I hope this doesn’t sound dumb but…so I understand ‘automatic backups’ and ‘auto save’…I think. However I was wondering when and how my original file that I started with is saved? (not just an extra back up type file saved in some other place). Do I need to ‘save as’ in order for my file to be updated on my hard drive ?
Yes, you do.
1 Like
You can download it as a skp and make a file for it in your documents in windows. I don’t
know how you do that in Mac. I save everything that way. You can open skp files by selecting open from device when you’re in SU.
1 Like
What Royce said makes sense for the web version, but I see you have a Pro subscription. In the desktop version the auto save is misleading. That automatically saves a recovery file, so that if macOS or SketchUp crashes, the welcome screen should show you a recovery file, which will be the latest changes that you have made.
For the file to be updated on your hard drive you can do a Save. No need to do a Save As, unless you’re keeping many versions of the file. When doing a Save As, the current file is left alone, and a new file with a new name is created, and you then jump into that new file.
If you do want to keep occasional extra copies of the file, which can be a good thing, there is a Save A Copy As… option. That will save a copy of the current document, with the name you give it, but you don’t jump into that new file. You remain in the existing file.
So, one way of working would be to work in say “my model.skp” all of the time, then do a Save when you’re happy with your progress, and a Save A Copy As… when you want to save out a new file mainly for backup purposes.
There is the backup file that SketchUp makes as well, but that is only a copy of the previous save. If you do something bad without noticing it, do a save, then do more work, and another save, the backup file will already include the bad thing that you did.
I don’t really have any mission critical models that I work on, so I don’t do any of that! But, I do have Time Machine on my Macs, and I can go back to each hour in the last day, and each day in the last month, if I need to go back a couple of versions.
1 Like
Thanks Colin. To clarify the ‘save as’ - if I were to save as the same file name (click on the original file path) then it would not make a separate copy - correct? I would have to save as a different name to make and extra copy?
I wonder if you could give me your opinion on why my LO file doesn’t update to my changes made in SU right away. Like just now I added some scenes in SU, saved it, went over to LO and tried to update the view port - but the new added scenes weren’t showing up. I checked to make sure my file was still linked and it is.
So I wend back to SU, saved again, then saved as the original file name as well. Still nothing.
That’s correct, Diane.
As for the not updating immediately, open Document Setup>References and look at the status of the SketchUp file. Make sure the reference file path is really pointing to the file you’ve been editing. Leave this window open while you go from SketchUp to LayOut and right click on the viewport to update the reference.
Have you modified any of the scene properties for the viewport? If so, which properties?
Thank you Dave, yes it is pointing to the file I originally linked to, but its decided to use the file with the same name but that has the ~ thingy attached (the same name as my file I always open up on my hard drive to start working on, but it’s the ‘back up’ with the ~ attached). So I guess I need to work in that one and then ‘save as’ at the end of the day to my original file (without the ~) on my hard drive?
The tilde indicates that’s the backup file. It sounds to me as if you inserted the backup file into LayOut instead of the actual file. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across this with Mac users. The reason the LO file finally updates is that the backup file has finally gotten updated.
Go into the references and relink to the working file instead of the backup file. Then in the future, don’t insert files with the tilde. Might be safer to use Send to LayOut in the SketchUp File menu instead of using File>Insert in LayOut. And remember, send a SketchUp file to the LayOut (or insert it) project only once. After it’s in the LayOut file, copy a viewport to make additional ones.
Also make sure you aren’t opening the backup copy of the model file in SketchUp. That’s a recipe for huge headaches.
Edit to add: @colin, could you look into what it would take to make it more obvious that the backup files are backup files on Mac? It’s evident that the tilde at the end of the file name isn’t enough. Maybe the word ‘Backup’ should be appended to the file name. Perhaps as is done for LayOut files, at least on Windows, with “Backup of MyFile”. That would also separate the working files and the backup files in Finder if the files are being listed alphabetically.
1 Like
Thank you Dave. I think it must be an issue with Mac because I know that I was very careful to not insert the SU file with the tilde into LO, but for some reason it changes to the tilde file. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure it’s a glitch with LO for Mac
Maybe it is a weird Mac thing. @Colin might have some information on that.
I have seen cases over the years in which the user has opened the backup file to work thinking they had the working file. Then when they save the changes or an autosave occurs they get another file with two tildes. In one case the folder had SketchUp files with upward of six tildes because they kept open the newest backup file.
I think I will try the Send to LayOut option from the SketchUp file instead of using the insert function in LO. Will this automatically change my view ports to the newly sent over file?
You can’t send to the current LayOut file from SketchUp. That’s just for starting a new LayOut project.
Got it? phew. 
FWIW, there’s a new thread here from a few minutes ago in which the user shared the backup file, not the working file.
Yes, I see that can happen and have been very careful to make sure I’m opening the original file I created (without the tilde) I think that’s why this is so perplexing.
To make it even more confusing, I have noticed that when I use the simple save function (not save as), the back up file is the only one that get’s updated until I actually do a save as to the original file at the end of my work day. So you would think that if LO is linking to the back up file, it would be updated right away after I use the save function. ??
That’s very weird if you aren’t actually editing the backup file in the first place. This does sound like a Mac oddity.
I see you and Dave have gone over most things.
One thing, if you Save As, click on the existing file to take its name, do the save, say Yes to replace the existing file, that would have no advantage over simply doing a Save. It might even disconnect this new save from the previous backup. I may test for that.
Looking forward to hearing what you find on this.
I’ve been told that if I simply just Save, it will only update the Backup and that my original file on my hard drive won’t be saved until I do the Save As function (to my original file name).
That’s not the way it is supposed to work, though.
I hope it’s not the way it’s supposed to work, it sure is a strange process. I do it out of fear of loosing my work ha.
Also, there seems to be proof (in my operating system anyway) that when I do a simple “save”, then when I look in my files on my hard drive I can see that only the back up file has been saved/updated. I was thinking that maybe the original file would catch up, but don’t want to take the chance.