Very slow using 3D duct program

I am running Autocad 2009. Running through it is a program for drawing 3d ductwork most specifically. It can also draw piping, steel, electrical. Anyway. I am drawing a project that has a bit of duct. Not a tremendous amount but enough. One section of the building has one floor another has two. Anyway. When I try to do things it takes forever . For example switching between paperspace layouts. Another major example is if I am looking at a paperspace layout and I want to plot. I will right click on the tab and go to plot. Waiting for the plot screen to come up can take as much as ten minutes. I am wondering if it is time to upgrade my video card or maybe memory. It is very frustrating trying to hurry drawing a project. By the way I have a Pentium 4 CPU 3.2 Ghz, 1GB of memory My video is an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Any suggestions please HELP!!

Right off the start you need at least 2 gig of memory and I would suggest as much as 4 gigs. The video card is certainly not doing you any favors either. That card is very old. Anything 3D demands a lot of PC resources. Your CPU is fine though.

Do you get the same speed issues if your running vanilla AutoCad?

By the way I have a Pentium 4 CPU 3.2 Ghz, 1GB of memory My video is an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. Any suggestions please HELP!!

On the surface, not enough memory. I think you might enjoy at least a dual core processor too. Along with 2GB memory, at least.

I'd guess, equipment isn't up to the task.

Right off the start you need at least 2 gig of memory and I would suggest as much as 4 gigs. The video card is certainly not doing you any favors either. That card is very old. Anything 3D demands a lot of PC resources. Your CPU is fine though.

 

Do you get the same speed issues if your running vanilla AutoCad?

Vanilla? I assume that means non 3D seems to be OK that way. I figured the memory and card were an issue. Not to mention I think I need to revamp the system. A lot of garbage to clean up. However can you suggest a pretty good video card?

"Vanilla" AutoCAD typically refers to a full (base) version of AutoCAD. LT is less than Vanilla, and the other flavors include AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Electrical, AUTOCAD Civil ...

You have an aftermarket 'flavor' added with your ductwork program running. Tankman is asking if you are having problems with drawings that are of similar size without the ductwork add on running.

I second or third the motion that your hardware is not up to snuff. A quick search here will get you some more information on Hardware specs. 1Gig of RAM is barely enough to run XP (IMO).

Glen

nVidia Quadro series and ATI FireGL series cards would be worth looking at. Depending on your budget you could be looking at entry to mid-level cards.

Definitely buy and install more RAM. I'm assuming you're running XP? You can install up to 4GB and by enabling the 3GB switch in your boot.ini get better performance out of your machine.

Right off the start you need at least 2 gig of memory and I would suggest as much as 4 gigs. The video card is certainly not doing you any favors either. That card is very old. Anything 3D demands a lot of PC resources. Your CPU is fine though.

 

Do you get the same speed issues if your running vanilla AutoCad?

Vanilla? I assume that means non 3D seems to be OK that way. I figured the memory and card were an issue. Not to mention I think I need to revamp the system. A lot of garbage to clean up. However can you suggest a pretty good video card?