To Control the Creation of Automatic Drawing Backup (.bak) Files

Backup files help ensure the safety of your drawing data. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file.

Computer hardware problems, power failures or surges, user mistakes, or software problems can cause errors in a drawing. By saving your work frequently, you can ensure a minimum of lost data if your system fails for any reason. If a problem occurs, you can restore a drawing backup file.

By default, the program creates a [drawing file name].bak file when you save a drawing. When you save, the current drawing overwrites the previous version. That previous version is saved as the backup file, should you need to restore the drawing.

1. Right-click the drawing area and choose Preferences.
2. On the Application tab, under the Application Preference dialog box, select the Automatic Save check box.

   If you do, each time you save a drawing, the previous version of your drawing is saved to a file with the same name and a .bak file extension.

   The backup file is located in the same folder as the drawing file.

3. Rename the bak file in Finder to a file with a .dwg extension to revert back.

4. To recover a previous version of your drawing from the automatically saved file, rename the file using a

   .dwg extension in place of the .sv$ extension before you close the program.