I realise the autosave is supposed to be a disaster recovery type thing etc. and that we should be saving as we go, but sometimes things do go wrong, and that's exactly what has happened here except SD7.3 has not, it would seem, autosaved my work.

Power cut, rebooted, loaded SD7 and nothing. I thought this was supposed to automatically tell you that there were recovered files? It seemed to do this previously but hasn't done it for a while - I thought previously I'd just not noticed, but it definitely has not worked this time. Anyway of recovering the data?

An actual autosave feature would also be very handy too.

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

If you are not prompted about AutoSave files on startup it means that none exist (the files are stored with a .s07 extension in AppData\Local, usually C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Stardraw.com Ltd\Stardraw Design 7.3\1.0.0.0\AutoSave).

Was AutoSave on?  You can check this in Tools | Personalization | Settings.

It is good practice in any software to save regularly; personally I start feeling uncomfortable if I have not saved my work in any application after 15 minutes of work and I would recommend to any user of any software that they get into the habit of saving frequently.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 10/17/2020 12:01:30 PM

Hi Chris,

Sorry to hear of your trouble.

If you are not prompted about AutoSave files on startup it means that none exist (the files are stored with a .s07 extension in AppData\Local, usually C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Stardraw.com Ltd\Stardraw Design 7.3\1.0.0.0\AutoSave).

Was AutoSave on?  You can check this in Tools | Personalization | Settings.

It is good practice in any software to save regularly; personally I start feeling uncomfortable if I have not saved my work in any application after 15 minutes of work and I would recommend to any user of any software that they get into the habit of saving frequently.

Yes, autosave was set, and has been set for 5min intervals. I assume that this is solely just a backup file, and not actually autosaving the actual file that I would be working on? Would it be possible to have an actual autosave feature added?

So often I find myself having to work remotely and with SD7s use limited by the Hasp key I have to leave it running on the work PC, and then remote in on my laptop... if the files were actually autosaving, if I lost connection, or something else happens preventing me from being able to save, to know that it was storing these working files in the background it would be a lifesaver.

Thanks,

Hi Chris,

The better solution would be to switch from the dongle-based license (old technology) to one that is Cloud-based; this frees your license from any physical/geographical limitations and offers many advantages over the dongle-based approach e.g. it's far easier to share the same license between different people and computers.

To switch, please just email us at techsupport@stardraw.com.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

Hi Rob,

I realise that I'm resurrecting an old thread here, but is there any possibility of there being an actual proper autosave function added to SD7? I know I *should* be saving periodically, but there are so many bits of software out there now that doesn't require this (Office, SketchUp etc.) it no-longer becomes second nature. It has become somewhat of an issue of late and been caught out a few times, esp. several power-cuts (which may potentially get worse given the energy crisis) and as Windows Update actually shuts down SD7, not just end it abruptly, the backups are lost.

From my understanding of the online versions, we'd lose so many features of SD7 that we rely upon it wouldn't be a suitable alternative. Unless of course I have misunderstood the available modules, but I can't see that there is the ability to create blocks or plan drawings for example.

It can't be that difficult to implement and it would save so much wasted time for us; autosave on SD7 would be really appreciated.

Hi Chris,

So long as Tools | Settings | Enable Recovery is checked, then you are protected against unexpected program closure e.g. in the power cut scenario; you will be prompted to open auto recovery files the next time you run Stardraw Design 7.3.

We intend to add functionality to protect against the 'normal', but unattended, closure of the application i.e. in the Windows Update scenario.  In this case work and even view states will be remembered so unsaved work can be retrieved if the application has been closed as part of the Windows Update process.

I believe this will give you what you need.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 11/10/2022 5:57:36 PM

Hi Chris,

So long as Tools | Settings | Enable Recovery is checked, then you are protected against unexpected program closure e.g. in the power cut scenario; you will be prompted to open auto recovery files the next time you run Stardraw Design 7.3.

We intend to add functionality to protect against the 'normal', but unattended, closure of the application i.e. in the Windows Update scenario.  In this case work and even view states will be remembered so unsaved work can be retrieved if the application has been closed as part of the Windows Update process.

I believe this will give you what you need.

I can say that I have had instances where I've had the PC unexpectedly shut down and the file has not been prompted to be recovered upon reboot/relaunch of SD. I can only think of a handful of times where this had functioned as desired.

But yes, a proper auto-save would be what we need - the view states would be less of a concern for me, just the actual saving of the file. If there was a direct cloud equiv. of SD7 then absolutely we'd swap to that, but until that point, I'll have to stick with the older desktop version.

Cheers, Chris.

+x

 

chrisgutteridge - 11/11/2022 12:32:10 PM

+x

 

Rob Robinson - 11/10/2022 5:57:36 PM

Hi Chris,

So long as Tools | Settings | Enable Recovery is checked, then you are protected against unexpected program closure e.g. in the power cut scenario; you will be prompted to open auto recovery files the next time you run Stardraw Design 7.3.

We intend to add functionality to protect against the 'normal', but unattended, closure of the application i.e. in the Windows Update scenario.  In this case work and even view states will be remembered so unsaved work can be retrieved if the application has been closed as part of the Windows Update process.

I believe this will give you what you need.

I can say that I have had instances where I've had the PC unexpectedly shut down and the file has not been prompted to be recovered upon reboot/relaunch of SD. I can only think of a handful of times where this had functioned as desired.

But yes, a proper auto-save would be what we need - the view states would be less of a concern for me, just the actual saving of the file. If there was a direct cloud equiv. of SD7 then absolutely we'd swap to that, but until that point, I'll have to stick with the older desktop version.

Cheers, Chris.

Forgot to ask... is there a timescale on this? I know that it's been something that's been talked about for the last 10 years or so aleady!

Hi Chris,

We don't publish projected release dates but will let everyone know what new features become available upon their release.  Keep an eye on the Updates Forum

That said, we do not plan to publish any updates, other than fixes for any newly discovered bugs, for the remainder of 2022.


Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com