Automatic save: "X" minutes between saves (explanation)

[Anonymous]

Hi all, I am looking for clarification about the AutoCAD 2014 (and some previous versions) Automatic Save feature in the "File Safety Precautions" section of the "Open and Save" Tab in the Options menu (see screenshot)

The problem I'm having is that, if I start a drawing...do a bunch of work to it then wait an hour and force a crash of some sort...one that autocad cannot create a temp or anything from...im finding no "auto-saves" and also no "created backups after each save" (the checkbox option right below it)

my auto-save feature is currently checked, and set to 10 minutes between saves, the create backups check box is also checked.

That being said, I'm drawing the conclusion that the Automatic save feature is slightly misleading in its representation...

From what I've gathered this auto-save feature only starts to work after you manually save it the first time...so calling it an all out auto-save is slightly misrepresentation...since its a post-primary auto-save...

I am just curious if someone who is more familiar with this can please confirm or deny my assumptions and if they are incorrect, please correctly define how exactly and when this feature works, and when it starts to work.

Thanks for looking.

[rkmcswain · Accepted solution]

Autosave is for power loss or other catastrophic events. Do not rely on it for anything.

Use the QSAVE command if you want to save some work you are doing. 

If SAVETIME is set to 10, and you QSAVE at 9:00am and the power goes out at 9:09, you will lose 9 minutes of work.

If SAVETIME is set to 10, and you QSAVE at 9:00am and the power goes out at 9:11, you will have an autosave file to fall back on and only lose 1 minute of work.

You can read more details on Autosave here: The Autosave Mystery.

Lastly, Autosave does work on new, unnamed drawings.

It simply writes a copy of the file with a name like this: Drawing3_1_5676_7994.sv$

[deke01]

It may also help to know where those "Autosaves" are:

[rkmcswain]

It is described in the linked article.
You can type in SAVEFILEPATH to see it also.

Or to just open it, paste this to the command line:
(startapp "explorer" (getvar "SAVEFILEPATH"))