Why no auto-save in Apex Medina

[Dave Smith]

Why is there no auto-save feature in Apex Medina? We have lost several sketches for one reason or other because we are not compulsive about saving our sketches as we work.

Maybe we lack an "auto-save" function in our brains.

Dave

 

[Randall Garrett]

Hi Dave,

Sorry for the delay in replying. I have been away from the Internet this weekend but since it is Father's Day, I am allowed a few moments today, LOL.

Auto-Save has been a standard feature in Apex since the DOS days, so it should be there in your Apex Medina. if it is not working, we need to find out why. Maybe the option is turned off or simply not functioning correctly (?) - maybe it is not working through integration (?), etc... Check out the items below and if these do not solve the problem, give us a call on Monday and we'll get it straightened out for you. If you do need to call in to tech support, we'll want to know your Apex version and date shown by selecting "About" under the Help menu. We'll also want to know if you are experiencing this issue when running in "stand-alone mode" and/or in "integrated mode." If it is while integrated, we'll want to know what program you are "launching" Apex from and it's version/date info just in case we know something about that particular combo, etc. That said, I am not aware of any reason you should not have Auto-Save options available to you. In fact, it should be "on" by default...

The Auto-Save function is "triggered" by a couple of settings in the configuration dialog tabs. It writes a back-up sketch file to a user-selectable location according to how the option is set under the Tools | Configuration | Misc. tab - see image below. The choices are:

<Never> - Auto-Save is "turned off"
Area - Auto-Saves every time a Defined Area is closed
Event - Auto-Saves after every significant "event" - i.e. when you press [Enter], like placing text, dimension(s), Symbols, draw a single line, etc.

Because Apex files are so small (usually only a few KB in size), the Auto-Save is generally virtually instantaneous and not something that is distracting while drawing. of course, the user need "write" permissions to the specified location ("local" or "network", etc.) but this isn't generally an issue.

The default location for the Auto-Save(ed) file is found on the next tab - Tools | Configuration | Defaults - see other image below. The small [...] button at the end of the location field allows you to browse to any desired location.

All this said, the long-standing behavior of Auto-Save in Apex is to write the file to the specified location at the set interval. This file is kept "on disk" until the user exits the program normally. If you exit normally, the back-up file is deleted since you would have successfully saved the regular file to disk, or specifically elected not to save it. If the machine locks up, you lose power, ow whatever and run Apex again, upon start-up, it looks for the back-up file and asks if you want to load it up. From what you describe, it appears that Apex is exiting normally so it is not saving the back-up file, or the option is not set. Anyway, check this out and if you cannot get it handled yourself, give us a call tomorrow and we'll straighten it out.

Hope this helps!

-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..

 

[Dave Smith]

Auto-save

Randall:

Thank you for your detailed response. When checking on the auto save settings I found it was set to area. But... we have had several instances where, for some reason, an event occurred which closed Medina before we had closed the defined area. So... I have set auto save to event and will monitor the situation to see if that setting helps us.

Thank you again,

Dave

 

[Randall Garrett]

OK, Dave. Keep us posted on your experiences. I 'd also like to see if we can find out what is closing Medina before you are done sketching. That is unusual and I'd like to know more about this in case we can do something on this end to help!

-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..

 

[appraisalondemand]

Randall,
I have had a similar thing happen to me that happened to Dave, but instead of apex closing on its own, I would shut it down. I use Alamode, but am unsure of the version of Apex...I think it is Medina. My problems have only happend on more complex sketches that take more than a few minutes to draw. Most of the time the sketch would not save and in the sketch field said there was a problem with pocket sketch, which I don't have or use. I don't know if the problem is fixed, but I just hit the save button on occasion and it has been a few months since this has happened. The problem was random, happened to 8 to 10 skectches and would do it to the same sketch if I didn't close out of the report I was working on completely.

 

[Randall Garrett]

AoD,

Thanks for the info. You have a lot of different items mentioned and I am not sure what is connected to what... ;-) Would you like for me to have a tech call you to explore the issue(s)? I'd like to find out where the problem is and get it corrected if we can, so I can get a tech to get back to you if you'd like.

Before we call, we'd like you to re-familiarize yourself with the situation, and we'd like to know some basic info. For example, when you say "shut it down", am I correct in reading this to mean you exit Apex, as in Selecting the File menu and then Exit, or similar (i.e. a normal "Exit" vs. just turn off the computer, LOL)... ? Another item is basic computer info - OS (Windows version), RAM, etc. Also, your current software versions and recent update history. To get the Apex version, just launch it from your forms program like usual (even if you have to create a "dummy" report), then select "About" from the Help menu. The dialog should show you a version number and a release date.

Let me know the best way to set up a call time/date. if you'd rather email me directly, my address is spelled out below. Hope this helps!

-Randall Garrett- rgarrett [at] apexwin [dot] com
..Apex Software..

/end/

 

[appraisalondemand]

Randall,
thanks for the reply. You are correct in when I say shut down, I mean exit out of Apex. Because this has not happened in at lease a few months, I would assume the problem is fixed. I also went and sketched a fairly complex sketch and had no problem a few minutes ago. If this problem does happen again, I will let you know with the information you will need.

Thanks again

 

[Randall Garrett]

AoD:

Glad to try and help! Let me know if you'd like me to get my folks to explore this issue for you. The best time to do this sort of thing is BEFORE you have a problem, right? ;-)

Regards,

-Randall Garrett-
..Apex Software..

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