Saving Multiple File Copies

[Anonymous]

Hey all,

I'm currently running AutoCAD 2015 on my Macbook. Whenever I save a change to a drawing file, the program creates a new file rather than overwriting the existing file and updating the backup. For example, I have a file named Drawing.dwg. The first save creates a Drawing.bak file, but subsequent saves create Drawing02.dwg, Drawing03.dwg, Drawing04.dwg, and so on and so on. I have scoured my settings and can't seem to find anyway to change it back to normal. Has anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it??? 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

I would see that as a permission issue, maybe you don't have permissions to delete or to overwrite an existing file in the folder you are working?

Try the same on a different drive and folder (e.g. create a local TEMP folder, make sure you do have read/write/delete permissions and try the same again).

- alfred -

[maxim_k · Accepted solution]

Hi Katrina,

I believe you saving your drawings in iCloud Drive folder. If I'm right, then you need to change the place where you put your AutoCAD drawings.
There is knowing issue with iCloud and AutoCAD for Mac - it creates duplicates each time when you use QSAVE command when drawings are inside iCloud sync folder.

Maxim

[Emmsleys]

Hello @Anonymous,

Welcome to the Autodesk community.

If possible can you provide a bit more information...

Are you saving these files to a cloud service? iCloud? Dropbox?

If so could you test savign your files locally or to a network/server?

Post back is you have additional questions.

Thanks.

[jessicaBAWVG]

hi - how do you go about changing "where" you save your drawings then? This happens to me too, my files are on my desktop and thats where I want to save them

[maxim_k]

Hi Jessica,

If you prefer to save your drawings to Desktop, then the only one way to solve the problem - turn off Cloud Sync for Desktop in iCloud pane of macOS System Preferences:

[Anonymous]

Issue:

Each time when saving a drawing (.dwg) file from AutoCAD for Mac, a copy is created with an incremented number appended to its name instead of saving to (overwriting) the same existing drawing, creating multiple copies of the same drawing.

Causes:

The folder the drawing is saved to is synced in iCloud and there are invalid permissions on the iCloud Drive. The DWG file is not being allowed to be renamed and overwritten for the backup file process that AutoCAD does (by default) when saving.

Solution:

Turn off the backup file option. On the command line in AutoCAD for Mac, type ISAVEBAK and set the value to 0 (zero).

[Anonymous]

Does this ISAVEBAK 0 comment affect other things? Say when autocad shuts down unexpectedly and when reopened saves the file that I am working on, does this command changes this, as well?

[maxim_k]

Welcome to Autodesk Forums!

Hi Esra,

Setting ISAVEBAK=0 will prevent AutoCAD from creating backup files on each save. And backup file is an exact copy of the drawing file prior to the last save.
If you have Autosave enabled in AutoCAD Preferences, then Autosave copy will be created regardless of ISAVEBAK settings. You can set Automatic Save time to low value and should be able to recover lost data from last Autosave file. By default Autosave files are in
/Users/YOUR_USER_NAME/Documents/Autodesk/Autosave
folder on your Mac.

[Anonymous]

Hello Maxim, 

pleased to meet you. My name is Shelby and I am working under Jacque Larson. We both employ the program google drive file stream to sync Google drive to our computers so we may access a shared work database. 

We have been running into this same issue of CAD file copies being created as you noted below. Given the structure of our work, at this time all of our files are saved to Google drive. I am not sure we could save the files elsewhere.

Since this post I am replying to is now almost three years old, is there some alternative solution we might find? For example, I heard there is a way to limit working on a file to just one user? Any information you have would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!

[maxim_k]

Hi Jacqueline,

As I understand, you have the same issue with Google drive as with iCloud enabled folders. Am I correct?
Which way you connect to Google drive? Do you use Google drive application or another software?

[Anonymous]

Judging from other posts on this forum yes the issue on Google Drive is the same one as with iCloud enabled folders. However, my associate and I both work on windows, so we only use Google Drive.

For your second question, we both use an app called Drive File Stream to stream folders to our devices direct from the cloud. This allows us to access google drive files directly from our windows folders.

[maxim_k]

Hi Jacqueline,

If you use AutoCAD for Windows, than it is better to ask your question here:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/bd-p/706
I'm not familiar with applications for connecting Google Drive in Windows environment and cannot give you clear advice.
At the same time I tested AutoCAD for Mac with Google Drive mounted as local volume with Cloud Mounter application and noticed "multiple file copies" issue too.

[Anonymous]

Worked very well, thanks alot...