accidentally overwrote a file

[HMA peter]

I accidentally overwrote a cad file with an earlier file. Is there any way of retieving the later file even if I have closed the program and switched off my computer? please!

[nukecad]

If you have 'Create a Backup' selected in the TOOLS > OPTIONS > SAVE then you will have a file called by the same name as the .dwg but with an extension of .bak. This will be saved in the same directory as the drawing.

 

This is a copy of the drawing as it was saved the time before the last save.

To get it back then just change the .bak to .dwg (you should change the name as well to be on the safe side and not overwrite the latest saved version).

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If this dosnt work then there is another option if you have set Automatic saves every xx minutes.

In this case you will have somewhere a set of .sv$ files.

These are saved in the directory you have set in TOOLS > OPTIONS > FILES > Automatic Save File Pathname.

 

The name usually looks something like-

my_drawing_1234567_08_04_29.sv$

if you change this to-

my_drawing_1234567_08_04_29.dwg

then it should open as a normal drawing file.

 

This dosnt always work; it depends on whever you have set automatic saves to FULL or INCREMENTAL but its worth a go.

[HMA peter]

To Nuke cad

 

Thank you very much.

 

very much appreciated - i will try the things you suggest and try to keep my job!!!

[ReMark]

Do you even have AutoCAD set up to save file as .bak?

[Cad64]

i will try the things you suggest and try to keep my job!!!

 

Doesn't your company perform a nightly backup of all files on the server? Can't you go back to the tapes from yesterday and retrieve the file?

[BIGAL]

As an computer dealer I was asked by my former boss to call in someone who lived close by to a panicking customer , the computer was 1 month old it basicly died, I asked the architect who was also sold a tape backup unit within the unit "did you do any backups ? " his reply "No !"

 

Very expensive lesson for a couple of minutes work every now and then, if on a network copy to somewhere else every day. How many days work can you afford to lose ?

[mrbucket]

Gotta do backups as others have said. Sometimes, depending on how much work I get done, I will save am and pm files, that way I only need to redo a mornings or afternoons work.

 

If you have no earlier save dates, nukecad's way might be your only choice. As Bigal mentioned, save it off the computer your using just in case. Cheap way to do it is a flash drive, they are so cheap now, get a 4 gig one and back-up the previous dates on external hard drive when you can get one.

[dbroada]

you probably WON'T have any sv$ files. They get cleared everytime AutoCAD exits cleanly. They will only be there in the event of AutoCAD closing unexpectedly.