AUTOSAVE!!!

[CNCbyTME]

For the love of Dog, institute an autosave feature. I use this software for business. Multi-Million Dollar projects. Constantly. I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that when we get involved in projects, we get tunnel vision. Why? Because Inventor is incredible software and the design possibilities are endless. 

However, you can't include an Autosave Feature? 

As much as I love your software, I curse your name every time I'm building a project for a client and the software just decides to close. No rhyme. No reason.

The VERY least you can do while your software is so prone to crashes, it to allow your customers who spend ridiculous amounts of money to use your un-reliable software is to ensure we won't lose our work as we use it.

Make it happen! Vectorworks has that feature AND NEVER crashes.

[j.van.dodewaard]

 How do I add an pop-up with Yes or No in the following rule:

External Rule :

If AutoSaveTrigger >= 100 Then
AutoSaveTrigger = 0
ThisDoc.Save
Else
Trigger += 1
End If

[jswitze]

Several users at our company have requested this.  Another nice feature would be a recovery file when it crashes similar to what Word does.

[Aadithya01]

Hi @jswitze

what you asked is actually correct ... this is also available in Fusion 360 ... Development team of Inventor and Fusion 360 must talk to each other ... 

Regards

Aadithya

[CAD-e-Shack]

I've been using the Auto-Save add-in from the appstore. It paid for itself after one crash.

However, my only gripe is that it doesn't make a crash file like what @jswitze was talking about. It only saves in intervals, so if you have a 2 hour interval, you can loose up to 2 hours of work, but if you have 15 minute intervals and a lot of files open, there is a lag every 15 minutes while all the files are backed up.

But i guess thats the price of not losing work.

[mapsuporte]

Autosave for inventor files to prevent losing work when a crash occurs similar to how AutoCAD creates a temp file and has a recovery manager in AutoCAD.

This is one of the most requested features by our customers when we discuss what they would like to see in the software.

[jtylerbc]

Also a commonly requested feature here on these boards.  See also these older posts that already have votes.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/autosave-inventor-files/idi-p/4320299

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/autosave/idi-p/5753517

[Anonymous]

Yes, thi comes up every year and every year I say NO!!!!!!

You do NOT want an autosave in a parametric modeler.

If Inventor crashes, it saves the version that crashed in the "old.versions" folder.

But no no no no no, no autosave in Inventor, please!!!!

[nikkwong0]

This issue is so wtf. The fact that we have to argue for autosave is just insane. **** you autodesk. 

[Anonymous]

It is an excellent Idea. It is a necessity. We lose a lot of time when there is a power outage or an error.
The rest are just excuses.
We will be infinitely grateful to Autodesk to take back the autosave.

[werkstatt3P2UR]

Mein sehnlichster Wunsch wäre eine autosave Einstellung. Ich habe immer mal wieder einen Systemabsturz von Inventor (oft bei der Simulation von fertigprogrammierten Bauteilen in HSM).

Dann einen Absturtz und nicht selten ist die Halbe Arbeit eines Vormittages futsch. Andere Programme (SolidWorks / CAM; Tebis; Mastercam; ...) arbeiten mit einem ständig gesicherten Modell. Da ist nix verloren.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Jürgen Ochmann

[CJachning]

E.G. in Solid Works this function is implemented and it works very well.

The solution is very simple, as this function is only required as protection against data loss due to a crash.

Do it like Office has been doing for many years:

1. create an temporary file

2. delete the file during the standard saving process started by the user

3. When the program starts, it searches for temporary files

3.1 If it doesn't find a temporary file, it starts normally.

3.1 If it finds any, a recovery option is offered.

[CJachning]

It is implemented in many CAD systems such as Solid Works and works very well there.

The solution is very simple, as this function is only required as protection against data loss due to a crash.

Do it like Office has been doing for many years:

1. create an temporary file

2. delete the file during the standard saving process started by the user

3. When the program starts, it searches for temporary files

3.1 If it doesn't find a temporary file, it starts normally.

3.1 If it finds any, a recovery option is offered.

Currently Inventor is crashing while checking in to Vault at complex models (cast --> many rounded edges).

This situation (crashes/unstable behavior in combination with missing car storage/backup) is unacceptable.

[gunter.stachon]

… I guess there is still no solution for this Problem... only those Workarounds... SOLUTIONS - NOT WORKAROUNDS are needed… if i had to choose which CAD System I could work with… it would not be Inventor... only feeding a Gollum... 

[janelson33]

Sorry, we'd have to pay $20K and our first born for that. They don't take kindly to common sense solutions, nor will anything that has Solidworks written on it ever be looked at by their staff. I think there's an office legend that you implode after mutting the phrase, "Solidworks".

[matt]

It amazes me how far behind the times AutoDesk is with these issues.  I have a crash every single day in inventor and lose time every day.  Inventor 2020 is a JOKE

[ChrisMitchell01]

Hi Matt - I looked up your contact info in our crash reporting system & don't see anything reported from you or your company domain.

If you're using 2020 please ensure you have installed the Inventor 2020.3 update as well as any Windows recommended updates & then the next time you experience a crash please add your email address & we can investigate further. If you continue to see issues then the forum (https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-forum/bd-p/78) is really a better place to report them as opposed to this Idea.

Thanks

Chris

[bryantsonnier]

This thread has literally been open since 2013.  It has a couple hundred votes.  I think Autodesk wants inventor to die.  

by the by, is there an ilogic solution with a confirm box?

[bryantsonnier]

What's really F****** sad is the inventor coders are like "duh... it can't be done, er... background operations and what not, uh.... yah that's it."    Then 3rd party steps in like "No actually it can be done and here are all kinds of nice features along with it"  

https://apps.autodesk.com/INVNTOR/en/Detail/Index?id=2011674918500320289&appLang=en&os=Win64

Seriously I would be ashamed as a programmer.  Either the programming staff if incompetent, understaffed, or poorly managed or some combination thereof.  This add-in has been out since 2018, inventor should have bought the rights and made it permanent of they were too lazy or incompetent to do it themselves.

[johnmondro4888]

Why can't you just give us an option? Please? I'd gladly give back the "Dark Theme" for this functionality LOL!

Wondering why is this request continually brought up, gains votes - just to have the thread mashed into another thread where the votes are reset (or disappears altogether.) Is it really that difficult to implement?

I agree that it could be problematic on a large assembly, but in a complex part? Where an operation that Inventor doesn't like turns your system fans on overdrive and you sit stupidly - hoping that the application recovers (but it never does.)

@Anonymous How about if the option were to be provided - and you just leave it off? Would that make you happy? And by the way - Inventor does not regularly save versions of date in the "OldVersions" folder. So many times after a crash I've looked into the folder to find absolutely nothing. It's almost a sick joke.

[Anonymous]

@johnmondro4888 , I'm fine with the option being there as long as it's not set as a default where everyone needs to remember to de-select it.

I just see a lot of possible issues of this auto-save function while the user is in the middle of an operation.

If the autosave is able to be paused while an operation is happening or while a user is inputting information, then OK. I just see it as one of those "Be careful what you ask for, you might just get it" deals.

As far as the "OldVersions" folder, in my experience it depends on the crash type. Yes, there are times where there will not be a version saved on a crash, but other times there have been, indicated by the time stamp of the version and the time of the crash.