what are the .BAK files that are created with every drawing?

[dbroada]

Yeah we do, but i work on a copy of the bak, that way should

something go wrong, i havent messed up the archive dwg, or the

archive bak.

so you rename the -B.bak to -B.dwg or -G.dwg. I still can't see why you need the .bak file as you would have got the same result doing a saveas to the dwg file.

 

I first thought you meant you were renaming -B.bak to -B.dwg but that wouldn't work.

[ReMark]

If I need a set of "history" drawings I'll do as Dave mentions and "save as" rev A, rev B, etc. You have to be pretty disciplined to get the most benefit from this type of file management.

[skipsophrenic]

true, but it's worth the effort i've found

[rkent]

Srry didnt answer your inital question. They are backups of your drawings. Autocad is set up to autosave every so many minutes and the .bak file is the result. They are pretty much saftey nets for your drawings. Atleast that is how i look at it. To use them just rename the extension to .dwg and there ya go..

 

Just to clarify, autosave will not create a bak file, only doing a save or qsave will cause a bak file to be created (obviously, only if it is set in Options to do so). Autosave will create a file if autocad crashes, and this doesn't always work. Save often and don't count on autosave for much of anything.

 

I don't use .bak files, haven't gone to retrieve one in 20 years. Now my memory isn't that great so maybe I needed one 18 years ago and just forgot about it.

[skipsophrenic]

I don't use .bak files, haven't gone to retrieve one in 20 years. Now my memory isn't that great so maybe I needed one 18 years ago and just forgot about it.

 

just shows those with more experience have less problems

[DVDM]

I use a filemanager called Total Commander. It's basically Windows Explorer, just a lot, LOT more powerful.

 

It's fully functional shareware, a single lifetime license just $40 dollars.

 

One of the features is that you can apply a 'show' filter to the types of files that you can see. You can save these as a preset.

I have a preset that shows me only dwg / doc / xls / pdf files. The rest, I usually don't want to see, but I do want them there.

I have a preset for Inventor files, showing me only ipt / iam / idw files.

Every now and then I do a predefined search for .bak and .dwl/.dwl2 files older than 3 months, and delete those. I've never really had a use for .bak files I must admit though.

 

Go to www.ghisler.com to check it out.

 

I always launch files through this program, and rarely open files through the File>Open command in Acad.

[MikeP]

ive never used the .bak files. since all my files are saved on a server, i could call up previous versions of the drawing. since the server creates back ups of the server every 3 hours for the last 3 months

[tzframpton]

ive never used the .bak files. since all my files are saved on a server, i could call up previous versions of the drawing. since the server creates back ups of the server every 3 hours for the last 3 months

Just turn them off in the Options menu.

[RobDraw]

I have to admit that I use .bak files quite often. While creating files for projects, I often create one and save. Then I make changes and do a save as to create a new file. We are talking about creating 20-30 files quickly. (I know I should do a save as before I do the changes but it doesn't always get done that way.) All it takes is a slip of the the trigger finger on the qsave button and I've overwritten my "previous" file when I meant to create a new one. After doing the correct save as, renaming the .bak file is a quick way to get the overwritten file back. I have found other ways but, depending on the amount of changes that I made, renaming the .bak file is about the quickest.

 

Just sharing my personal experience.