10.3. Backup and Recovery

A clean backup and recovery strategy effectively protects your work from data loss. This ensures that your projects remain reproducible at all times and downtime is minimized.

Prerequisites

Access to a central storage medium or a cloud-based backup system.
Administrative rights on the local computer or server to perform write operations in the content directory.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Creating a Backup

Back up project files: Regularly copy all relevant Plant 3D projects and Advance Steel files to a central drive or your backup system.
Expected result: All project states are securely stored in an external location.
Back up Content & Specs: In addition to the project folder, also back up individual Spec catalogs and Ortho templates from your content path.

Performing a Recovery (Restore)

Import project data: Copy the desired project folder from your backup back to the working drive.
Load project: Start AutoCAD Plant 3D and reload the project via the Project Manager by navigating to the project.xml.
Restore templates and content: Copy the backed-up Specs and Ortho templates back into the corresponding content path.
Check links: Check in the Project Manager whether all assignments and paths are correctly recognized.
Expected result: The project can be opened without errors and all catalogs are available.

Important Notes

Automation: Use professional backup software to ensure daily, automatic backups of project data and content paths.
Version states: When restoring, ensure that the software version (e.g., Plant 3D 2024) matches the state of the backed-up data.
Completeness: Always back up the entire project directory, not just individual drawings, to maintain database integrity.

Troubleshooting

Project not found: Check whether the project.xml is present in the main directory of the restored folder.
Missing Specs: Ensure that the content path in the settings points correctly to the directory where you copied the backup.
Test run: Regularly perform a test restoration on a separate system to verify the functionality of your backups.