When using SketchUp and plugins, often enough a crash can happen or even a power outage and you lose your work. Rather than start over we have a few places to check before getting started again as well as a few safety nets to set up, just in case.
The first place to check after a crash is the SketchUp application. This often has a 'recovered' version of your file, if you can open this then great do so and save as soon as possible. If you don't know the cause of the crash it could happen again.
BackUp Files
SketchUp also automatically creates a backup file which can be found with your saved and is either a .skb file on Windows or on Mac look for ~ next to the name of the file.
To open the file rename/save it as a proper .skp and then try to open the file.
This backup will be the version of the file the time before your most recent save. So if you created a file, saved it, made a box and then saved it, the backup will be empty and the main file will have the box in.
Autosave/Recovered Files
Failing those, or the space between backups is large, you can check the below locations for autosaves and recovered versions.
For Windows:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\SketchUp\SketchUp 20xx\SketchUp\working\Recovered Files
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Temp\SketchUp
Please remember to change YourUsername and the SketchUp year or follow the paths manually.
If you follow the path manually please note AppData is hidden and requires you to unhide it.
For Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/SketchUp 20xx/SketchUp/working/RecoveredFiles
You can also check /tmp and /var/tmp for files.
Please note: ~ is the location of the hidden Library folder found in Users/YourUsername and is hidden by default. Press Command Shift . (Full stop/period) to unhide this.
Safety Nets
Of course when you first create your file saving it to a local location is key as this will kick all the default settings into motion (Autosaves and backups). Once you have finished for the day or before doing updates, renders, version changes etc, it can be good to create backups in online/cloud locations like Trimble Connect or Google Drive for example. While you should never work from them directly, they are good to have.
To check your autosave and backup settings go into SketchUp and SketchUp preferences and go to General.
Since Autosave doesn't create any extra files taking space (Like Autosave_1,Autosave_2) it's worth having. Most users will have 5 minutes and that'll be enough, if you find slowness or interruption when saving you can extend the timer but that comes with the risk of more work being lost.
Here you can also turn off/on the backup. Again this is a must to have on as even those who save frequently can have a random power cut or a corrupt file.
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