Topic: Not so much a standard...

[hudster]

....more of a common sense thing.

SAVE YOUR WORK REGULARLY.

I have a guy in my office who works on a really old computer, I think we got it from moses.  His computer regularly crashes and he never saves his work, he will go hours without saving, so when it crashes he loses hours worth of work, unless i can salvage his autosave.

I tend to save every 2 minutes as I work through a drawing, less hastle if anything goes wrong.

[pmvliet]

Do you set his savetime to something shorter then the default?
we set our entire office to 10 minutes. It helps some but we still loose stuff from time to time.

We also move the backup's to a local directory so that each person gets a BAK for their file... That helps at times as well, but only if people save. I have lots of Microstation users and since Microstation will continually save, people don't like saving every 3rd command or so in AutoCad... hard habits are hard to break.

[CADaver]

I have added QSAVE to about a dozen of our canned routines, so it's real hard to go more than 10-15 minutes without the system doing it's own Qsave.  I have made everyone aware that the program is saving itself, so don't expect to quit without saving and return to and old version.  OPEN THE BLOODY THING READ-ONLY.  

Remember when you could set acad to open everything read-only?

[M-dub]

That's almost like Microstation...That can be dangerous if you don't know it saves the drawing after every single command.
Not a bad idea if everyone knows what's going on, but I think the Vent proves that not everyone does...

[CADaver]

That's almost like Microstation...That can be dangerous if you don't know it saves the drawing after every single command.

Yes it can, and it has bitten a few in the ... ummm... tailgate.

Not a bad idea if everyone knows what's going on, but I think the Vent proves that not everyone does...

After the tailgate bandaids were applied, I think most everyone here is aware, those that aren't, aren't aware they're breathing.

[Keith™]

Autosave set to 10 minutes,  create backup with each save and that is all you realistically need to have, anything else is a waste of time and unnecessary

[VerticalMojo]

I set mine to every three min......

Yes I know..... but I can do a lot of work in 10 min.

[ronjonp]

I set mine to every three min......

Yes I know..... but I can do a lot of work in 10 min.

Me too   .

[MP]

Due to the size of our models and the glut of data that travels between models and associated databases, saves can take upwards of 20 minutes in ambitious models. As such, the last thing we want is a autosave to kick in. Our operators know: save it or lose it. But I fully admit, ours is a different kind of camp, and not necessarilly representative of "the norm" ...

[CADaver]

Due to the size of our models and the glut of data that travels between models and associated databases, saves can take upwards of 20 minutes in ambitious models. As such, the last thing we want is a autosave to kick in. Our operators know: save it or lose it. But I fully admit, ours is a different kind of camp, and not necessarilly representative of "the norm" ...

Ours can take some time as well (not nearly 20 min, however), and that's the primary reason I don't shorten the autosaves to less than 15 minutes

[t-bear]

Like CADaver & MP, our 3D models can take a while....15 minutes.

[Keith™]

We deal with drawings typically less than 2 megs, some are as small as 200k (in 2000) they are even smaller in 2004

[CADaver]

We deal with drawings typically less than 2 megs, some are as small as 200k (in 2000) they are even smaller in 2004

Geez, the good ol' days....  
The only real disadvantage to 3D modeling is file size, we average 20-40Mbs.

[t-bear]

Yah...baybe they'll come out with a "3d Lite" option.....LOL
A lot of our 3D objects are blocks (multiple insert) which helps *a little bit*, but not much......
Still, I couldn't do the design dwgs I do in a 2D environment.  Piping going every which-a-way, valves and instrumentation hung all over the place....I'd NEVER find the "crashes" in 2D!

[Keith™]

Well I do some 3d stuff, but mostly for visualization, not for construction purposes, it is rarely called for in the construction industry.

[CADaver]

Yah...baybe they'll come out with a "3d Lite" option.....LOL
A lot of our 3D objects are blocks (multiple insert) which helps *a little bit*, but not much......
Still, I couldn't do the design dwgs I do in a 2D environment.  Piping going every which-a-way, valves and instrumentation hung all over the place....I'd NEVER find the "crashes" in 2D!

We used to do it in 2D, 20 years ago, right.  Except then the crashes were found when they tried to install the pipe... oops.

We use a load of "unit" blocks for steel, tray, conduit and pipe, usually built parametrically as needed, and then we have every fitting you can think of built into a series of fitting directories for dialog box/menu-driven installation.

[whodo]

That's almost like Microstation...That can be dangerous if you don't know it saves the drawing after every single command.
Not a bad idea if everyone knows what's going on, but I think the Vent proves that not everyone does...

This option can be shut off in microstation so that it only
saves when you tell it to just like autocad but I digress.

[yyou]

I have set QS as qsave and almost everytime I look away from the screen, usually at the mark-ups, or zoom out, my left hand automatically type qs and space bar. (zoom commands are done by my rt hand).  It is a habbit that I'd like to share.

[Slim©]

I have set QS as qsave and almost everytime I look away from the screen, usually at the mark-ups, or zoom out, my left hand automatically type qs and space bar. (zoom commands are done by my rt hand).  It is a habbit that I'd like to share.

Of course there's always "Ctl+S" for a qsave as well.

[t-bear]

Personally, I use the right quad of my d-pad on my SUUU-per sweeeet Nostromo n52 ... see here.  Now I don't own stock in this or anything (wish!!), but this little rascal has some awsome potential as a CAD tool.....think about it.

[CADaver]

Personally, I use the right quad of my d-pad on my SUUU-per sweeeet Nostromo n52 ... see here.  Now I don't own stock in this or anything (wish!!), but this little rascal has some awsome potential as a CAD tool.....think about it.

There ain't a left-handed version, dang-it.

[t-bear]

CADaver...
I'm a southpaw too amigo....(we're the only ones here in our "right" minds)....it only takes about a week to learn to "mouse" with your off hand....seems like forever, but......
I've been using it for about a week now, and even having to go to the cheat-sheet now and then and struggling with the mouse, I'm about as fast as before I got it.  Gimme another week or two and I'll be cruisin'....

[CADaver]

CADaver...
I'm a southpaw too amigo....(we're the only ones here in our "right" minds)....it only takes about a week to learn to "mouse" with your off hand....seems like forever, but......

Nah, ya' see I'm right-handed, but way too many years of mousin' with my right hand burned up the flexor tendon in the back of my right forearm.  I can only mouse for half an hour or so right-handed before it swells up and stops workin' all together.  So now I mouse lefty, and use my right hand ring finger on the keyboard.

[Keith™]

CADaver..... that must be murder

[yyou]

Cadaver,   How long had you done Cad before you got the prob?  I've been cading for 16 yrs. Recently I have anthritis, once in a while, I could not use my rt hand at all for couple days.

[t-bear]

I've been swith-hittin for a couple of years now ... arthur in wrist & thumb.  After about two hrs I'd swap hands.  This kinda divides the hand movements between left & right.  So far, it's actually helping some.....

[CADaver]

CADaver..... that must be murder

It was a PITB at first, but you can used to nearly anything.  When the left hand goes, I retire.

[CADaver]

Cadaver,   How long had you done Cad before you got the prob?  I've been cading for 16 yrs. Recently I have anthritis, once in a while, I could not use my rt hand at all for couple days.

It took about 12 years, but the last 5 of those were 65-70 hr weeks.  I think what really did it in was the multi-button puck on a digitizer, the buttons weren't a soft click ya' kinda had to mash 'em pretty good.

[Dent Cermak]

T-Bear switch hits ??!!! Caint tell about them Mountain Men.

[t-bear]

             

Somehow I KNEW Dent'd notice.......

[Keith™]

I think what really did it in was the multi-button puck on a digitizer, the buttons weren't a soft click ya' kinda had to mash 'em pretty good.

I used a Calcomp 16 button cordless digitizer for many years...I used to joke that the only thing that ever got exercise was my three middle fingers on my right hand...and now I find myself changing up and doing other things because of the pain in my fingers on my right hand....I still have not yet tried switching to the left... and I am reluctant to even think about it, but it might just be the only option in a few more years...

[CADaver]

I used a Calcomp 16 button cordless digitizer for many years...I used to joke that the only thing that ever got exercise was my three middle fingers on my right hand...and now I find myself changing up and doing other things because of the pain in my fingers on my right hand....I still have not yet tried switching to the left... and I am reluctant to even think about it, but it might just be the only option in a few more years...

Mine was a Summasketch with the 12 button puck.  The pain started in the back of my right hand one Wednesday morning, by Friday night my forearm was noticably swollen.  Then everything went back to normal over the weekend and stayed okay until Wed. again.  This cycle lasted about 6 weeks getting a little worse and happening a little sooner each time.  Then we hit a crunch and I was putting in 16 hour days for a couple weeks with no weekends off.  By the end of the 2nd week I couldn't close my right hand.  

The tendon was swollen 3 times it's size and the doc said it was toast.  He'd never seen an MRI like it before, apparently there were irrepairable stess fissures length-wise completely through the tendon.  That was over 8 years ago and I still can't use my right index finger on a mouse for more than a few minutes without a couple hours of pain.

[Keith™]

I know my right index finger is the one that pains me the most