Save a backup every day? You’re crazy! No. You’re crazy not to.
Are you saving a backup every day? Your answer better be yes. Data safety and organization is the subbasement/foundation of BIM. Your BIM model is only useful if it’s accessible, readable, and existent. Don’t lose your data.
It’s not just about file corruption and lost computers. Projects change. And change back. A backup a day allows you to copy and paste changes back and forth between files.
– about to add 6 5/8” to a story height? Save a backup first.
– Adding 2 feet to the width of half your building? Save a backup first.
– Cutting out a wing? Save a backup first.
And keep them in an easily accessible and organized location (more on that in a forthcoming post). That wing may return, the building might shrink, a week later you may realize you goofed up when you raised the building. You need that old file immediately. You don’t want to ask IT for a backup that may or may not exist on a tape drive. You don’t always want to admit a mistake was made because it’s quick to fix, not a big deal, part of the design process, and/or will only panic the technophobes. In short, not backing up daily wastes energy and money. Most importantly you will have a baseline to compare changes to if you have a file from everyday. Not every week. Every day. Say it out loud and promise me and whoever is next to you that you’ll start doing this.
A word on accountability. Continuous documentation of backups improves accountability and ass coverage. You have records, dated records of change. A client says you didn’t listen? Prove them wrong. You did listen, right? At the end of CDs you can look at 50 or 100 files and see where decisions were made.
There are ways to automate much of this. And I expect BIM software will eventually incorporate much of this incremental recording. But don’t wait for it. Develop and understand your process. I do all of my backups manually right now. If you think that’s archaic, fine. I’m working on improving it. Use a fancier solution… and share it with me. But unless you can go back in time to any day or major change in the project, even years later, then the fancy solution isn’t good enough. And you’re being lazy and foolish.
Here are some more thoughts and reasons for a healthy Backup Obsession.
Vistasp
Jared, in a recent discussion on AC-Talk, I’d mentioned a free software (windows only) called CascasdePoint which will automatically backup as many as 99 versions of your files and Mozy for automated offsite backup.
Eric Bobrow
Jared –
I agree – multiple backups are important for a variety of reasons, including file corruption, hard drive problems, revisiting or recovering previous design options, and covering your ass.
One tip to add in here: I find that maintaining the current (latest) version of the project PLN file with a consistent name (e.g. Smith Residence) is a good strategy, with backups and variations saved under other names (e.g. Smith Residence 040411, or Smith Residence – Plan Check, etc.). This may help avoid the confusion caused by multiple names for different revisions (e.g. Smith Latest Version, Smith Final Version, Smith for Plotting, etc.). This way one always knows that Smith Residence.PLN is the one to work on, and any file with an alternate name is a record or backup copy.
Eric
Jared Banks
Eric, Funny you should mention file naming conventions… that’s next week’s post! I totally agree that the project PLN needs to have a consistent name and that with all these backups one needs a very, very clear system to keeping current and old files separate. I prefer to use folders instead of different file names. Although your file naming convention is light years beyond what I’m used to seeing–I typically see the current file name continue to change and that drives me crazy.. I’ll explain my solution more once I get the next post complete and up. But thanks for bringing this up now. File naming is super important for data tracking and recovery.
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