<Ctrl S>, <Ctrl Alt S>, and Backups
Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 7:13 am
Now that a new release of the Vectric software is out this is a good time to remind people of some of the features in VCarve and Aspire, and also in Windows.
Save Early Save Often
As you are working on your project it is a good idea to save your work as you go. Vectric gives you several choices:
<Ctrl S> or File/Save - This saves your work over the last saved version of the file. Teach yourself to type <Ctrl S> whenever you have made a major change and are satisfied with the results. I've trained myself to hit <Ctrl S> whenever I stop to think for a bit.If you are not sure of your changes then use the File ⇒ Save As... command instead option and give the file a new name.
<Ctrl Alt S> or File/Increment and Save - This is cooler and easier than File/Save As. The Increment and save operation allows you to automatically number iterations of files you are working on. If you select this operation when editing a file which ends with an underscore, or a hyphen followed by a number, then the number will be increased by 1 and the file will be saved using this number.
For example, MyFile_1.crv3d becomes MyFile_2.crv3d MyFile-1.crv3d becomes MyFile-2.crv3d
The increment and save option will keep incrementing until it finds a file that does not currently exist. It will not overwrite an existing file.
Later, if you wish, you can go back and delete the older versions.
Backup Is Cheap and Oh So Easy
You can purchase a 4TB external hard drive today for about $100 from any number of sources. I saw a special on eBay today (2017-07-26) for a new 4TB Seagate drive for $89.
Windows 10 makes it very easy to have backups happen automatically. Here is a link to instructions on How to Back Up Your Computer Automatically with Windows 10's Built-in Tools
I use the File History feature to backup my files and folders that change frequently. I have mine set to daily backups but you have have them happen as often as every 10 minutes. It will keep backups for a specified period of time or "Until Space is Needed".
....But if you don't Save Early and Save Often then the backup can't help you out....
If you are doing this for a living then an offsite backup will protect you should there be a fire in the shop. (So far I've only had that happen once.) It can be as simple as using a thumb drive that goes home with you each night, or there are any number of cloud backup solutions.
Save Early Save Often
As you are working on your project it is a good idea to save your work as you go. Vectric gives you several choices:
<Ctrl S> or File/Save - This saves your work over the last saved version of the file. Teach yourself to type <Ctrl S> whenever you have made a major change and are satisfied with the results. I've trained myself to hit <Ctrl S> whenever I stop to think for a bit.If you are not sure of your changes then use the File ⇒ Save As... command instead option and give the file a new name.
<Ctrl Alt S> or File/Increment and Save - This is cooler and easier than File/Save As. The Increment and save operation allows you to automatically number iterations of files you are working on. If you select this operation when editing a file which ends with an underscore, or a hyphen followed by a number, then the number will be increased by 1 and the file will be saved using this number.
For example, MyFile_1.crv3d becomes MyFile_2.crv3d MyFile-1.crv3d becomes MyFile-2.crv3d
The increment and save option will keep incrementing until it finds a file that does not currently exist. It will not overwrite an existing file.
Later, if you wish, you can go back and delete the older versions.
Backup Is Cheap and Oh So Easy
You can purchase a 4TB external hard drive today for about $100 from any number of sources. I saw a special on eBay today (2017-07-26) for a new 4TB Seagate drive for $89.
Windows 10 makes it very easy to have backups happen automatically. Here is a link to instructions on How to Back Up Your Computer Automatically with Windows 10's Built-in Tools
I use the File History feature to backup my files and folders that change frequently. I have mine set to daily backups but you have have them happen as often as every 10 minutes. It will keep backups for a specified period of time or "Until Space is Needed".
....But if you don't Save Early and Save Often then the backup can't help you out....
If you are doing this for a living then an offsite backup will protect you should there be a fire in the shop. (So far I've only had that happen once.) It can be as simple as using a thumb drive that goes home with you each night, or there are any number of cloud backup solutions.