Version history
Automatic checkpoints and named versions — how long they are kept, previewing an earlier state, and restoring it in place or as a new project.
Collaboration & sync 4 min read
There is no save button, because every edit is already stored. What version history adds is the ability to go backwards: open the model as it stood last Tuesday, see what changed since, and bring it back, for everyone or as a separate copy.
Open it from Collaborate › History › Versions, File › Version history or the clock button in the header. The panel opens beside the dock. Its top row is the Current version, the live one everyone is editing, and below it the earlier versions, grouped by day, each with a thumbnail, who worked on it and what changed in numbers: +120 nodes, −3 members, counted over nodes, members, loads, load cases and combinations.
How versions are made
Nobody has to remember to make a version. The server takes one:
| Version | When |
|---|---|
| Auto-save | After 15 minutes of editing, counted from the first change not yet in a version |
| Session end | When the last person leaves the project with changes not yet in a version |
| Before large delete | Before an edit that removes a large part of the model, at least a fifth of the nodes, members, loads, cases or combinations and at least ten of them |
| Named version | When someone saves one, or names an automatic one |
A project nobody edits gets no new versions, and a state identical to the last version is not stored twice. A version exists only once the project has reached the server, so edits made offline appear in the history after they sync.
Collaborate › History › Save version (or File › Save version…) keeps the project as it is now under a name, Before the roof redesign, Issued for tender. The last few seconds of editing may not have reached the server yet, so give it a moment after a change you want included.
How long they are kept
Automatic versions thin out as they age, and named versions are never cleaned up:
| Age | Automatic versions kept |
|---|---|
| Under a day | All of them |
| Under a week | One per hour |
| Under a month | One per day |
| Older | One per week, until the retention period ends |
The retention period follows the project owner's plan: 30 days on Free, a year on Student and Pro. After that automatic versions are removed. The newest version is always kept.
Previewing
Preview opens a version in the real viewers, read-only: plots, tables and properties all show the model as it was. A banner says which version you are looking at, and Back to current returns you. While previewing nothing can be edited, and comments are read-only too. Others on the project are not affected; they carry on in the current version.
Restoring
Two ways, from the version's menu:
| Restore this version | Restore as new project | |
|---|---|---|
| What changes | The project becomes this version, for everyone, live | Nothing; a new project is created |
| Owner of the result | The project's owner, as before | You |
| Safety net | The current state is saved first as a named version, Before restoring …; if that save fails, nothing is restored | The original is untouched |
| Undo | One step, like any other edit | Delete the copy |
| Who can | Editors and the owner | Anyone with access, within their own project limit |
A restore in place is one ordinary edit: collaborators see the model change and can keep working on it, and comments are not affected. A restore that changes too much to send as one edit is refused, with the offer to restore it as a new project instead.
Who can do what
| Read | Read & write | Owner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open the history and preview | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Save, name, rename a version | — | Yes | Yes |
| Restore in place | — | Yes | Yes |
| Restore as a new project | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Delete a version | — | — | Yes |
Version history is on every plan. The plan changes only how long automatic versions are kept, and whether a restored copy fits within your project limit.
What it is not
It compares versions by counts, not by a line-by-line diff of the model. A version holds
the model, not its results, and any number read from an old version comes from today's
solver. Exports are still the record of what left the office. A PDF report shows
what was issued, and an .elproj file keeps a state outside the project and outside any
subscription. See Import & export formats.
Something wrong or unclear on this page? Tell us, and it gets corrected.