Filename Versioning and Limiting

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‌Filename Versioning and Limiting ‌

Whether you are saving files only on command, or using auto-save, you can also turn on the Increment save file name preference, which will cause the scene's file name to be incremented before each save, so you'll get scene1.sni, scene2.sni, etc. (This is the same as always using File/Save Next Version.)

You can also turn on the Increment upon open preference, which immediately increments the sni file name when you open a file, so that any changes will affect the incremented file, not the original. This is useful for manual saving, and especially when using auto-save to prevent overwrites.

When you do this, you'll have a whole series of files, one for each manual or auto-save. That's useful if you need to go back to an earlier version.

Note: When you go back to an earlier file, then resume auto-increment saving, SynthEyes will modify the filename to create a new series so that the newly saved files don't overwrite the series of previously-saved files. For example, it will use myfile15_a1 if myfile16 already exists (and myfile15_b1 if myfile15_a1 already exists). The file after that will be myfile15_a2.

But, especially if you have auto-increment and auto-save both on, and especially with auto-tracked scenes, you can use a LOT of disk space rapidly!

To reduce that, you can

 have the filename increment only every several minutes, and/or

 have SynthEyes keep only the last few versions.

To have the filename increment (produce the next version) only every few minutes, set the Minutes/auto-increment preference. At its default value of zero, a new version is created every save. If you change the value to 10, a new version will be produced every 10 minutes.

To automatically limit the number of saved file version, turn on the "Limit number of file versions" preference and set the # of file versions preference to the desired number of files. With version limiting turned on, each time you save with auto-increment, auto-save with increment, or save next version, SynthEyes will delete any file the given number of versions back from the new version. (If you've gone back and reopened a file, creating a new series, this limit affects only an individual series.)

Here's a useful collection of auto-save settings:

 Enable auto-save? Yes

 Minutes per auto-save: 1

 If no filename? Save as untitled

 Increment upon open: checked

 Increment save file name: checked

 Minutes/auto-increment: 10

 Limit number of file version? checked

 # of file versions: 12

These settings will auto-save every minute, produce a new version every ten minutes, and keep at least two hour's worth of prior versions (longer if there was no activity for some periods). You can modify as desired.

For a more traditional manual-save approach, you might do this:

 Enable auto-save? No

 Minutes per auto-save: 1

 If no filename? Ask

 Increment upon open: checked

 Increment save file name: unchecked

 Minutes/auto-increment: 10

 Limit number of file version? checked

 # of file versions: 10

With these settings, you'd do your own File/Save and then File/Save Next Version as desired. SynthEyes will keep the last 10 versions.

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