Automatic Backup ACE2012

[johnq]

Hi Folks  and Support

I have been looking at the way ACE does its auto backup and I am misified.

I do have the paths set correctly.

Backups are only seem to be created intermittantly.    Today i have been working on 10 drawings.   Afew changes were made to some circuit diagrams.

All 10 pages had a different Border added to them.  This all worked very well.   Title block updated perfect on all 10 drawings which included a new descriptions file.

When I look at the backup folder only some of the drawings had a backup copy created. May be 4 out of the 10.

I do have a very active virus program. 

My observation is that if I am busy CADding then the auto backup does not work.  My impression is based on the fact  that I do not often see the backup file name in the command box.     This is the file that has the file name and 1_1_123.bak format.    It looks like an encoded time stamp.   This format, when it works, does make identification easy.

My auto backup is set at 5 minutes.  Round about AC2000, the default was much longer, over 60 minutes.   My computer has one physical drive with a "D" drive for stufff and AutoCAD backup.

If the software can differentiate between the body of the drawing and title blocks updates, as a test for creating a backup, is that not an un-necessary software over head?

There are many complaints by ACE users of Fatal errors closing drawings and it is becomming documented on the AC forum.

What is the purpose of the . ac$  file?

i have a habbit of doing a zoom extents save before I  swap drawings,  withing a project,  due to the above impressions.

Sometimes I find that a title block update does an update BUT until I swap to to a drawing it is not written to that drawing.  This is observed by seeing the titleblock get written when I switch to it.  I see this as I do a zoom extents, mostly.

I hope some one from the AutoDESK group can sort out my observations.

Cheers  john Quigley

[testsubject]

John,

I am not 100% sure of this but I think that the autobackup activates based on the active time a drawing is being worked on. If you start a drawing and then open up a different drawing, the new drawing in now the active one and the autobackup time for the first one is suspended. that timer resumes when you go back to it.

This is derived from observation but I have had no confirmation that this is what occurs (I never tried to test it).

[johnq]

Hi Bob

I agree with what you say, and it is how I understand it works.

What I was hopeing would happen and would like to happen, is to make a  .BAK file each time I manually save a drawing.

I mentioned, I almost religiously do a save before I swap drawings.  It is at this point I would like  .BAK created together with a save of the  .DWG.

Cheers  John Q

[testsubject]

John,

Sorry it took so long to get back to you.

Just to check, you do have "Create backup copy with each save" checked under the "Open and Save" tab in the Options dialog box? You mentioned that you would like a .BAK to be created each time you manually save. That is how it should work if that checkbox is checked. I am not sure why you are not seeing this.

Doing titleblock updates does not initiate a .BAK when run. ACE goes into each drawing and makes the changes to the different attributes without creating a backup. As you have noticed, if you have a drawing open that is being updated, the update does not stick until you save that drawing. AFAIK, this is normal operation.

[johnq]

Hi Bob

I have been on Holidays.  Thanks for your reply.  We agree on how it should work.

May be it is the way I am doing my save.

I use the "save" that is in the pull down menue under the "Big red  A".  It does not make a .BAK   I am still testing.  The SAVE   in the    FILE     pull down menue is also unreliable.

see screen shots

I have just been doing some more testing.  the creation of a .BAK file seem to be dependant on how busy our server is and how much SOPHOS is doing on the system.  SOPHOS is the virus programme this this company uses and it puts a considerable overhead on the server.

Todat I have seen it work and fail in the space of 30 minutes.

I guess I will have to live with it and except that not always will  my installation be reliable.

Thanks for your replys.   For once I believe it is not an AutoDESK Electrical.

hees  John Quigley

[johnq · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob

I have been on Holidays.  Thanks for your reply.  We agree on how it should work.

May be it is the way I am doing my save.

I use the "save" that is in the pull down menue under the "Big red  A".  It does not make a .BAK   I am still testing.  The SAVE   in the    FILE     pull down menue is also unreliable.

see screen shots

I have just been doing some more testing.  the creation of a .BAK file seem to be dependant on how busy our server is and how much SOPHOS is doing on the system.  SOPHOS is the virus programme this this company uses and it puts a considerable overhead on the server.

Todat I have seen it work and fail in the space of 30 minutes.

I guess I will have to live with it and except that not always will  my installation be reliable.

Thanks for your replys.   For once I believe it is not an AutoDESK Electrical problem.

hees  John Quigley