+      if (!graph.options().data()) {return {};} // return an empty json object
       // extract onotology information;
     var unfilteredData = graph.getUnfilteredData();
     var ontologyComment = graph.options().data()._comment;
diff --git a/src/app/js/menu/exportTTLModule.js b/src/app/js/menu/exportTTLModule.js
index a3ed6602..a2279348 100644
--- a/src/app/js/menu/exportTTLModule.js
+++ b/src/app/js/menu/exportTTLModule.js
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
   
   function prepareHeader(){
     resultingTTLContent += "#################################################################\r\n";
-    resultingTTLContent += "###  Generated with the experimental alpha version of the TTL exporter of WebVOWL (version 1.1.3) " +
+    resultingTTLContent += "###  Generated with the experimental alpha version of the TTL exporter of WebVOWL (version 1.1.7) " +
       " http://visualdataweb.de/webvowl/   ###\r\n";
     resultingTTLContent += "#################################################################\r\n\r\n";
     
diff --git a/src/app/js/warningModule.js b/src/app/js/warningModule.js
index 04b2a4d8..67bff150 100644
--- a/src/app/js/warningModule.js
+++ b/src/app/js/warningModule.js
@@ -189,6 +189,11 @@ module.exports = function ( graph ){
     var id = warningModule.addMessageBox();
     warningModule.createMessageContext(id);
   };
+
+  warningModule.showExporterWarning=function (){
+    warningModule.showWarning("Can not export ontology", "Detected unsupported ontology axioms, (e.g. owl:Union)", "Ontology is not exported", 1, false);
+  };
+
   
   
   warningModule.responseWarning = function ( header, reason, action, callback, parameterArray, forcedWarning ){
diff --git a/src/webvowl/js/graph.js b/src/webvowl/js/graph.js
index 12d6f011..7cb3c8b4 100644
--- a/src/webvowl/js/graph.js
+++ b/src/webvowl/js/graph.js
@@ -3369,9 +3369,9 @@ module.exports = function ( graphContainerSelector ){
       remId = unfilteredData.nodes.indexOf(property.range());
       if ( remId !== -1 )
         unfilteredData.nodes.splice(remId, 1);
+      remId = classNodes.indexOf(property.range());
       if ( remId !== -1 )
-        remId = classNodes.indexOf(property.range());
-      classNodes.splice(remId, 1);
+        classNodes.splice(remId, 1);
       datatype = null;
     }
     remId = unfilteredData.properties.indexOf(property);