Renaming .dwg seems only to copy it to the new file name, not allowing a new design to use its original name.

[munderhill2]

I have a question about the saving and naming of .dwg files. I am a student and new to AutoCAD and I was given a fairly simple assignment to complete which I did well in advance of its due date. In the meantime, my instructor changed some of the requirements for this assignment, including the modelled object itself. Rather than going back to my original design and altering it, I merely started a new design.
Within the class there is a simple rubric for the naming of the files we submit, 'name-assignment.dwg' so I first renamed the original file I had created so I could use the required rubric on my new file. I noticed after I had submitted (what I thought was) my new file I discovered that AutoCAD had not changed the name of my older file, it made a copy with the new name, but my original file was still intact under the required name. It did save my new file as 'rubric.dwg ('my name' 'conflicted copy' 'yyyy-mm-dd').dwg'. Interestingly, the .bak file using the original file name is of my new work, not my older design.
Is this intentional? What is the reasoning behind not being able to rename .dwg files? Or is there something else going on here I should be paying attention to?

[R_Tweed]

Autocad does not have a function to rename files.   There is saveas which is different. How are you accessing the sink file?

1. Are you using SSM or project navigator?

2. Is the sink an Xref or construct?

[rwrightWMDSY]

As mentioned above, there is no rename function within AutoCAD.  You can either do a SAVEAS and produce a new file with a new name (the orighinal file and name will still exist) open the File Explorer on your system and manually change the name there.  

[David_W_Koch]

@munderhill2 

Welcome to the community!

From your screenshot, it appears that you are saving your files to an Autodesk Construction Cloud [ACC] project.

I did two tests, one to a BIM 360 site and one to an ACC site.  I created a file and saved it.  Opened it and made a change or two and resaved it.  Then I renamed that file in File Explorer (which is what I assume you did).  I started a new file and saved it to the same cache folder with the original file name.  I did not have the same experience you did.  I did not get a conflicted copy file and the file with the original name still shows the contents of the second file, not the renamed file.

When you renamed the file, could it have been locked on the ACC site?  I would expect that you would have been alerted to that at the very least, even if it is not capable of preventing you from renaming it.

[munderhill2]

Hi David,
Thank you so very much for taking the time to explore this, and responding
to my inquiry.
The file was not locked onto an ACC site, all of this transpired within my
personal computer. The file is backed-up to my own Dropbox account, but I
open and work exclusively from my PC at home. My only digital connection
with ACC is when I upload a completed project file there for review
and evaluation by my instructor. and I had uploaded the original to that
internal ACC URL but it was not that file to which I had attempted to
change the name, it was the one on my PC.
I have noticed since then there is another file to which something very
similar happened. "Underhill-Layers.dwg', a .png attached here. It was
after I made the changes and all the rest had happened I wanted to double
check another exercise I had completed, as the key was at that point
available. Again on 2/3/24, I opened the .dwg which I am assuming was dated
1/29/24. I made no changes to this file as it checked out against the key
to be completely correct. So I closed it and moved on. It was yesterday I
noticed the two new "conflicted" files with the name of the project I had
opened on 2/3. I had made no attempt to change the file, other than merely
opening it, looking at it, and then closing it again, nor did I try to
change the name of the original file, yet it still made this copy of the
file, but this time the conflicted file had its own .bak file with the date
I had accessed it (2/3/2024), the original .bak file retained the original
date, 1/29/2024, and now both the .dwg files have the date and time I
opened them to make sure they were correct.
I have not yet attempted to create a new project, though that will be
happening within the next 24 hours. I will be curious to see if this
continues, or if I figure out what I might be doing to create this. To that
end I will be more carefully paying attention to all my input and
on-the-fly corrections, as they are not along a linear path that a seasoned
professional's keystrokes would be (more than a few 'ESC' and 'DEL' along
the way).

Again, thank you for your time with this. I would like to figure it out,
but if it just fades into black, I guess I can move on.

Cheers,
~michael