Memories

I know this isn't the usual forum to be associated with Autocad LT, I'm just hoping someone here may know how to solve this issue. I have a macro that eventually will repeat several thousand times, to optimise polylines (remove zero lengths, join segments etc. overkill alone doesn't cut it), but that's beside the point. The macro works exactly as I want it too, for 43 cycles, and then it breaks Autocad.

It took me a couple of days to pin down what was going on, as to why the macro was faulty, but it isn't. After 43 (on my desktop - 33 on a laptop) then Autocad starts acting weird, selections are not recognised but remain highlighted. If I close LT saving the drawing. I then reopen and can run the macro again for the next 43 items. So I have a Windows shell file that runs and repeats Autocad to get through the whole load of polylines, this works but is not ideal.

From what I have found Autocad can run out of memory resources, and I'm just hoping someone will recognise one of the commands that is causing this so that I can maybe approach this in a different way, or know of a command to free up the memory again, rather than closing and reopening. Regen or saving don't work.

Here's the macro, and if anyone can help there is also a drawing file with a couple of hundred polylines that I have been using to test it on. Basically, the macro selects the polylines one at a time doe's its thing and then moves them to a frozen layer, so it can get at the next one (I know it's a bit Flintstones but this is LT ). It would be nice if someone can run this and check system resources to see what is going on, which isn't an option in LT.

*^C^C^Cmove;0,0;;0,0;0,0;change;p;;p;la;1;;explode;0,0;ss;l;;m;0,0;0,0;-overkill;p;;;region;p;;l;0,0;10,0;;ss;l;;m;0,0;0,0;erase;p;;explode;l;ss;l;;m;0,0;0,0;pe;m;p;;j;;;change;l;;p;la;2;;

PS peditaccept has to be set=1

change.dwg

What are your system specs?

What's running in the background?

I have almost zero experience with LT , mainly because you (normally) can't use lisp so I guess command (gc) is out of the question? Would put a couple of qsave's in your macro free up resources? But autocad is known for memory issues. Else find a bigger system to do your work on if the number of drawings is limited... At my work I typically restart autocad a couple of times per day to avoid memory issues and I only work in mdi if needed.

gr. R.

Restart AutoCAD a couple of times a day to avoid memory issues? That's absurd. How much RAM do you have? What is your swap file size? Have you tried deleting your graphics cache files (probably only necessary if you routinely work with 3D solids, non-mesh surfaces or regions).

@ReMark

the laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 700

intel i7-6500 2.50GHz

with 8GB RAM

running Windows 10 and Autocad LT 2017LT

at work, I'm not sure but just found out today that after months of nagging I will be getting a new model in the next week or so.

Normally I would have Autocad, Revit, Excel plus any number of other programs running, but this problem persists even with a fresh start up and only LT running.

@rlx (hi neighbour - I'm in Hoogerheide every weekend), Autocads memory hogging is what I'd read, I have tried qsave on every line as well as regen to no avail, I will try saveas see if swapping drawing files works but with thousands of polylines that could end up being an enourmous folder. Purge doesn't help and indeed garbage collection is out of the question in LT. Closing and opening Autocad with the batch file works fine, just a little slower than I'd like and not neat and tidy.

Restart AutoCAD a couple of times a day to avoid memory issues? That's absurd. How much RAM do you have? What is your swap file size?

absurd? maybe... but it works for me. Don't know the size of the swapfile but mem is only 4 Gb , now that's absurd. Normaly drawings I use are below 1 mb , a few are bigger. But if I have a really big one I restart my pc , make sure autocad is the only program I start (can't disable company background apps). And to see autocad is really in SDI mode I have a button on my toolbars which changes color to show wheter autocad is in sdi or mdi mode. Autocad isn't great with memory management. Also I hit the qsave button many times during my drawings sessions because I hate work , I hate overwork more , but what I really hate is to have to do the same work again.. so to avoid the message nobody wants (an error has occurd , autocad cannot continue etc etc bladibla...) I frequently save my work.

gr.Rlx

Did you shut down your anti-virus program? Did you shut down your browser? Did you disable all of Win10's bells and whistles?

Don't tell me we have to go back to the good old days of memory management programs like QEMM.

Have you tried using ReadyBoost (a feature of Win10). You'll need a USB flash drive.

Have you used Windows Task Manager to identify resource hogs?

Have you tried using a RAM cleaner?

Finally, have you considered adding more physical RAM?

rlx: Living with a problem is not the same as fixing one. Wouldn't you prefer a long term solution rather than a workaround?

@ReMark

the laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 700

intel i7-6500 2.50GHz

with 8GB RAM

running Windows 10 and Autocad LT 2017LT

 

at work, I'm not sure but just found out today that after months of nagging I will be getting a new model in the next week or so.

Normally I would have Autocad, Revit, Excel plus any number of other programs running, but this problem persists even with a fresh start up and only LT running.

 

@rlx (hi neighbour - I'm in Hoogerheide every weekend), Autocads memory hogging is what I'd read, I have tried qsave on every line as well as regen to no avail, I will try saveas see if swapping drawing files works but with thousands of polylines that could end up being an enourmous folder. Purge doesn't help and indeed garbage collection is out of the question in LT. Closing and opening Autocad with the batch file works fine, just a little slower than I'd like and not neat and tidy.

Hallo 'buurman' :-)

Guess you have read all (vl-every / vl-some) of the autocad links which say , well , nothing usefull but to get more Ram...

If time is not an issue you can cut up your drawing or the process it self but I agree it's not elegant. I did once have a drawing , something like 40 mb , tiff converted with winTopo , so even every letter is a bunch of lines. In the end I just redrawed the d*mn drawing myself because connecting al the dots , changing layers / styles etc just wasn't worth it.

gr. Rlx

rlx: Living with a problem is not the same as fixing one. Wouldn't you prefer a long term solution rather than a workaround?

Nice one , maybe something to put on a tile for on the wall :-) But I have to work with the tools given to me so sometimes I have no choise but to work arround the problem...

p.s. how about wblock all four quarters of your drawing, basepoint 0,0 , you end up with four significant smaller drawings , then run macro and afther that put them back together?

Also has your HD enough free space?

gr. Rlx

Nice one , maybe something to put on a tile for on the wall :-) But I have to work with the tools given to me so sometimes I have no choise but to work arround the problem...

Have you tried any of the suggestions listed in post #7? Inaction on your part is no excuse.

Steven-g maybe try the "undo" settings maybe its crashing because the undo is to big. You can force a restart of undo only draw back is that you will not have undo points to go back to so saving in between may be risky. Again some of the clones are looking good with Lisp built in.

Have you tried any of the suggestions listed in post #7? Inaction on your part is no excuse.

@home I have 16GB of Ram so there I have nog problem but here @ my work I have no choise. Everything and I mean everything is company controlled so no administrator right , no DVD drive , no usb no nothing. Cant update any drivers or hardware , can't disable any (background) programs , they are utterly paranoid.

Thanks Bigal, No dice I did the reset undo, I have tried saveas. I have found that just closing the drawing and reopening works (so not closing Autocad fully) but that doesn't help when using the batch file.

And by the way here at work the computer is an intel i5 6500 3.2 GHz with 8GB memory, but it can be a lot slower than my laptop, and I mean magnitudes of difference, I have some VBA programs in Excel that I can't even attempt at work. Hopefully a new computer will help some.

I have a working solution, a combination of qsave followed by fileopen does the trick.

A repeating macro calls a script that performs 30 cycles then issues qsave;fileopen; and then repeat.

It would still be nice to find out what is causing Autocad to clog up at 43 cycles, but I'll keep testing see if I can pinpoint the command that is the culprit.

I have a working solution, a combination of qsave followed by fileopen does the trick.

A repeating macro calls a script that performs 30 cycles then issues qsave;fileopen; and then repeat.

It would still be nice to find out what is causing Autocad to clog up at 43 cycles, but I'll keep testing see if I can pinpoint the command that is the culprit.

Still think the culprits name is (mostly) Ram :-)

trying to follow your macro (in autocad 2012) but it stops at 'SS' , is that a shortcut?

ss - selectsimilar, its one I use a lot

[quote=steven

ach , I see (never used it before...)

Macro stops at the explode command

The object is not able to be exploded.

None found.

Select object: ss

*Invalid selection*

Expects a point or Last/ALL/Group

guess thats the problem trying to run a LT macro in full autocad

Anyway , would turning undo off be an option to save system recources?

gr. Rlx