Layout auto-save not working

LayOut
1

I am using SketchUp 2014 Pro, with Layout version 14.1.1283, on Mac OS X Mavericks.

I have auto-save set for 5-minute intervals.

Layout just terminated out of the blue. Bug splatter.

On the restart, I have no auto-save file available in the recent menu.

I just lost over 2 hours of work! Argh!

Anyone have any ideas? Is anyone else having issues with auto-save not working?

2

@dougjoseph

Have you tried searching for .skb files through your Finder? Generally, the .skb files on a Mac
 Generally, the .skb files are saved in your user folder â€ș “Library” â€ș “Application Support” â€ș “SketchUp #” â€ș “SketchUp” > “Autosave.”

You may also want to make sure that the check box for auto-saving has remained selected. In the Sketchup window menu, click preferences>general>saving, and the check box should be selected. Hopefully this helps. If not, there seem to be some incredibly knowledgeable people on this forum, so one of them may have another idea.

~~Drew

1 Like
3

Thanks Drew. Please note I’m referring to Layout, rather than SketchUp. I have an “autosave” folder under the “SketchUp” folder in the Application Support area, where .skp (not .skb) files get saved. However, there is nothing there for the missing Layout work this morning, and there is no “autosave” folder at all under the “Layout” folder in the Application Support area.

I definitely had the checkmark for autosave enabled. I cannot find any evidence that Layout is autosaving anything at all. Ever. !!!

4

Drew’s post was very helpful, but I’m still stumped on why Layout is not autosaving. Anyone else have any tips?

5

@dougjoseph: Have you tried searching all “*.layout” -files?

When I’m using Layout, the backups are automatically created. If the Layout file is for ex. “House.layout”, the backup file is “Backup of House.layout”. This can be found from the same folder with the original one. I’m using windows 8. - Sandridge

6

Thanks, Sandridge. However, I am speaking of the “Auto-save” feature, not the “Create Backup” feature.

They are two separate features. The “Create Backup” feature creates a backup copy of the previous save, which is what you mentioned. The other feature incrementally auto-saves your current project, just in case the program shuts down unexpectedly. When restarting after such a program failure, then access to the auto-saved file (which is not the same as the “Create Backup” file) is to be available in the “recent” list.

This is per this help page: http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/96102

Incidentally, of the two features, the “Create Backup” one is working for me. But my own personally, manually saved file was of course newer than the backup, by about an hour, However, it was also older than any proper, temporary file created by auto-save should have been, by about two hours, except the auto-save file does not exist.

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Can someone who knows for certain where the Layout auto-save temp file would be, and what it would be named as far as extension, etc, please let me know, so I can verify whether the feature is functioning on my Mac? The feature seems to not be working as far as I can tell.

8

Hi-

The auto-save function in LayOut works like this:

A LayOut file is secretly a .zip file. When a file is opened it is unzipped into a temporary directory, and then read into memory so it can be edited. When an auto-save happens, all of the in-memory changes are saved back into the temporary directory. (When a manual save happens, there’s an additional step where this updated temporary directory is zipped up and copied to wherever the file should be saved.)

When LayOut closes normally, the temporary directories created during that particular run are cleaned up. If LayOut crashes, the temporary directories aren’t cleaned up - and this is how we find “recovered files”. On my machine, these temporary directories are located in:

“/var/folders/x4/q40x3v7d23j7d3vywjt6cb65mkwh3m/T/com.sketchup.LayOut.2015.mdurant/”

and have names such as

LAYOUT.VT4ZF0

If you want to test the auto-save functionality, open an existing file, make a change, and then wait for auto-save to fire. (You’ll see an “Auto save successful” message in the status bar when this happens). Now do a “Force-Quit” on LayOut to simulate a crash. Re-open LayOut and go to File->New to bring up the file dialog. I would expect to see a new entry in the “Recovered Files” tab containing the change you made.

2 Likes
9

Very helpful! I see a status update saying “Auto save complete.” I sure wish I knew why 2 hours worth of work did not benefit from auto save during an abnormal crash this morning.

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Hopefully my loss of work in this morning’s crash was a rare aberration.

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Hi @Marc

I am now certain that, at least on my setup and system, Layout’s autosave feature is not functioning as described.

I can see the status saying “Auto save completed.”

However, my system just locked up again, and once again, when I relaunch Layout, the couple or so hours of work that should have been autosaved, was nowhere to be found.

According to this help page, “Should LayOut abnormally exit, this temporary file will be available under ‘Recent’ files when you relaunch LayOut (or under New from Template if you’ve disabled template selection).”

However, when I look there on relaunching I see no option to open an autosaved version at all.

12

I am still perplexed, but here is more info.

Here are steps I have taken to reproduce the issue and what happened in the process.

  1. While using Layout, I made an obvious change and waited until the 5 minute interval, when the autosave was created.

  2. I then opened a file browser to the place on the hard disk where the autosave is stored. I can see it there, and I have verified by the files’ date/time stamps, it is the auto-save. It was saved in a folder called “LAYOUT.dS3ynZ”

  3. I then used “Force Quit Applications” to abnormally force Layout to close.

  4. I then reopened Layout.

I did the above process twice. The first time it did not show the autosave file as available. The second time it did. The first time, when it did not, there was a hard lockup of Layout that occurred literally during startup. So on the first try, I had to open Layout twice, and it was actually the second opening of Layout that completed the steps and revealed no available autosave file. I know I was looking in the right place because on the second pass through the steps, when it did work, I found it right where I was looking (under the “Recover” tab of “New From Template”).

Any ideas?

13

We’ve occasionally heard about an issue like this, but it’s been very difficult to pin down exactly what’s happening. I’m particularly baffled by the “recovered” file not showing up the first time you ran LayOut. I’ll have to do some investigation tomorrow - we’ve been doing some work on the auto-save system recently to improve reliability so it’s a good time to research the issue.

For now I’d recommend developing a habit of manually saving the file every half hour or so as a fall-back method.

thanks,
Marc

1 Like
14

Good advice, as always.

15

Just want to say, as someone who has written a lot of code over the years, just how amazed I am with both SketchUp and Layout. I have used SketchUp for years (always amazing) but only recently started digging into Layout. The degree of awesomeness with regard to the dimension tool’s ease of use, scope of capability, and phenomenal flexibility, are off the charts. The occasional frustration or bug pales in comparison to what this software does for us. Hats off to the whole team. Thank you.

1 Like
16

Has there been a solution found for this?

I am having the exact same problem except with Sketchup itself. Hasn’t happened yet with Layout for me, but Sketchup is set up to autosave every 5 mins, yet there are no files in my autosave folder?

I’m on a Macbook pro with OSX Yosemite and upgraded from Sketchup 8 to Sketchup 2014 Pro.

17

A SketchUp Auto-Save file is a temporary file available on the file system while SketchUp is running.
The only occasion an auto-save file is saved to disc is when SU closes abnormally (crashes).

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Geo: I think it is saved on the disk while SkethUp is running, and only deleted when SketchUp exits normally. If it were not saved on the disk until after SketchUp locked up, it would not get saved because SketchUp would be either locked up or already abnormally exited and the program would have no way to save it to disk.

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In either case, there is no Auto-Save file created as J4rchie thinks there is.

20

I’m fairly new to Sketchup, but from the Knowledge Center, it is described that there is an auto save file that is supposed to be created. Every 5 minutes as the setting suggests.

From the Sketchup Knowledge Center:

[quote]
Does SketchUp create auto-save files?

By default, SketchUp automatically saves your files every five minutes while you’re actively working. If, for example, you’re working on a file named MyDrawing.skp, the automatic save creates a file named AutoSave_MyDrawing.skp. The auto-save file is different from the backup file (so while you’re working on a model, you can have three files: the original .skp file, the backup file, and the auto-save file).

The auto-save file is kept until you successfully save your original file. If SketchUp crashes while you’re working on a model the auto-save file is not deleted. You can recover your work from the point the last auto-save was performed. If you’ve never saved your work the auto-save file is stored in a default location specified below:

PC. The file is saved in your “My Documents” folder.
Mac. The file is saved in your user folder â€ș “Library” â€ș “Application Support” â€ș “SketchUp #” â€ș “SketchUp” > “Autosave.”
After saving your SketchUp work, the auto-save file will be created in the same location as the original file. [/quote]

As it indicates, there are one of two locations it should be stored when Sketchup crashes, dependent on whether you have saved a first copy or not. I had been saving my work normally prior to the crash, the auto save was supposedly saving successfully, yet I can’t find it in either of those locations.