Not sure what happened with the file I was working on. It saved as the file name with a 0 ) after it. Then it seems it saved as the file with a 0-0 after the file name. The original file that I was working on doesn’t seem to have updated with the work I did on it on that occasion.Can anyone suggest what may have happened and how I should ensure the latest file becomes the current one and does not become mixed up?
It could not overwrite the original file, so it created a new one with incremented file name (and the same again with the new one). That explains why the last file contains your latest work and the original file has not been updated.
Now the question is why the original file could not be overwritten.
- Is the file on a thumbdrive or built-in hard drive?
- Unusual file permissions?
- Locked by another process?
- Some other confusion in the OS that disappears after next login or reboot?
Thank you for your quick reply. The file is being saved on one drive. Don’t know the answers to your other questions. Can say I was working on site with my laptop for the revisions. So to ensure that i don’t lose my work and don’t become confused are you able to tell me how to ‘stabilise’ my position and carry on with one file reference?
On which one?
Used the laptop all the time. So this happened on the laptop. Noticed the file change name on the laptop. However when back on on the desktop they all the files are there. I am working on the desktop now with file 0-0 but before I save it I am wary of doing it properly as would hate somehow to lose all the work I did over the last 2 days
I take it you mean OneDrive, Microsoft’s online file hosting service.
Always save to your local drive first, and then save a copy to your external storage.
Doing otherwise is risky business.
Thank you I will do that in future. I have a feeling that perhaps somewhere along the line the internet signal went. Could this have caused this to happen?
No. File syncing software constantly observes changes in your local directory. Depending on how it is realized, the software may hold a handle to the .skp file (in the synced directory) and the operating system considered it as that the file is in use by that process. Thus SketchUp failed saving to that same file.
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So as long as I continue to save the file with the last reference that should be ok?
Experience in this forum has shown that missing file problems and other odd behavior may occur when working with files loaded directly from and/or saved directly to external storage.
The path to an external storage drive is subject to change.
SketchUp has two file recovery features, Backup and Auto-Save.
They rely on a stable path back to where the original .skp model file exists.
Do not work on a model file loaded from external storage and then expect things to always go well.
Copy the file to a directory on your Local Disk and then open that file.
Do not save a model file directly to external storage and then expect things to always go well.
Always save the file to the aforementioned directory on your Local Disk and then copy that file to external storage.
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Thank you that is interesting. So if I understand Geo correctly (at the risk of repeating but to confirm I have it right) then I must always save to the hard drive on my desktop. If I need to then work on site first copy that file to One Drive then load it from One drive into the laptop on site save it there, work on line and save it there and the laptop. When returning to the desktop reload from the One Drive work on the file there and then save to the desktop etc. Whilst I understand the belt and braces approach, if it stops the possibility of work going wrong or missing etc - does it not negate the whole principle of One Drive? After all I thought the whole point of One Drive was to be able to work anywhere, anytime and pick up where you left off.
There is a little difference:
- File sharing servers/network drives communicate with a protocol (like SMB/Samba, CIFS, FTP) with your computer. Your file manager displays only a view of the files and does all file operations (opening, saving) over the protocol on the remote drive. That means 1.) it can only be used when connected and 2.) network connectivity problems commonly cause issues with SketchUp.
- File syncing software and cloud storage creates a local folder with actual local copies of the files. That means 1.) files can be used when disconnected from the network (the principle and purpose of syncing) and 2.) apparently still issues occur with SketchUp, as suggested possibly due to several conflicting processes (SketchUp and the syncing software).
So according to the principle of syncing, you should be able to access files directly from your OneDrive folder, but practical experience says if there are issues, it is saver to copy them outside of the sync folder.
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