Photoshop autosave.
polycounter lvl 18
does anyone know an actual reason why Photoshop has been developed without strides towards some sort of autosave feature??
I know, the rule of thumb in photoshop is simply just to save all the damn time, but sometimes I forget. And i`m sure everyone that reads this has forgotten at one point in time and lost several hours of work aswell.
I feel like I would be much less pissed of if I knew an actual reason why Photoshop didnt have this feature. At least then my rage quits might be a little less explosive.
I know, the rule of thumb in photoshop is simply just to save all the damn time, but sometimes I forget. And i`m sure everyone that reads this has forgotten at one point in time and lost several hours of work aswell.
I feel like I would be much less pissed of if I knew an actual reason why Photoshop didnt have this feature. At least then my rage quits might be a little less explosive.
Replies
I had a few crashes with CS3: it usually would just close itself without any warning but now with the 64bit CS4 I have no trouble.
What do you want exactly?
- Possibility to change the delay of the save?
- To create a directory near your PSD with the history of your PSD files and to call it 001, 002, 003, etc?
- To choose how many Autoback files the hisotry will keep in you directory?
Let me know and I would like to try
But be careful because if you PSD file is big and take time to save, script will stop you in your work!
You could also check out versionCue that comes with Photoshop as it is something close to that (does backups, but no autosave or autobackup). But people hate it because it operates in the background (saving stuff) and usually one alone doesn't really need it + not even companies like to use it.
wow... hmmm I do not know what to say, idea is great but I am not sure I can do that with Javascript... O_o... Maybe need to go in the Photoshop API for that...
Problem with Photoshop is when you start a script it will automatically stop the current action of the user, I do not success to run my script and to work with Photoshop at the same time.
Idea of script could be to compare all layers from the original version with the last version, but I need to open the last saved version in Photoshop.
And it will save it.. in phptoshop... -_-...
There is not really something in Javascript I can do outside photoshop.
I mean to check a Psd file without open it on Photoshop.
Anyway, I will start and will see what I can do after that.
I remember doing some test on a 60 mo file, if I hide all groups and layer. it will give a 45-50mo file...
Do not ask me why but it works...
Then it could be a solution when creating autoback, reducing database size and time to save a file...
@ renderhjs : I totaly agree hahah!
But would like to practice Photoshop scripting and if they need... then... lets practice a little ^_~
http://www.electriciris.com/psdautosaver/
http://www.atopsoft.com/products/autosave/article_autosave_photoshop.html
I think the main reason why Photoshop doesn't have auto save is because they don't see a reason for it. Auto save creates small delays, where doing 2d artwork is really noticable. Doing 3d not so much as most people take a second or two and move around the object before continuing.
It's really just the nature of the work thats done on the application.
Then you will need to start it if you want the autosave script ...
Just use one of those reminder apps. But Control+S (Command+S from my Apple days) has been with me since 1998. I save often as a natural reflex. You need to just make it part of your work flow.
But if the AutoSave feature is dear to you, looks like $19.95 will get you some piece of mind. Several hours without saving is asking for trouble.
Sama.Van here's something you can do. Make a bat file and have it run minimized. (this one just runs in a background window).
you only do lowres textures right? ^^
I gets a hell lot more annoying if you have large texture pages with dozens of layers, bakes overlayed over colour layers, normalmap and spec together in one file, then saving as a copy is way faster, if you save such a posd every few seconds you'll never get to work on it as saving takes way longer
"Autosave" is not a simple script doing a ctrl+S for you every X minutes.
Interesting point of the "Save" features is about keeping history of your saved work.
Then yes, to save automatically your file, but not on the same file.
Imagine Photoshp crashes saving your file, then Autosave is not interesting in this way.
When we speak about "autosave" script the idea is :
- Do not save on the same file.
- To create a backup of your work every Y minutes.
- To keep history of X files in a backup directory and old files will be deleted automatically during the backup process.
Then if your Photoshop crash or you crash your file, you can go in the backup directory getting the last save done with the script.
This is an "intelligent AutoSave" script.
We can also 2 kind of backup :
- backup of your current work every X minutes.
- backup of your work file when you saved it manually.
@ Lamont : hmm yeah look interesting, will try out with a *. bat file
Because running Adobe Bridge is about 50-60mo in the Task Manager...
I quickly learned to save very, very often.
edit: Yeah, Rihno, when you've got a huge psd with folders for normalmap, specular, diffuse and whatnot, things quickly slow right the fuck down. Which means autosaving won't be feasable, I don't think.
+a flashy save thing would be great,
+an incremental save system identical to 3dsmax where it overwrites the last, in a series of three files would be kick ass. (the current incremental save option creates far too much bloat imo, and you still have to hit ctrl-s)
+last but not least, an option to turn it off, or delay the save frequency for larger files.
/whining.
As Lamont said on the top using a cmd file it will launch my Javascript function.
It works well, and this seems to be very transparent.
There is a DOS window staying open in window. But you can reduce it in the task bar.
If you stay from of the window you will see the update of the autosave mode.
There a little install to do manually but this is very simple.
-A- Download following ZIP file first : http://a.samavan.com/SAMA_AutoSave.zip
-B- Drop the directory "SAMA_AutoSave" somewhere on your HDD.
-C- There is 2 lines to edit in the "SAMA_AutoSave.cmd" file.
You can open it with Textpad or another ASCII editor.
> Chdir : please check If the Photoshop Dirctory is correct. (Mine is CS4-64bits)
>2nd line, 2nd "...." : is about the jsx file, my autosave function. Please check if the directory is correct, etc.... If you dropped the directory in the C:/ root there is no modification to do.
To run the *.cmd file, just double click on it when Photoshop is open with one of your file.
It will save your current file (not the other file open) after a little delay. Always the same delay.
All the time you keep the DOS window open, it will continue to save after a little delay.
To Stop the AutoSave program, just close the DOS window.
Functionalities are very poor, this a very first test.
But it works, doesn't crash when saving.
Please test it, and say to me if you want more custom functions.
And I will start to develop a more interesting functionality as we spoke about on the top.
Please note the following points (this can be do easily ) :
- If you start the *.cmd file and photoshop is close :
----> When trying to save, it will automatically start photoshop and then an error will appear.
This is just because i didn't clean my very small code yet, nothing bad.
- The delay is currently very shot.
----> In the *.cmd file, at the following part of the code : you can edit the number "3". this is not exactly seconds. Maybe 3 is 6 seconds... or 10?
I dunno yet... need to find more details about it.
Just edit it, bigger value will create a long delay, smaller value will reduce the delay. Up to you.
Don`t be worry. There is nothing in the cmd file or JSX file it could create bad to you workstation.
This is a very small script and very basic functions
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") WshShell.Run chr(34) & "autosavePS.bat" & Chr(34), 0 Set WshShell = NothingIf you want to take care of this part...
And I will start to work on the history! I caught you on MSN
I have visual C++ but can only build for Win32. But there is a hac to build for x64.
I wrote an autosave for Photoshop a while back. Feel free to take a look: http://www.electriciris.com/psdautosaver.html
I like your Enzo3D plugin just wish it would work with 64bit Photoshop versions.