Better Versioning - fewer auto-saved versions without risk of losing work

[hkerrick]

I'm thinking of something like microsoft office, where I only get an actual new version permanently recorded to my computer when I hit save, but if my computer crashes there is always an auto-recovered file that is fairly recent.

Right now I have Fusion set to auto-save every 15 mins to protect my work against crashes (which are still frequent enough to be of concern) but this results in hundreds of versions so when I do want to find an older version it takes quite while to pick my way past dozens of autosaves to find the version I'm actually interested in. I would like a distinction between the autosaves that are actually committed as new versions and an auto-recovered file that is accurate to the last 5-15 mins that does not exist as a permanent version.

I know there is technically an "auto-recover" file that appears, but in my experience that auto-recovered file was no more-recent than the auto-save frequency i had established in settings, which is why I increased the frequency from 1 hour to 15 mins.

[schneik-adsk]

We could do something like add a filter to the version history to show/hide auto save versions? Would this help?

[lure23]

To hkerrick, he's comparing the saving to Microsoft Office. My reference is how OS X iWork/iCloud handles saves and versions.

What I think is the Real Thing (tm) here is to start looking at UI and i.e. saving from the point of regular programs, not from other, existing CAD tools.

I don't have use for more than one auto-saved (emergency) version, just as hkerrick requests.

I would have a use for full, mergeable version history (a bigger thing, suggested elsewhere in the forums). Implementing this right would bring offline editing as a direct, free bonus.

[Oceanconcepts]

I agree- the file I'm working on now has 104 autosaved versions. When there get to be so many versions, any useful transition points are lost in the muddle. Distinguishing between auto saved and "marked" versions would be a step forward, as would the ability to hide auto saves. 

Ron

[kat.ingalls]

This is a great suggestion. I think the distinction between "Auto-saved" vs. "Version save" is important. I'd only want the most recent version of the Auto-save copy. For anything I want to keep as a reference version, I'd manually save (as a sort of "vxx" in traditional files).

I like the idea of having a timeline of versions (and maybe branches) that you can reference, but without cluttering the view with Auto-Saves that are no longer relevant.

[stanh1]

I like the filter idea.

[TRACERfire]

I definitely like the option of filtering between auto-saved versions and one's that are manually saved. I have one assembly that is in version 304 now 😕

[Helmi74]

I also think there's room for improvement.

My 2 cents:

- emergency autosave into one file every x Minutes where x should probably be between 5 and 15.

- manual versions that should be named

- optional automatic snapshot every y minutes/hours - i would set that to 60 minutes or so - should be named or marked differentl to manual versions

Maybe the naming scheme autosave, snapshot, version could also allow to differentiate enough.

[asmenor]

As long as it's unstable, and you're not keeping a bunch of autosaved versions, I'd make the emergency autosave option every minute, 30s, or maybe just a delta with every user action. 5 minutes might not seem like much, but (a) you'd be surprised how much you can so in such a short period and (b) it's über frustrating to have to redo anything.

Incidently - a nice side-benefit of keeping track of deltas would be that you could have design-wide undo that would let us step back and forth through the entire process without losing undos after a crash / re-launch.

[kamil.trebunia]

This one annoyed me since the beginning!

Auto-saves should not count as revisions, because they do not mark revisions. They are just checkpoints or backups and that's it, so they should be treated as such. We really need ability to filter them out, but also.. Why do we need so many of them anyway? I would be totally ok with just keeping auto-saves 48 hours old or less - after this much time I will loose track of what I was developing when anyway, so they will become completely useless - especially if there's so many of them.

[schneik-adsk]

What if we gave versions Tags. User versions could have custome tags that you make and autosave versions had an "autosave" tag?  This whay you could extend filtering in your own ways.

I might want a "Milestone" tag and a "Release" tag for important saved versions.

[colin.smith]

As of the January release there will no longer be autosaves.

The only way to create a version will be to hit the save icon or Ctrl + S.

Crashes will still do an auto-recover. 

[kjlpdx]

I am a new user of fusion360.  yesterday I was working, went to push/pull a face and the entire program crashed and went away.  after recovery I noticed that the MOVE function was different, it now had more options and the menu looked different.  before I could move bodies by selecting the edge of a hole and a point at the center showed up for both origin and targets.  I now can't do this type of selection.  I haven't a clue as to what changed.  any ideas?