Rail3D*

 

Auto Save

Rail3D creates "AutoSave" files periodically.  The autosave file can be used to recover your work in the event of the program crashing.

  • Autosave files are created after ten minutes
  • Autosave files have extension .auto appended to the file name
  • Autosave files are only created when the program is paused - they are not created while the simulation is running
  • Autosave files are in the same format as normal saves, and can be loaded as a normal layout
  • If an autosave file exists for an unsaved file, you will be prompted to open it when Rail3D is next opened.

 

 

Basically, Autosave is a response to recent requests for this functionality in the program.  It is not a true autosave in that it does not operate automatically at set intervals unless the program is paused - the reason for this is that a true autosave would cause the simulation to pause every ten minutes while it saves, and this is felt to be unacceptable.  Instead, the autosave only operates when the program is paused.

Thus, if you are working on a layout in pause mode, after ten minutes, the autosave will save the layout in the .auto file.  If the program is running, when you next pause the simulation (this can happen when you open some dialogs for example) if no save has been performed for ten minutes, the autosave will operate at that point.  Generally this is not noticable, however if your layout is large and stored on slow media (eg USB stick) the program will not respond for a few seconds while the autosave is taken.

If the Rail3D program crashes, the autosave file can be used to recover the work.  When Rail3D is re-opened - if the autosave file is newer than any save of the layout, Rail3D will prompt to open the autosave file and recover the layout.

MRG 15/08/2013 12:12:07