How to Recover Lost Drawing in AutoCAD?

Methods to Recover Lost Drawings in AutoCAD

Recovering lost drawings in AutoCAD can be a crucial task, especially if you’ve invested significant time into your work. The methods outlined below provide step-by-step guidance to help you retrieve those important files.

1. Restore Unsaved Drawings via AutoCAD Recovery Manager

To recover unsaved drawings using AutoCAD’s built-in tools, follow these steps:

• Launch AutoCAD 2025.
• Navigate to the Application Menu, typically located at the top-left corner.
• Hover over Drawing Recovery to reveal a list of potential recovery files. This feature allows you to manage and preview files that were not saved before a crash or unexpected shutdown.
• Select the drawing you wish to recover from the list, then click Open to restore it.

If you don’t see your drawing here, consider the following method of recovering backup files.

2. Recover from Backup (.BAK) Files

AutoCAD automatically creates backup files for drawings. To use these, follow these instructions:

• Open File Explorer on your computer and navigate to the folder where your original DWG file is stored.
• Look for a file that shares the same name as your original drawing but has a .BAK extension.
• Right-click the BAK file and select Rename.
• Change the file extension from .BAK to .DWG.
• Open the newly renamed file in AutoCAD. Your drawing should now be accessible.

3. Check for Autosave Files

AutoCAD also saves temporary files regularly, which can be quite helpful for recovery.

• To find your Autosave files:
  • Open AutoCAD and go to the Options menu by typing OPTIONS into the command line.
  • Under the Files tab, look for the Automatic Save File Location.
  • Note the directory path and navigate to this folder using File Explorer.
  • Search for files with the .SV$ extension. These are your Autosave files.
  • Rename any relevant Autosave file from .SV$ to .DWG and try opening it in AutoCAD.

4. Explore Temporary Files

Sometimes, temporary files can serve as a last resort for recovery:

• Check the TEMP folder on your computer by typing %TEMP% into the Run dialog (accessible by pressing Windows + R).
• Look for files that appear to be related to your work. Although they may not be straightforward drawings, some could contain useful data.
• Open these files with AutoCAD or another compatible viewer, if applicable.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What should I do if AutoCAD crashes often?
If AutoCAD experiences frequent crashes, consider resetting your settings to factory defaults, updating the software, or repairing the installation through the control panel.

Q2: Are there any preventive measures to avoid losing work in AutoCAD?
To minimize the risk of losing drawings, enable the Autosave feature and regularly save work manually using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + S.

Q3: Can I recover lost drawings from previous AutoCAD versions?
Recovering drawings from previous versions is not typically possible directly within newer versions of AutoCAD. However, it may be worth checking if you have saved any versions in a cloud service or via a backup on your system.