topic Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves? in Modeling

how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:16:27 GMT

hi,
can anyone help me? i mistakenly deleted some part of my work in ArchiCAD, and had already saved like 7 to 8 times, before i realized i had deleted some of the work mistakenly. i need to undo to get that original work, what do i do? is there a way?

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Dwight — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:39:58 GMT

It is infuriating to delete in error. I sympathize.
Saving eradicates the undo queue.

It is possible that your backup .bpn file is not yet updated, altho after seven saves that is unlikely.

1: Close the .pln file without saving.

2: locate the backup .bpn file

3: Open it and see.

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Dwight — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:20:28 GMT

And i suppose that i should welcome you to the forum.

Please let us know how things worked out.

BTW: It is a good practice when working solo to do a "Save As" every hour or so as a sort of pre-archive and crystallized protecto-matic against these problems.

Because not all mistakes are "oops i deleted it by mistake." Bigger mistakes include entire design threads not being preserved while the design evolves.

And then you need to revert. Yikes!

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:24:44 GMT

Dwight,

Shame on you for giving false hope. The BPN is just the last saved version. Save twice in succession and you have two identical files. The only hope would be if some other backup copy were made before the mistaken deletion.

The one upside is that it only takes about a quarter to a fifth of the time to do the rework than it took the first time around (as I recall from the days before autosave).

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Karl Ottenstein — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 17:31:47 GMT

AFAIK, the bpn file is updated with each save, so it will only contain the previous version...certainly not 7 back.

Particularly when you are learning, using 'save as' at key points is wise, but can lead to a clutter of file names.

You do not give your machine or software specifications. If you are on a Mac and OS 10.5 Leopard, get an external disk drive ASAP and run Time Machine. It will automatically create hourly backups, but you can easily right click its icon to backup at any time. Then, there is no 'save as' or renaming business - you'll just have as many backups of the file as you want and can 'move back in time' to restore what you need.

If you're on Windows or an older Mac, some similar manual backup software will help if, when it creates an incremental backup (only the stuff that changed), it keeps previous files with the same name...so you can go back in time. (Not all backup software does this - a lot of it simply replaces the older files on the backup and gives you a clone of your backed up folders.)

Another option is to use TeamWork for all projects. (This is perhaps asking too much for a new user. Even as an experienced user, I do not use this approach.) Unlike Solo projects which have a single backup (bpn) file - a TeamWork project defaults to keeping 5 backups and can keep as many as you specify, in fact. Using TW in solo mode just means signing out the entire project exclusively as team leader. Stay signed out. Each time you send/receive, a new backup file is created.

Cheers,
Karl

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:13:38 GMT

Karl wrote:
AFAIK, the bpn file is updated with each save, so it will only contain the previous version...certainly not 7 back.

Just to clarify the details for any who are interested...

The ArchiCAD save command starts by creating a scratch file of the current state of the open file. Once this is successfully completed the previously saved version is renamed as the BPN and the scratch file becomes the new PLN. This avoids any possibility of file corruption from a crash during the save operation and adds the benefit of keeping the previously saved version for a backup.

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:27:55 GMT

Dwight wrote:
It is infuriating to delete in error. I sympathize.
Saving eradicates the undo queue.

Did I read it here or on the GS site that the latest hotfix of AC12 does not clear the Undo queue?
I checked and it is true.

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:01:19 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Did I read it here or on the GS site that the latest hotfix of AC12 does not clear the Undo queue?
I checked and it is true.

I can confirm that.

Re: how do i undo my project after 7 saves?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:56:35 GMT

adytc wrote:
laszlonagy wrote:
Did I read it here or on the GS site that the latest hotfix of AC12 does not clear the Undo queue?
I checked and it is true.
I can confirm that.

GREAT NEWS!