Autosave?

I'm constantly having to wait on autocad '07 electrical to scan my 2d drawings particulary after changing layers, properties of dimensions, viewports, and also plotting. Is there a way to speed up the process time it takes to scan or save or limit the number of times autocad scans the drawings?

Thanks for any help.

What do you mean by scan? how big are the files?

76KB is this particular file. at the bottom of the screen near the command prompt line, "scanning" is printed with a time bar that takes 3 to 15 seconds to reach the end, and then you can carry on. 15 seconds is a long time to watch the computer think.

and this happens after you run a command or something?

That is correct. After every 2 or three commands, Autocad stops to scan the drawing. This isn't happening on just my machine, numerous others here at the office are having the same complaint.

are you guys all on a network? It doesnt seem to be an autosave problem cause it doesnt sound like it tells you that it saved anything after scanning it, or does it?

Have you PURGEd the drawing recently?

yes, we are on a network. For me, most of the time it is only scanning. Sometimes, it will actually save. I have the auto save option turned off.

seeing how it is happening to everyon, I think its more of a network issue than an acad issue....

as Maxwell said try a Purge and Audit

I personnally haven't purged the drawings, but others in the office have, and have noticed little difference. The file size isn't very large.

when I use the "text override" for dimensions, after the second time doing this autocad automatically "saves". Every other time I open the property box to use "text overrride" it will automatically save.

Now, when I closed the file without saving it and reopened it, those changes were not actually saved. does that help with what type of saving it is actually doing?

Try this test.

Copy one of these drawings to a hard drive on your computer.

Turn off the computer.

Disconnect the network cable.

Boot up the computer. Ignore messages re: not being able to locate the network.

Start AutoCAD.

Edit the drawing as you normally would.

Do things seem to run a bit faster? Do you still notice this "scanning" procedure you talk about?

I would stop using the word "scanning" as it has an entirely different meaning from what you are using it for. Your computer is pausing while it processes some information. For all we know it is try to navigate a convoluted path created by the way you store your drawing files. How many folders are there?

Maybe AutoSave is set to occur every minute and the computer is pausing while it is doing this. Have you checked?

Do you notice a lot of activity on the part of the hard drive light? Does it seem to be on constantly? Maybe you have Indexing enabled. It is a Windows feature that should be turned off.

to my knowledge, autosave is turned off. Under "options/open and save", Automatic save is unchecked.

Who is in charge of the CAD computers? The CAD techs or the IT department?

Let me try disconnecting the network cable.

this is an easy test, and will answer whether it's network related.

Network related issues get turned over to IT Dept. IT says all network related issues have already been addressed and updated.

Cad related issues are ours.

Well I'm glad to see you've retained some control over your circumstances. IT can be a real pain in the neck at times.

You never answered the question regarding "indexing" sometimes referred to as "churning". Indexing a hard drive is supposed to make find documents (Microsoft's idea) quicker to locate. Almost every computer magazine recommends that indexing be turned off. Usually this is set to occur every 2 hours and not with the frequency you seem to be experiencing but it could still be a remote possibility.

Without the network cable, it is significantly better. Appears it may be again an IT issue.

I'll try to do most my work tomorrow without the cable plugged in, and that will be the real test.

When you are back on the network, check the path to your drawings. Is fairly direct (two or three folders) or is it more involved (a dozen folders or more)?

I hope IT has given you a dedicated directory for all your drawings.