Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Restoring files from backup

Anonymous
Not applicable
How do I restore a file from backup when there is no power failure or other interruption? I have autosave on and I go to the folder listed and see no PLN or PLA files there. Am I in the right place? The reference guide does not tell me any details about what to look for. I am a Archicad SE user
4 REPLIES 4
Anonymous
Not applicable
If you mean to open the autosaved file it should give you this option the next time you launch ArchiCAD. I don't know of any way to directly open the files in the autosave folder.
Stress Co_
Advisor
Look for a file in the autosave folder named: @global.T
Rename it with a .pln extension and open it like a regular file.

That said, my experience has been... if it doesn't give you the option on the next restart (like Matthew writes) ... the Global.T file is usually gone

EDIT:
After re-reading your post.... not sure if it would be there if there wasn't a computer failure/shut down.

Is there a .BPN file?
Marc Corney, Architect
Red Canoe Architecture, P. A.

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Anonymous
Not applicable
Thanks for the responses.
I searched the disc for that file and it wasn't there.
It took me a while to get over wasting so much time but I redid the work.
I'm usually good at saving but got caught.
I opened a previous version of the project to copy some elements
and accidentally closed the current session without saving.
I still don't understand why, with my backup settings in place, you can still lose your work. Seems like another weakness in the software.
Sometimes I feel that those of us who are on SE and not on networks
have limitations that users of a more mainstream software would not have to endure. I have a list, but it's not my job to correct software as an end user.

Thanks again, though, for your response!
Barry Kelly
Moderator
denmarch wrote:
I still don't understand why, with my backup settings in place, you can still lose your work.
The autosave file is not a "backup" as such of your file.
It is a constantly updated file that guards against power failure, computor failure (except for hard drives) and Archicad crashes.
Because you shut your file down properly (even though it was a mistake to close it without saving) Archicad has assumed you no longer need this file and therefore deletes the autosave files from your system.
Had there been some kind of failure then the files would still be there and you would be prompted to load them the next timeyou start Archicad.

There is the BPN file but this will always be one save older than your PLN file so wouldn't be much help in this case.

The only true backups of your files occur only if you manually save them yourself or set up some backup software that can periodically backup all your files.
Even these software backups are only as good as the interval for which they are set (weekly, daily, hourly).

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
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