Hi All! Autosave is an emergency option for saving your work if ArchiCAD crashes or quits for some unforeseen/uncontrollable reason.
Later when you FIRST start your ArchiCAD it will offer the possibility to recover the project. It will do this only once. If you choose to recover the project you can have most of your work recovered depending on what you have set in Work Environment / Data Safety and Integrity. You have the possibilities to save
- each step
- every 5 minutes
- every 20 minutes
(You can test this if you shut down ArchiCAD from Task Manager, for example.)
Autosave folder stores data that can only be opened by ArchiCAD. You cannot open anything manually that was saved here.
2. Backup is a second copy of your pln at the same location where your pln is stored if you have the checkbox clicked under Work Environment / Data Safety and Integrity / Make Backup Copy.
This is a file with extension .bpn.
You can later manually open this. This file is created when you first save your pln. Then at every save action you perform the bpn file will be overwritten, so it keeps up with you in saving your work. If your pln is damaged for some reason and you cannot recover it, you can still continue your work from the time point when you last saved your work by opening the bpn file.
So what I can suggest is to click the checkbox under Work Environment / Data Safety and Integrity / Make Backup Copy AND save relatively often. Then if you quit ArchiCAD and click accidentally on "Don't Save" you still have the state of your work at the last save.
If ArchiCAD crashes, use the recovery option.