While working on models in RhinoMac, it is possible to go back to a previous version, because that is how the OS is designed. Rhino via the OS uses Time Machine to look for these previously saved versions. Since I just lost a lost of my TM backups, those Save a Version sections of my files are no longer available.
What happens if for instance I copy a file onto a USB drive to work on it on another computer in another location that does not have access to to TM drive the “Save a Version” parts are saved on? Or, what happens if I email a file to a colleague (I emailed a file to my instructor at McNeel recently) who also has no access to my TM drive? If RhinoMac had an option “Save As” this would not be the case, because I could copy or send multiple files to see previous steps in the building of the file.
What happens to all those Save a Version section to files when copying or sending files to external devices that have no access to Time Machine?
The location of the previous versions of a Rhino model that are saved by Versions has changed, depending on the version of OS X you are running. When Versions was first introduced in OS X Lion (10.7), the past versions for all files were saved in a hidden directory at the root of your hard drive. This was true whether using Rhino, or TextEdit, or anything else that implemented Versions.
With newer versions of OS X, Versions has gotten much more sophisticated. These past versions might be on your hard drive or they might be on your Time Machine drive. I don’t know the exact details of how Mavericks or Yosemite handle these past versions. I think that the most recent versions are somewhere on your hard drive and that they are migrated to the Time Machine drive after 24 hours, but that’s just guessing from what I’ve observed in my own use. If someone has a link to more solid information, please post it.
The important part to know is that these past versions are not part of your 3dm file but stored somewhere else, so the past versions are not copied when you copy the file somewhere else or you send someone else a copy.
If you work with your model directly on an external drive, then Versions may work or may not work. The external drive needs to be formatted as a Mac HFS+ drive. Usually USB thumb drives are MSDOS formatted and Versions will not work with MSDOS drives. If you reformat the thumb drive as HFS+, then Versions should work, but test this first to make sure.
With OS X Yosemite, you now can use iCloud Drive, and very quick tests seem to indicate that Versions works when working on 3DM files on iCloud Drive. I have not tested this extensively, so be sure to test this yourself before depending on it.
Since I am currently still on 10.7.5 could you please tell me how I can find, and access that hidden directory (folder) at the root of my hard drive. And what the name of that directory might be.
Maybe there is some hope that I still have my saved versions there.
When I recently took the online Level 1 training course for RhinoMac, my instructor Mary Fugier showed clearly that her version of Rhino had a “Save As” option. You can see that also in the videos of some of the sessions. For Save As the keyboard command on the screen seemed to be Option-Shift-Command-S. However she went to the File-Duplicate command and said she held the Option key which gave her the “Save As” option.
My version of Rhino does not have that. Option-Shift-Command-S does nothing. She also had an option called “Rename” under the File menu. My version of Rhino does not have that either. Is there some setting that I have to check to also have that. What might be the reason that my version of Rhino does not have these “Save As” and “Rename” options?
