Explore how AutoCAD uses different file types in creating projects, and discover efficient ways to manage these files to optimize your work process. Learn how DWG, DWT, and BAK files interact, as well as how to sort and manage them effectively.
Key Insights
- AutoCAD predominantly utilizes DWG (drawing files) and DWT (template files), but also generates BAK (backup files) automatically each time a project is saved. These backup files can be deleted but will regenerate with each new save.
- To ensure a clutter-free workspace, it is advisable to sort files by type rather than by name or date. This allows DWG and BAK files to be separated, enhancing visibility and organization.
- BAK files may be deleted to declutter the workspace, but they will reappear with each subsequent save. Hence, while working on larger projects that require opening and saving DWGs across multiple days, it is often more efficient to leave BAK files intact.
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Before we continue in AutoCAD, I want to quickly look at the file types that we use in AutoCAD, specifically how our file downloads folder has been updating. As you know, we've been making a lot of new DWG files, or drawing files, in AutoCAD.
You can see on the screen that I have the CAD101 file downloads folder open, and we have a lot more files generated by AutoCAD here. The DWG drawing file type is the standard AutoCAD drawing, and additionally, we have already used our DWT, which is the AutoCAD template file. You will notice that you will have BAK files as well, and these are backup files that are automatically generated when we save our drawings.
When you are working on an AutoCAD project, these files will update every time you save, and if you delete them, they might return. But when I'm working in AutoCAD, I do not like to view my folders by name or by date, because the BAK files will be mixed in. Instead, I like to go up to the type drop-down, and I will click the word type, and it will sort my DWGs and my BAK separately.
I'm going to click it again to put the DWGs closer to the top of my folder. Later in the course, we will open these files after we close them, and especially when you work in larger projects, you will be opening and saving DWGs through multiple days and multiple times you have AutoCAD open. I mentioned earlier you could delete the BAK files.
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I could do that now by selecting them all and hitting the delete key, but every time I open and edit one of my DWG files, it will make a new BAK. So for now, I'm going to leave the BAK files in my folder, but by sorting by type, I no longer have to see them mixed in with my DWGs. In the next video, we will talk about selecting entities.
