AUTO SAVE

[Jimic]

Why my AUTO SAVE do not work properly. I have it set to every 3 MIn and save to a file name Autosave in the same directory. Sometimes it works fine but sometime when I made a mistake in my file and close it without saving. Hopefully, I could open the Autosave file as a backup. Today, mu autosave file shown me some files three days old not 3 min. ago ?????!!!!!!!!!

[Reverend Turk]

wish I could help but I don't use the Autosave....I started to at first and I ran into some probl;ems with it locking up MCX so I quit using it.

[Mgrenier]

Jimic,

 

Could it be that you opened the autosave file in the wrong directory? I set my autosave to a separate folder so that I do not get lost when I need te retrieve the autosave file.

 

Just a thought,

 

P.S. If using MCX MR2, you could also use de backup files option that work good.

[Jimic]

Martin:

 

Could you please shown me how you set it up in a different directory. Thanks, jimic

[BBOwen]

Sometimes the setting on mine get screwed up by no fault of mine. First of all I restert to see if that will do it. The other thing I do is go into the settings and turn this function off click OK then turn it back on click OK. This usually does it for me.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Hi Guys,

 

I'd like to share the method that we use at work to avoid problems with Backup and Autosave. This setup will help minimize all of the problems that people have reported with Autosave.

 

The main reason we have developed this method of storing our files is system stability. We recently completed some functional testing with Autosave/Backup and we have determined that Autosave can lead to file instablilty if you allow it to overwrite your current MCX file in some instances. Because of this we have implemented the following procedure:

 

Begin by opening Windows Explorer and create two new folders on your C: drive.

 

C:MCAUTOSAVE

and

C:MCBACKUP

 

Now open the System Configuration dialog box in Mastercam and select the Files Page.

 

In the MCX Backup Files section, activate the "Active" and "Use backup directory" check boxes. I leave my Max limit at 10, but you can select the number of backup files that you would like to be in your backup cycle.

 

In the "Data paths" list box, select the "Backup files (MCX)" path. Click on the file explorer browse button and navigate to the C:MCBACKUP folder that you created previously.

 

In the "Autosave" section of the Files Page, Activate the "Active" and the "Overwrite existing file name" check boxes. Make sure the other three check boxes are NOT ACTIVE.

 

I am making the this statement strongly because the "Save using active file name" and "Prompt before saving file" switches are the main culprits causing the Autosave feature to be unstable.

 

The last thing to do is double click in the "File name:" entry field. Double clicking selects the entire string. Now press backspace, then type:

 

C:MCAUTOSAVEAUTOSAVE.MCX

 

Save your configuration file and you are set.

 

Now every time Autosave kicks in it will overwrite the AUTOSAVE.MCX file. NOT your current part file. It will also overwrite the AUTOSAVE.MCX file silently, which means that your current part file (the one loaded in memory) will not be effected by the Autosave kicking in. You especially want to avoid Autosave kicking in while you are in the middle of generating a toolpath (0 kbyte file dump anyone?). The next time you have a crash in Mastercam, open the AUTOSAVE.MCX file and do a File, Save As to recover it.

 

Every time you press the save button, Mastercam will save your current part file and then will save a "Backup" copy of your file into the C:MCBACKUP folder. With each successive press of the save button a new incremented file will be saved (-100, -101, -102, ect.). Once in a while you will need to go and clean out the backup folder. I open the folder in windows explorer, sort by date modified and dump anything older than 2 weeks.

 

Other people will have their own opinions on this issue, so feel free to give your method/advice on this matter.

 

I hope this helps,

 

Colin Gilchrist

IRC NC Programming

Mastercam Focal

The Boeing Company

www.boeing.com

 

----------------------------

Mastercam X MR2, Multi Axis, Solids, Prodrill

Dell 670, Dual 3.4 Xeons, 4GB RAM, Quadro FX 3450

[Jimic]

Thanks Colin. This is sometime new to me !!!! No wonder Boeing pay the big $$$

[rdshear]

I agree wholeheartedly with Colin, I set my Autosave/Backups with the same settings other than the directory (folder) name they are stored in. Using this method works well for me also. BTW Colin, excellent how-to.

 

Rick

[Jimic]

Colin,

I can not find the backup file section.I have set the autosave section. On the right hand side is the MRU field? I am using level 2, Mcax mill.

jimic

[HEAVY METAL]

I can not find the backup file section also i guess this was addded with mr2 ???? anyone know for sure

[3rdstring]

Yup thats an MR2 feature.

[Colin Gilchrist]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm happy to help.

 

And to second Chuck, it is only available in MR2.

 

Colin