How do I Backup my Project? (1.65)
ADE has several ways to back up your project and protect against losing valuable work. The first is auto save, the second is a bak file and the third is the Project Backup Tool
Autosave
Autosave is an automatic process. It is designed to protect your work in case ADE crashes. It does not provide a permanent back up of the project and generally you do not access the autosave data directly
- Auto save is timed and you can set how often you want it to happen. Too often and the process may interfere with your work pattern, Leaving it too long between saves may lose valuable work. The default is 5 minutes which works well for most situations. You can change it to suit your own needs in Settings > Options > General Tab
- This is a visual indicator of how long it it to the next autosave. If the project is large then the autosave can take a noticeable amount of time. When this indicator gets to Red then it may be worth not trying to save or compile your work until the autosave is complete
Recover from crash
If ADE crashes and there is unsaved work then next time you start ADE you should see this message. Click Yes to reload your work based on the last Autosave. If you choose No then ADE will start normally without loading the auto saved file.
Local backup file
Each time you save a project ADE will rename the pre-save file with .bak. This really only helps with the last changes. However if your current project file becomes corrupt or you delete it by mistake then you can get a recent copy by removing the .bak from the backup file name
Project backup
There has been a project backup function in ADE for a long time but this has now been updated and will hopefully be more useful. This function allows you to take a backup of the project at any time and include back ground images and model files if you wish. The files are stored as zip files and have timestamped names. At the moment the back ups are manual but we are planning to add some scheduling in a later version that will automate the process.
Open the backup dialog
There is a new menu for Project related functions and this now contains access to the backup tool. Click Project > Backup to open the dialog
This is a simple dialog where you can set your options and ADE will remember them
- This is the folder where your backup will go. Generally this would be on an external drive or different drive from your ADE drive.
- Set the backup folder by clicking this button
- You can enter a comment here that reminds you about this backup. Such as where you are in the work or some other useful comment
- By default ADE will save any background images that are used in the project. If you don't want to save them then uncheck this
- ADE will also save any model files that are used in the project. This could be useful if you accidentally delete one or lose track of it
- Click Backup to save the project. This will also remember the settings for next time you make a backup
Generally this should only take a second or so and then the dialog will close
Backup files
Each backup is named with the project file name and a time/date stamp. This should make it easy to identify which backup to open
Within each zip file the different folders and files that are saved are found. If you added a comment then a small text file will be present with your comment in it.
Restore files
To restore files just open the backup zip and navigate to the files you want to restore. Generally the folder structure for each saved file will match the original so you can find them and make sure they go back in the correct place.
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