When AutoCAD unexpectedly crashes or power outages occur, we could potentially lose hours of work if we’re not manually saving on a frequent basis. To circumvent this, AutoCAD has three useful files and functions that can help us recover our data.

After a file is saved, a “.bak” file is created and can be renamed to recover all your work in the second-to-most-recent save. This method works best when the original file has errors and gets too corrupted to salvage.

If you don’t want to manually save too often, you can change your “Autosave” frequency to save more frequently. This method is optimal to use when your computer crashes and AutoCAD is forcefully closed. Both .bak and autosave files will be found by the “Drawing Recovery Manager”, a useful function that opens automatically when AutoCAD recovers from a crash.

We can retain our peace of mind by knowing and understanding how backup files and autosave files work. For more information, please contact us at info@ddscad.com