Hey all!
I've seen that Blender has this option in the File button, but I've never known how to use it, until Andrew showed it in his
second video on Blender's interface (please answer his surveys in the video descriptions on YouTube).
By default, from what I recall, this feature is turned on and does an auto-save every 5 minutes. These are, according to Andrew's video, stored in either your temporary files or the Blend1 and Blend2 files you see where you store the original project.
Thankfully, I haven't had Blender crash on me in a while in a way where I would need this feature, but that's not to say it's not needed. With projects like the 4 seasons, it is a very wanted feature, because you are making full scenes, not just render tests.
Basically, to recover this info, I did a simple test. When you end task a program in Windows, it is as-if the program crashed, because it has been forcefully closed, so I used this to our advantage to test how well this really works. And here are the findings:
The feature does work, but do not depend on it to save your work for you. Here's why:
This view was left here for about 10 or so minutes and the auto-save is set to 5 mins
Right after the simulated crash and auto-save recovery
See the difference between the two. While the animation data was saved as well as the environment data, the UI layout was not and therefore left me wondering if there was any other information lost as a result. A great feature btw, but I seriously encourage you to save very often too. Do not depend on the software to do everything for you.
To get your Auto-save recovered:
- Go to File > Recover last Auto-save
- Find the file with the right date (it goes to the right directory, all you need to do is choose the right file)
- Open it and there you have it!
It seems as though the Blend1 and Blend2 files are still in use, but I don't know how to get Blender to make those on the first time you open the project. From my understanding from use alone, when you close Blender and open that project again, it creates or updates those files.
I suggest you tryout this feature for yourself and also activate the save prompt in the User Preferences and make it default for every project:
- Open Blender (not a project, just the program)
- File > User Preferences
- Interface > Prompt Quit > Tick
- Go back to the view you had when you opened Blender and press Ctrl+U and accept, to make it default for every project.
Just for fun, here is a simple fly-through I did with this project with a speedy method for 3D rendering in Blender:
And that's it for this QBT, tell your friends about this feature and share share share! haha
Also, check out Oliver's (from BlendTuts) new series of quick tips for Blender
here. Currently, he still needs to add links from his site, but from his Facebook there is a link to the first video as well as
his YouTube channel.
Have a great one!
Thank YOU!!!!!
Hey! I'm having an incredible learning experience, not only learning how Blender works (yes, still learning), but also about Open-Source and the incredible software available. Stick around!
