Garbage backup files on desktop?

xennon

Just a stab in the dark: Are some of your default file paths pointing to somewhere inside the Program Files folder?

Anssi

No, they stored on a completely separate drive in their own folder structure specific to SU. ie D:\SketchUp...

Dave R

Is that drive always available?

I've used SketchUp for many years on several different XP machines as well as on Mac and have never seen it stick SKB files anywhere except the directory in which the SKP file has been saved. I'm not saying it couldn't but I've also never seen this mentioned by anyone else, either.

xennon

@dave r said:

Is that drive always available?

Yes, it is - it's an internal 2nd drive. It's odd that it's not happening to others. I can't think what setting I might have that's different - it's a standard install.

xennon

@dave r said:

I've also never seen this mentioned by anyone else, either.

This is where I saw someone else report the same issue ...

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/sketchup/thread?tid=43a139dfcd3f0a12&hl=en

Dave R

Doesn't sound like a pandemic anyway. It is quite strange, though.

mitcorb

This is not the same issue but similar:
I got skb's on my desktop when I tried to use a usb jump drive to save files directly to it. I realized that I needed to save on main drive, copy paste to usb drive, and do similar on the destination pc (moving files from home to workplace)
Another stab in the dark, but could some setting in windows preferring the C drive be part of the problem?

Gaieus

I also have my documents defined on a partitioned D drive (not straight under D however) and my file path set to D\My documents_SketchUp (which is my custom folder).

Now I generally do not have any issues with it. True however that SU saves the skb file always in the same directory where my original skp file is. If I temporarily download something (like models from these forums), I usually save them on the desktop (and later delete). In such cases the skb file is of course created on my desktop. But if I saved them on the Moon, they would probably be created there.

xennon

@gaieus said:

If I temporarily download something (like models from these forums), I usually save them on the desktop (and later delete). In such cases the skb file is of course created on my desktop.

I don't do that - I stipulate (without exception) where everything I download it placed. And I never (almost never) put any actual files on the desktop - only shortcuts.

Given that SU is the foreground app and I rarely minimize it while working, it's hard to know when it is happening since they are behind SU. I have even tried re-opening the last file to see if it would do it again with that file but invariably it doesn't. It's freaky - and I can't force SU to do it nor can I predict when it will do it.

I might try changing my default folders to yet another drive and see if that does anything.

I actually have a RAID controller with 2 drives hanging off it (don't know which ones) - perhaps my SU default paths are on one of those drives and for some reason SU occasionally dislikes writing to them. The RAID is not used as a RAID setup, only as extra IDE channels in order to support more HDDs. I'm only guessing here, but it could be related.

RLHartwig

I too have the same problem.
I wish I didn't have but one choice to turn off the backups and auto saves but a way to provide a folder for them to be saved in that I could find every time I needed to go back and restore a file that had been lost or corrupted. The whole idea of having autosave files and backup files that are directed to any folder by default and not to a folder that I can specify then just adds to the torment if a file is lost. Then you are searching your computer to find the files you need to restore the project. I save things regularly but when I'm in the heat of design I like having that autosave every ten minutes or so. But if it is going to save 13 or 14 files to my desktop every time I make a project I can't have it. my desktop would be filled with SKB files with no room for anything else. Is there another fix for this somewhere?

david.

I've never had a .skp or .skb file stored on the Desktop except if I explicitly pointed to that location.