Saving Job Files - Concepts

The Save and Save As commands allow you to save an AGi32 job file to any drive or directory. The Save As Template command allows you to save AGi32 Job Files as templates in lieu of empty job files with predefined data appropriate to any layout condition. Template files are always stored in: C:\ProgramData\AGi32\JobFileTemplates.

File names can be long and even include spaces per the Windows UNC (Universal Naming Convention) protocol. You can include Information notes about the job file that will be seen each time the job file is opened. After an AGi32 file has been saved the first time, AGi32 will continue saving the file under the same name from then on.

When a file is saved, AGi32 automatically organizes and compresses the current working file. The working file is ordered contiguously, the Undo and Redo tables are purged and the file is compressed. The newly organized job file is then copied as the job file. If the job file has been previously saved, it is saved as a backup copy (with the extension .bak appended to the end) before being overwritten with the new data.

Compressed files are typically 3 to 6 times smaller than uncompressed job files, which is comparable to compression results from zipping tools. Compressed job files are given the same file extension and are automatically recognized by AGi32.

Save Rendered Environment

By default, the Rendered Environment is saved when the job file is saved. AGi32 will ask if you wish to save the rendered environment when closing the current job file if this option is disabled. When a rendered environment is saved, a separate Radiosity Solution File (RSF extension) is saved containing the rendered elements within the environment. The RSF file may be quite large, up to several megabytes. To save the Rendered Environment whenever the job file is saved, enable this option in the System Settings command (File System tab). The Radiosity Solution File will be saved in the same folder as the job file.

Saving the rendered environment for large applications with many surfaces may be time extensive; therefore, AGi32 reports the save status on its command line to indicate progress. The AGi32 button on the Windows taskbar will also change its caption to AGI32-Saving as a visual clue if you are working on other applications at the same time. Finally, while the rendered environment is being saved, AGi32 is assigned 'below normal" priority so that you may open and work in other applications at the same time.

If you open a previously saved AGI file that has a rendered environment (RSF present) in an older version of AGi32, you will see this message in Model Mode: "RSF files are not backward compatible." In other words, the rendered environment cannot be restored in an older version of AGi32 than that in which it was created.

Save As

The Save As command allows you to save the current job file as a new AGi32 job file. The original file remains unchanged as of the last Save invocation. When saving as an AGi32 file, AGi32 will close the original AGi32 file and present the newly created file for you to continue working with.

Save As Template

Job File Templates are AGi32 Job files that contain a certain amount of predefined data that can be used to initialize a project. For example: A job file can be created containing a football field drawing background and several floodlight luminaire definitions and the file saved as a ‘Football Template’. This saves the user from having to create a new file from scratch every time a football field layout needs to be worked on.

Job File Templates are automatically saved in: C:\ProgramData\AGi32\JobFileTemplates.

AGi32 Template Files can contain any predefined data that may be desired including, but not limited to:

Backup Files

This feature provides additional file protection in case something happens while saving a job file. When saving, a backup copy of the current file (if existing) is automatically made.  

Example:

  1. Create a new file called "file1.agi".
  2. Save file (no backup is made since the file is new).
  3. Work on the file and save again. Since the file already exists (this file has been saved before), a backup copy is automatically made in the same folder as the current file-  with the extension .bak. In this case, the backup file would be called "‘file1.agi.bak".
  4. The .bak file contains the previous version of the file (before the save). To use the backup file, simply rename the file and remove the .bak extension.