Should You Archive Renders if You Can Just Archive the Project File and Render Again?

Y'all're reading this because you lot have no idea what a blend1 file is...or you lot're wondering what is filling upwardly your hard drive.

Brusque answer: blend1 files are former versions of your file, saved to your working directory. Long answer is a bit, well, longer.

Do you lot need blend1 files?

Well, you probably don't.

Allow me tell y'all a little story to explain why this is the example.

If y'all are annihilation like me, your introduction to Blender would have gone something like this: you lot offset messing around and having a lot of fun figuring things out. At first, you don't actually create anything worth saving merely subsequently a while, you take a great thought for a actually cool project.  It'due south going to be the all-time thing that had ever been created that you don't hit the salvage button for hours and hours when of a sudden, bam, you lot lose all your work!

Most likely, you did something that broke your file but you arraign Blender anyway. Then, afterwards you've taken a deep jiff and calmed down, you discover that Blender tin can automatically relieve sometime versions for you with blend1 files. Yay!

But now after your heartbreaking ordeal, you lot become overboard. Why not create up to 5 of these backups? You actually don't want to lose anything ever again, right? But get this: all your saved files are now identical because you now have a addiction of saving every 4 seconds.

Fast frontward a few years and rather than constantly saving over the same file, you work in a much smarter mode (which I will explain after).  But alas, you lot have never kicked this habit to blend1 relieve files and your growing drove of full hard drives are proof.

Does whatsoever of that story audio familiar?

What is a blend1 file and how exercise they work?

Let'south say you're working on a file called "Cool_project.blend"

Normally, every fourth dimension you save, this file is directly overwritten.  Even so, if y'all take blend1 files enabled before it is overwritten, the old filename extension is renamed to blend1.  And if blend1 already existed, it becomes blend2, and blend2 becomes blend3, etc..all the fashion upward to all the same many copies you told Blender to continue (the limit is 32 saved versions).

How do you lot open up or restore one of these backups?

Easy. Simply rename the file extension.

Alter "Cool_project.blend1" to  "Cool_project.blend" and the old version of your file set to open up.

A Better Way To Work with alloy files

Rather than naming your files in a random way and constantly saving over a single file until the project is finished, you lot should utilize a naming convention and offset incrementing the name when it's advisable.

How to choose your naming convention

Having a naming convention will salve you a lot of headache in the long run.  There is no 'correct' naming convention only I volition brand 3 strong suggestions.

1. Be short.
2. Be consistent.
3. Utilize a logically placed numeral in the title.

You can evolve your naming convention as your skills and experience grow, just just make certain you are consistent across the same project.  This will make it easier for you to know what's going on if y'all always need to come up back to the project months or even years subsequently.  It as well makes it easier for someone else to know what'southward going on if they ever need to look at the project files.

Here are some examples of bad file names.

                      Project Cool_like_I_mean _really-really_cool-All-time One.alloy            Cooler project2_bestest_than-the-last_one_final.blend            Even cooler version of the_first version_final_version3.blend                  

What!?

Here'due south an instance of a better naming convention.

                      Cool_project_01.blend            Cool_project_02.alloy            Cool_project_03.blend                  

Ahhhh, that's much amend.

It'south clean, consistent and and then much easier to see which one is the latest version.

Why should y'all use a logically placed number in your file?

Equally mentioned, it makes it easier to tell which is the latest version plus Blender has a cool feature that easily lets you increment the number in the file name.

Just press the + button on screen (or the + push button on the Keyboard) when saving and information technology will auto-increase the file number.

When do you increment your file proper noun?

Usually, afterwards y'all've washed a off-white chunk of work or you lot are about to do something that might be considered dangerous. That could hateful many things, only you should exist smart about information technology.  You demand to start taking command of when these save points happen and don't get out it up to adventure.  When you take control of your saved versions like this, in that location is no need for blend1 files at all.  They are merely taking up space on your hard drive.

You might be thinking that by turning off blend1 files you lot'll be working without a safety cyberspace.

Non true.  You have everything incrementally saved so in that location is no situation where a blend1 file is going to save y'all more than work.

What if you accidentally shut Blender without saving?

Sometimes that can happen or a random crash can occur, but there are 2 features that can help you at that place.

 'Recover Autosave' and 'Recover last session'

Back in the old days, let'southward just say that these features were more ornamental than functional.  On the rare occasion, they worked but mostly they just restored a half-populated file of junk. However, in recent years, I am happy to say that they truly do work every time.

What is the function of Autosave in blend files?

Autosave files differ to the blend1 in 1 keyway.  They are temporary.  Past default, Blender will automatically create a backup every two minutes and store these to your temporary binder.

These files can be opened when you choose 'Recover Autosave'.  You can too see the timestamp and the process ID to know what version you lot want to recover.

These temporary files are cleared out every time y'all reboot your computer.

How to restore your last Blender session

When you quit Blender, a quit.blend is saved to that same temporary folder.  This file is opened when you choose to restore the last session. Perfect for when you accidentally closed without saving that terminal update.

Where can yous tell Blender to put your temporary files?

As I mentioned higher up, the default temporary location on your OS is cleared out every fourth dimension you reboot your computer.  This ways it automatically cleans upwards after you, which is a good thing, but it also means that if you lot do encounter trouble, don't think 'Oh I'll just go to bed and gear up it in the morning time'. You should recover the file before you lot reboot.

So do you really demand blend1 files anymore?

Now I'm non saying that everyone needs to rush off and disable blend1s. Early on, they can salvage your butt when you lot don't know what you're doing. However, one time you've got a chip of experience and exercise good file direction, you shouldn't ever need a blend1 let lonely a blend2 or above.

If y'all increment your files manually and salve blend1 files, you are simply filling up your HDD (or your work's HDDs) with redundancy at that bespeak.

So how practice y'all know if y'all are ready to kick your blend1 habit?

Let me ask you a question that was put to me many years agone.

When was the last time you needed to use a blend1 file?

If yous're struggling to respond that...it means that yous are ready to ditch them forever.

Read: https://cgcookie.com/articles/how-to-organize-your-blender-files

Learn more most Blender data: https://cgcookie.com/course/understanding-blender-information

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Source: https://cgcookie.com/articles/what-is-a-blend1-file-and-do-you-really-need-them

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