One of the most misunderstood commands in AutoCAD is the SAVE command. Note that SAVE, QSAVE, and SAVEAS all do different things.
SAVEAS saves the current drawing to a new file name. Example: If you are working in “A.DWG” and you run the SAVEAS command and specify “B.DWG”, then “B.DWG” is created and is now the current drawing in the editor.
QSAVE simply saves the current drawing. If the current drawing is unnamed (not yet saved) or it is read-only, then QSAVE behaves like the SAVEAS command and allows you to specify a file name and location.
SAVE writes the contents of the editor to disk. It is like SAVEAS in that you get to specify the file name and location, but the currently loaded drawing remains unsaved and unchanged, even though DBMOD is reset to zero in the current drawing. Using the above example, if you are working in “A.DWG” and you run the SAVE command, and specify “B.DWG”, then “B.DWG” is created from the contents of the editor, but “A.DWG” remains loaded, unchanged, and unsaved. The exception to this rule is that when the SAVE command is executed in an unnamed drawing, it behaves like the SAVEAS command and names the current drawing.
To confuse things even more, the pull-down menu entry titled SAVE in AutoCAD actually executes the QSAVE command. The SAVE command is only available at the command prompt.
Note that in AutoCAD LT, SAVE and QSAVE are the same command.
