Do a Job · Everyday · 5 min
Save your work, and bring it back
What saves by itself, what a save point is, how to make a project file you can send, and what to do after a crash.
There are three layers, from automatic to deliberate.
- Automatic save
- Your work is written to this computer a second or so after each change. The status bar says exactly what it has done, and never says Saved before the save has finished. You don’t have to do anything.
- Save point (`Ctrl+S`)
- A named state you can return to, kept on this computer. Make one before something risky, such as recalibrating or a big clean-up.
- Project file (`Ctrl+Shift+S`)
- A portable .datomark file holding your measurements, groups and markup. Save it to send to a colleague, to keep a backup, or to move to another computer.
Coming back
- Open the same drawing again. If there’s earlier work on this computer for it, Earlier work found appears with the date and what’s in it.
- Check the note under it. If the drawing matches the one the work was done on it says so; if it doesn’t, it warns you, because restoring onto a different drawing would place measurements wrongly.
- Choose Restore, or Start fresh. The earlier work stays on the computer and is offered again next time.
To open a project file, choose File › Open project…. It opens the drawing it was made on, if you have it, and checks the match.
In DatoMark Save a project file