AutoCAD Back Up behaviour

[ukpxm021]

Is there any way I can change backup behaviour so that it is the same way it used to be with AutoCAD, i.e. it keeps all the previous backups in the backup location until you specifically delete them? Is there a system variable somewhere that I can change?

In the past it was sometimes useful to be able to get back to a previous version of the file.

I just lost some work again due to server issues beyond my control and once again there was no backup file saved.

There never seems to be a backup file there when CAD crashes.

Specifically on this occasion, I used the AECTOACAD command and the program crashed due to lack of server space.

As an aside, it would have been better if the software could manage this sort of scenario and recover from it. Also if it could return a message explaining what the problem is.

Unusual circumstances as we don't expect the individual server to fill up completely because it is part of an automatically managed system. Probably filled up with Revit files before it could respond properly, but that's yet another issue!

[pendean]

Do you mean BAK files? Nothing have changed, you the end user can still turn in and off BAK file creation and you can still actively specify where they go if you remembered to install Express Tools and used MOVEBAK command.
And OPTIONS command's FILES tab always has and still does allow end users to specify where to locate the SV$ autosave files (if you turned on and use the feature).

[rkmcswain]

---

@Tcaddy wrote:

I just lost some work again due to server issues beyond my control and once again there was no backup file saved.

---

What Dean said above, nothing has changed.

May I also suggest pressing Ctrl+S every few commands, don't wait 10 or 20 minutes between saves. This should eliminate any significant loss of work.

[ukpxm021]

Apologies - just coming down with a cold and my head is a bit woolly - I meant to talk about Automatic file saves not bak files,

[ukpxm021]

OK - I've just realised that I didn't have the "Create backup copy with each save" box ticked in the Options. Everything back to as it was now.

[rkmcswain]

Apologies up front, I'm not trying to sound condescending or anything, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've needed an autosave file in the last 15+ years - by simply forcing myself to manually save often

I just bring this up because I still see a lot of people who RELY on the autosave file and they are frequently disappointed when something goes wrong and it has failed.

[ukpxm021]

I'm not sure what you're impying; I don't RELY on the autosave file at all and I'm disappointed with your input which adds absolutely nothing of value to the conversation.

Apologies in advance if this puts you out at all, but you DO sound like a bit of a condescending twit, to be frank.

[Charles_Shade]

After many years here in the Forum for me and rk has been active at AUGI since the beginning of time we have read more times than he and I and most all the other frequenters here could count on all our fingers and toes how many people thought the BAK file would be the savior.

Only to find just how poor this functionality is.

The advice to actively Save is sound and needs to be offered whenever a question about Saving comes up; whether it is germane or not.

[dgorsman]

Chances are, AutoCAD files aren't the only ones you want to roll-back, so I'd suggest something more universal like Shadowcopy to automate time-indexed back-ups.  We have that running, and its been highly useful.

Keep in mind, this is a technical forum, not a social one.  There are many users here with decades of experience in CAD applications and management, who have *literally* seen it all.  While such posts may sound condesending in, say, Facebook in here they are simple expressions of desire to impart that accumulated wisdom.