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SynthEyes can auto-save the .sni file every few minutes if desired, under control of the auto-save preferences (in the Save/Export section). You will be asked whether you want to use auto-save the first time a save is necessary. (You can have the filename incremented automatically as well. )
IMPORTANT : to minimize the chances of data loss , please read this section and the following section on file name versioning , then configure the preferences to correspond to your desired working style!
If you keep auto-save off, then the file will be saved whenever you File/Save.
If auto-save is turned on, then the Minutes per auto-save setting applies. Once the specified time has been reached, SynthEyes saves the file except under the following conditions:
there has been no change in the scene since the last save;
a modal dialog is displayed (the main window is disabled);
an operation is currently in progress, such as dragging a spinner or dragging a tracker around in a viewport;
the mouse is captured, even if it does not affect the scene file, for example, dragging the current time marker in the time bar;
the shot is being played back (to avoid disturbing the frame rate);
if a text field is being edited, such as a spinner's text value.
If the save must be deferred, it will be retried every six seconds. If you are very busy or leave SynthEyes playing continuously, auto-save will be blocked. Status messages are displayed in the status bar at the beginning and completion of an auto- save.
The "If no filename" preference determines the action taken if the file has not been previously saved by the time the auto-save period is reached, with the choices: Don't save, Ask, or Save as untitled. If Don't save is selected, no auto-save occurs until you define a file name, putting your work at risk in the event of any problem. You can select Save as untitled, in which case the file is saved as untitled.sni is produced in your File/User Data Folder. (The prior version of that file becomes untitled.bac.)
If you select Ask, when the time to auto-save comes without a filename, the save-file selection dialog will pop up for you to specify a file name. That is only somewhat optional: if you cancel the file-selection dialog, you will be re-prompted for a file name each time the auto-save interval expires, until you successfully enter a file name.
Before the .sni file is auto-saved, the prior version of the .sni file will be renamed to be a ".sni.bac" file. SynthEyes produces .sni.bac files only for auto-saves, not for regular File/Save. In addition to saving an additional older backed-up version, it serves as a backup in case the auto-save itself causes a crash (for example, if it runs out of memory).
Tip : Auto-tracked files can be rather large, 10s or 100s of MBytes. They can take a while to save, especially if the .sni file compression preference is also turned on. To reduce the save time, be sure to use Tracker Cleanup or Clear All Blips to reduce the blip storage (which takes up the bulk of the space) once you no longer need to peel additional auto-trackers or use the Add More Trackers tool. See also the Mesh De-Duplication features. If you frequently have large auto-tracked files and cannot clear blips and the auto-save is taking too long, you should probably keep auto-save off.
Warning : some network storage systems are buggy, and do not correctly process the file rename (from foo.sni to foo.sni.bac) that immediately precedes an auto-save. They block the save, causing it to fail with an error message. If you encounter file-save errors during auto-save, turn off auto- save.
When auto-save is on and you have saved at least once, SynthEyes will always immediately save (over-write) changes to the previous file when you do a File/New, Open, or Close, rather than asking permission, since you have already given permission to save it by specifying auto-save. This makes for fast and simpler operation.
Using auto-save will require to you to be a little more careful to make sure you do not inadvertently over-write files you want to preserve, described as follows.
When auto-save is off, you are prompted if you want to save the current .sni file when you do a File/New, Open, or Close. You can save the file or discard it at that time if you do not want to save changes.
Warning : there is no "revert" for auto-save (revert to exactly what?). We recommend taking advantage of file versioning.
If you have auto-save on, however, your experimental changes in a recently- opened file will automatically over-write the original file, as soon as the auto-save timeout expires or you File/New, Open, or Close. Accordingly, be careful to immediately do a File/Save As or File/Save Next Version to a new "scratch" file if you wish to experiment on an existing file without overwriting it.
Tip : There are several variants of File/Save:
File/Save saves to the existing file name—except if filename auto- increment is on, in which case the filename is incremented and the file saved at the new location (same as File/Save Next Version).
File/Save As prompts for and saves to a new filename, and that filename becomes the scene's file name.
File/Save a Copy prompts for a new file name, saves the scene there, but then discards that file name—future saves will use the original file name.
File/Save Next Version increments the current file name, saves the scene at the new file location, and continues on using that new name.
If you have a laptop with solid-state-disk (SSD) and are concerned about its write-cycle lifetime, you might want to keep auto-save off.
If you have a particular fondness for your file-written times, you should keep auto-save off: some combinations of Undo and Redo may result in saves that are not strictly-speaking necessary. For most people, that's no problem, since an extra save or two is fine.
©2024 Boris FX, Inc. — UNOFFICIAL — Converted from original PDF.