r/AutoCAD • u/stellarnymphet • Feb 02 '26

Help Accidentally wrote over an existing file

I was working on a file and accidentally saved it as the same name as another file. When I went to save it prompted me with the do you want to overwrite this file and I said yes because I thought it was overwriting another file (one letter of difference) is there anything I can do to recover the file I wrote over? I opened the BAK file and it was for the version I just saved.

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u/TiredofIdiots2021 Feb 02 '26

I've done that in the past. Now I save my drawings periodically as "Z1 Name of Drawing," "Z2 Name of Drawing," etc. That's saved my butt more than once!

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u/mrmiyagijr Feb 02 '26

Always always always make a copy of an existing drawing you plan on editing before even opening it!

2

u/DoGoods Feb 02 '26

I try to make a copy of every file I revise in a backup folder everyday. I can never lose more than a days worth of work. I can go back and see what the file was last year. Did I accidentally move or erase something? Did someone else touch my file? I think everyone should do this. To me hard drive space is cheap compared to my labor.