AutoCAD MEP

[#1]

I have not been able to figure out why my Autosave will not stay off.  I had it set in my profile for every 5 minutes which is fine for most of my projects, however with my current project it takes way too long for autosave to save so I keep turning it off but it somehow continues to come back on....anyone got some intel on this?

[#2]

Whether or not the Autosave is turned on depends upon the value of the global SAVETIME variable.  If it is set to 0, the feature is disabled.  It is possible that via some customization or other script/LISP that the SAVETIME variable is being set to something other than 0, thus re-enabling it.  

1. Does it always come back on to the value 5?
2. If not, what is it set for when you notice that it's back on?
3. If it is 10, that is the default, so it's possible that your AutoCAD profile settings are not being saved, in general.  
4. Do you notice that any other settings are not holding between AutoCAD sessions?  
5. Do you get a message about Windows configuring AutoCAD each time you launch the program?
6. Are you running AutoCAD with any 3rd-party add-on software?
7. How often would you say that it turns itself back on?

[#3]

I have no lisps or scripts that run (at least not that I am aware of).  I have several short cut buttons I have created over the years, however all they are is short cuts to commands with no "extras" in them.

I am going to try and backtrack the next time it happens to see if I can see the command that makes it come back on.  I have done this before but have had no luck.

Also, I have turned it off in options, exported the settings as a new profile (with the same name), deleted, purged, set a new profile, deleted and purged, deleted the old profile then imported the one I just exported.

• Does it always come back on to the value 5? Yes.  When I created this profile I set it to 5 minutes because at the time we were having some pretty nasty crashes and had been losing substantial amounts of work.
• If not, what is it set for when you notice that it's back on?  N/A
• If it is 10, that is the default, so it's possible that your AutoCAD profile settings are not being saved, in general. 
• Do you notice that any other settings are not holding between AutoCAD sessions?  I find no other setting changes, it is only Autosave
• Do you get a message about Windows configuring AutoCAD each time you launch the program? No
• Are you running AutoCAD with any 3rd-party add-on software? Yes, East Coast MEP Fab., however, this issue has been an issue long before we ever starting using East Coast software.
• How often would you say that it turns itself back on?  Every single time I turn it off, it is a very short time before it is onl again.

[#4]

If it keeps resetting the SAVETIME variable to a value of 5 (which isn't the default) then it's a safe bet that it's pulling it from an earlier version of your saved profile.  It sounds like you're doing everything correctly, but still getting an unexpected/unwanted result.

Just for testing, try logging into the computer under a newly-created local administrative Windows profile.  Launch AutoCAD, turn off the autosave feature (set SAVETIME to 0), and run the program for a while.  Work on files, open and close the program, and see if you can reproduce the behavior of the autosave turning itself back on.  During this testing, do not use any saved profile information that you're currently using.

[#5]

I wanted to check back and find out if you'd had a chance to try things out under a new Windows profile.  Please post back here and let me know how that went (if you've tried it yet).

[#6]

What I did was set savetime to 0, went to options and set the autosave to off, then exported the current settings as a new profile.

I then set my profile to a default profile and deleted my custom profile.

I restarted MEP, imported my recently saved profile and to date, the autosave issue is resolved....I now get an error about the add plotter wizard, but I do not care about that as it only ever shows at start-up.

[#7]

Excellent! I'm glad to hear that the autosave behavior appears to be better now.  

As for the add-a-plotter wizard issue, that sounds like something we used to run into when the add-a-plotter wizard shortcut pointed to an EXE file which was no longer on the system.  It was detailed in the knowledgebase article found here.

The two most common suspects are the shortcuts for adding a plotter, and for adding a plot style.  If either of them points to an EXE file that's not on your system, or if it points to an invalid location for the file, that message will result.  It's fairly easy to fix it, though.  You can either modify the existing shortcut, or delete the current one and create a new shortcut to the appropriate EXE file on your system.