# Snapshot History ### What It Does Snapshot History lets you save named "checkpoints" of your draft as you work. Each snapshot captures the complete state of your design at a moment in time — threading, treadling, tie-up, colors, project settings, and section assembly. You can return to any snapshot later, or open it in a new tab to compare it side-by-side with your current work. Snapshots live **inside your TWA file**, so they travel with the draft. Share a TWA with a teacher or collaborator and they see your full design progression. Open the same file on another computer and your snapshots are still there. This feature was originally requested for **teaching workflows** — students save snapshots as they work through a project, and teachers review the progression to evaluate process, not just the final result. But it's just as useful for any weaver who wants to: * Try a bold design change without losing what they had * Compare two versions of a draft side-by-side * Track design evolution over a long project * Have multiple "what if" alternatives saved in one file *** ### Where to Find It * **Ribbon**: Project tab > Snapshot History group * **Take Snapshot** button — captures the current state * **View History** button — opens or closes the Snapshot History panel * **Panel location**: Docks on the **left** side of the main window when opened * **Settings**: Settings dialog > Application > **Automatic snapshots** checkbox *** ### Taking a Snapshot Click **Take Snapshot** from the Project ribbon tab. TempoWeave will: 1. **Save your file first** if it has unsaved changes (you'll see the Save dialog if the file is brand new and has never been saved) 2. **Capture the current state** — all the draft data, colors, tie-up, etc. 3. **Generate a small thumbnail** of the drawdown for visual reference 4. **Add the snapshot** to the History panel with a default name like `Snapshot, 2026-04-10 21:45` You'll see a green confirmation toast at the bottom of the screen. > **Note:** Snapshots are stored inside the TWA file paired with your WIF, so they only persist if your file has been saved at least once. If you click Take Snapshot on a brand-new untitled draft, you'll be prompted to save it first. *** ### The Snapshot History Panel Open the panel with **View History** in the Project ribbon. Each snapshot appears as a row showing: * **Thumbnail** — small preview of what the drawdown looked like at that moment * **Name** — defaults to a timestamp; you can rename it * **Date and time** — when the snapshot was captured * **"auto" badge** — shown only on automatic snapshots (see below) * **Three action buttons**: Restore, Open in New Tab, Delete The newest snapshots appear at the top. #### Renaming a Snapshot Two ways: 1. **Double-click** the snapshot name to rename it inline. Press Enter to save or Esc to cancel. 2. **Right-click** the snapshot row and choose **Rename**. Renames are saved to the TWA file immediately. #### Restoring a Snapshot Two options for going back to a snapshot: **Restore (replaces current draft)** Click **Restore** to replace your current working draft with the snapshot. A confirmation dialog asks if you're sure. Your current state is **preserved as an undo point**, so if you change your mind, just press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) to come back to where you were. Use this when you want to **continue working** from an earlier state. **Open in New Tab** Click **Open in New Tab** to load the snapshot as a separate document tab. Your current work stays open and unchanged. You can flip between tabs to compare two versions side-by-side, or use Window > Split View to see them at the same time. The opened tab is unsaved (no file path), so you can experiment freely. If you want to keep changes, use **Save As** to save it to a new file. Use this when you want to **compare** without losing your current work. #### Deleting Snapshots * **Delete one**: Click the **Delete** button on the row, or right-click > Delete. A confirmation dialog asks before removing. * **Clear All**: Click the **Clear All** button at the top of the panel. A confirmation dialog tells you how many snapshots will be removed. Both actions immediately update the TWA file. *** ### Automatic Snapshots If you enable **Automatic snapshots** in Settings (Settings dialog > Application section), TempoWeave will capture snapshots automatically at key moments: * **Before major transformations** — Echo, Double Cloth, Tromp as Writ, Block Substitution, Math Drafts, Common Weaves, Convert to Liftplan/Tie-up, Warp Spread, Treadle/Shaft Reduction, Treadle Expansion, Simplify Draft, Plot on Network, Arrange Treadles/Shafts, Diagonal tie-up, Hilbert Curve, Power, and Design Repeats. * **On Save** — when you save the file (only if there were unsaved changes since the last save). Automatic snapshots are named after what triggered them (e.g., `Echo, 2026-04-10 21:45` or `Save, 2026-04-10 21:50`) and show an **auto** badge in the panel so you can distinguish them from manual snapshots. To prevent flooding the panel with snapshots when chained operations happen, automatic snapshots are throttled — at most one auto-snapshot every 3 seconds. Manual snapshots via the **Take Snapshot** button are always available, regardless of this setting. *** ### Sharing Drafts to the Cloud When you share a draft to the cloud library, you can choose whether to include the snapshot history. In the **Share Pattern** dialog, you'll see a checkbox: **Clear snapshot history before upload**. It's checked by default — meaning the cloud copy will not include your snapshots. **Why default to checked?** Snapshot history can be a private record of your design process. You may not want collaborators or the public to see all your false starts and experiments. Unchecking the box uploads the full snapshot history along with the pattern — useful for teachers sharing example progressions, or for sharing drafts where the design evolution itself is the story. Either way, **your local file is unchanged**. The "clear" only applies to the uploaded copy. *** ### Snapshot Limit You can save up to **100 snapshots** per draft before TempoWeave warns you to clean up older ones. The warning is just a soft cap — you can keep adding more, but the History panel may get hard to navigate. Use **Clear All** or delete individual snapshots to keep things tidy. *** ### What Gets Captured in a Snapshot A snapshot captures essentially the entire .twa file at a moment in time: * The complete WIF data (threading, treadling, tie-up, colors, palette) * Project settings (sett, beat, dimensions, draft style, origin) * Section Assembly tree (warp and weft sections) * Color Assembly tree * All draft mode settings (rising/sinking shed, cloth type) What's **not** captured: * The Weaver's Writeup attachments and embedded images (the writeup text fields are also not captured to keep snapshots small) * Your active tool, zoom level, and scroll position (these are session state, not draft state) * Your selection *** ### Sharing Snapshots With a Teacher or Student The teaching workflow looks like this: 1. **Student** turns on Automatic snapshots in Settings, or takes manual snapshots at key points during their project 2. Student saves their work normally — snapshots are inside the TWA file 3. Student sends the .twa file to the teacher (email attachment, USB stick, or cloud share with the **Clear snapshot history** checkbox **unchecked**) 4. **Teacher** opens the .twa file in TempoWeave 5. Teacher opens the **View History** panel and reviews the timeline 6. Teacher can click **Open in New Tab** on each snapshot to compare progressive versions 7. Teacher can also click **Restore** to step through the student's process The snapshot timeline is a window into the student's process — what they tried, what they kept, and what they changed. *** ### Tips * **Snapshots are saved automatically when you click Take Snapshot** — even if you haven't saved your draft yet, TempoWeave will save it first so the snapshot has a home. * **Restore is undoable** — restoring a snapshot creates an undo point, so Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z) will return you to where you were before the restore. * **Snapshots persist across sessions** — they're inside the .twa file. Close TempoWeave, reopen the file, and your snapshots are still there. * **Use Open in New Tab for comparisons** — instead of restoring repeatedly, open snapshots as new tabs so you can flip between them. * **Rename your snapshots** — the default timestamp names work, but renaming key snapshots ("first idea", "after color change", "final") makes the timeline much easier to navigate later. * **Clean up regularly** — if you're using automatic snapshots, the timeline can fill up fast. Periodically delete experimental snapshots you no longer need. * **Keep cloud uploads tidy** — leave the **Clear snapshot history before upload** checkbox checked unless you specifically want to share your design process. *** ### Settings The **Automatic snapshots** setting in Settings > Application controls whether TempoWeave automatically captures snapshots before major transformations and on save. Default is **off**. Manual snapshots are always available. *** ### Quick Reference | Action | How | | --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | | Take a snapshot | Project tab > Take Snapshot | | Open the history panel | Project tab > View History | | Restore a snapshot in place | Click Restore in the History panel | | Compare a snapshot | Click Open in New Tab | | Rename a snapshot | Double-click the name (or right-click > Rename) | | Delete one snapshot | Click Delete on its row | | Delete all snapshots | Click Clear All at the top of the panel | | Enable auto-snapshots | Settings > Application > Automatic snapshots | | Strip snapshots from cloud upload | Share dialog > Clear snapshot history before upload (default on) | *** ### Limitations * **Snapshots are inside the TWA file** — they only persist if the file is saved. Brand-new untitled drafts can't have snapshots until you save the file first. * **Older TempoWeave versions don't preserve snapshots** — if a user opens your TWA in a TempoWeave version older than 26.410 and saves it, the snapshots will be lost. Make sure collaborators are on a current version. (TempoWeave 26.410 and later will preserve snapshots even if a new format extension is added in the future.) * **Soft cap of 100 snapshots** per file — you can have more, but the panel will get hard to use. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.tempoweave.com/help-by-menu-tabs/project-menu/snapshot-history.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. 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