How to recover a file after a crash

Start the program again. If Vectornation by Zaweba closed unexpectedly, it offers to recover your work from the recovery copy it makes every few minutes, so you lose at most the last short stretch. For older versions of a file, open File > Version history, which keeps earlier saves of each drawing on your PC.

Crashes happen to every program on every computer sooner or later: a power cut, a driver fault, a laptop battery that runs out. What matters is how much work goes with it, and that comes down to recovery copies and how often you save.

Recovering after a crash

After a crash, open Vectornation and accept the offer to recover. Look over the recovered drawing before carrying on. Then save it straight away, under its usual name or a new one, so it becomes a normal saved file again.

If you are offered a recovery but think your last manual save is newer, open both and compare before deciding which to keep.

Setting how often recovery copies are made

The interval is in Edit > Preferences under File handling. A recovery copy is made every N minutes, where you choose N. A shorter interval means less lost work after a crash; a longer one means fewer pauses while very large files are written. For most drawings a short interval is the better trade.

Going back to an earlier version

Recovery deals with crashes. Version history deals with second thoughts. File > Version history keeps earlier saves of a drawing on this PC, so if you made a change this morning that you now regret, or a client wants yesterday's colours back, you can open an earlier save rather than rebuilding it.

Within a session, Window > Document > History lists your steps, and Undo and Redo name the step they are about to undo or redo, so you can see exactly where you are going back to.

Habits that protect your work

Save often. Ctrl+S is the cheapest insurance there is, and recovery copies are a safety net, not a replacement.

Save as a new name at milestones, before a big change or a round of client edits. That gives you clear points to return to alongside version history.

Back up beyond your PC. Recovery copies and version history live on this computer, so they will not help if the disk fails or the laptop is lost. Copy your work folder to an external drive or another backup you trust.

Keep enough free disk space. Saving can fail on a nearly full disk, and so can recovery copies.

When a file will not open

If a drawing will not open after a crash, try the recovery copy or an earlier entry in Version history. Vectornation saves in common formats such as SVG and PDF too, so if you exported a copy for a client, that can be opened as a last resort to get most of the artwork back.

Vectornation by Zaweba is free software for Windows that works offline and needs no account, so your recovery copies and history are kept on your own PC.