Is there a way to recover the pattern erased by impoting

[cpcopy]

I modified a pattern file and wanted to export it. But I did import by mistake. All the changes are gone :<. Can it be recovered or any temp files?

[paxcut]

(undo) Ctrl-Z should give you back your file content. If it doesn't you may be able to recover it from the auto backups assuming you have them on and on and that the changes occurred before a saved time.
Im not sure about undo. It works for most changes but I can't remember now if importing a pattern saves the contents in the undo buffer. I suggest saving the project file often (using alt-s) to avoid problems like this in the future.

[cpcopy]

Thanks for your reply. I just create an empty project and haven't saved it yet. Undo can work for other changes. But it cannot recover the content before importing.

[paxcut]

Yes, i was afraid that may be the case. I'll make a note to make sure that importing can be undone. Did you have autosave turned on? It is possible that the project is saved in one of them but they will be overwritten if you don't check. I have a habit of saving the project file every time I stop writing code or before I run a pattern that I have just modified. When you used import instead of export did you have an earlier version of the pattern saved that you were trying to overwrite? did it have many changes?

[cpcopy]

I find the Periodically backup project configuration is Every 5m. Will it backup my new project? How can I recover it?
I just wanted to write a new pattern file rather than a new project. So didn't save a project. As it cannot save with Ctrl-S. I want to termpararily save my pattern before I leave. That is exact my habit, saving my codes before leaving. But the exporting saving way is not the general saving way. That's why I made a mistake.
I have an earlier version saved. At least, I don't need to rewrite all.

[paxcut]

Om your local appdata imhex folder (if in windows) there should be a folder with all the autobackups. choose one near the time you lost your pattern and open it as a regular project. Projects are nothing else than a collection of inputs and pattern that go with them. If you don't need to save the project permanently, create a temporary project file used just to write new patterns. When you start writing a new pattern just clear the old one. That way you can use alt-s (Not ctrl-s! thats for saving the input file) to save the project and once you make it a habit you will do it without thinking. If you have a project file that wont load keep in mind that it is just a tar file that contains all the files in the project it can be extracted using 7zip or any decompressor that supports tar

[cpcopy]

It works. Recovered the pattern from auto backup project. It saves much time. Thanks very much for your help.