Is it possible to recover an autosave file from an unsaved project? I foolishly worked on a model for many hours without even initial saving and sketchup crashed on me. I hope its possible, if not sketchup should really fix that and operate like a program such as final cut x that constantly saves and you never have to save.
I run Sketchup pro 2015 on a Mac
Yes, SketchUp has an autosave preference and will create a copy at a time interval you specify. Look under Preferences->General and see whether you have it enabled. Some people like to turn this off because autosaving a large model causes SketchUp to freeze for a moment each time it autosaves.
If you have a backup file, it will have the same name as your standard file, but with the .skb extension. It can be opened the same as a standard .skp file.
Or ~.skp on the Mac.
You do have to save the file at least once, however. No matter what program you are using to create a file, you should save it early on so it at least has a unique name. The user needs to be responsible for what they do or don’t do.
Not sure whether things have changed with the latest version of SU but it used to be the case that Autosave files were all in a single folder buried deep in the system. Frankly, it was a bit of a nightmare remembering how to find it (Autocad had the same problem). But I have noticed that Autosave files now seem to go into the same folder as the drawing on which it was based. That makes it a whole lot easier to find but it can also clutter the job folder, especially if you have a lot of crashes and are a bit lax on your housekeeping.
You also have to be careful to delete the original file and replace it with the renamed autosave file or you will get extremely confused about which file is current. It’s all a bit of a pain but a lot better than losing hours of work. And thankfully SU is fairly stable.