Hello, help with lagging AutoCAD

[Vigilante]

Hi, I just got a job doing AutoCAD and I'm getting along pretty well, doing mechanical and pluming drafting for commercial buildings.

The company I work for has like 3 or 4 PCs for CADing on, and my question has to do with ACAD being "laggy". I found one other thread about lagging but I didn't want to hijack it so I'm starting this one. And this is my first post.

The PC I am working on now is probably the best one in the office, here are the specs:
XP Home SP2
P4 3.06ghz
1.5gb RAM
GeForce4 MX 4000
160gb

There is Nortin Internet Security running, with the firewall part disabled.
Other then that, there isn't any major software running in the background. Maybe a mouse driver and sound etc...
This PC plays games and stuff and does fine with every other thing. But AutoCAD is laggy when drawing. And the other 3 CAD PCs are laggy as well, and are not as good of specs.

Ok, enough of that. What happens is, you have a document open, but the cursor just moves in jerks. For example if I just move my mouse continuall in a circle, non-stop. The cursor just sort of jumps around instead of moving in cirlce with my mouse. Zooming in and out is laggy too and not very responsive. Saving is very slow, opening docs is slow.

CAD has already been "optimized" as far as the guys know how, like setting zoom factor and angles and stuff. One guy, as I typed this, came in and did some kind of purge thing and re-saved, but it barely helped.

Now, if I open Task Manager and look at the Performance tab, I can be in CAD, and it will be lagging, but CPU is just hovering around 2~5%, it never jumps while running CAD except maybe in an autosave. And there is over a gig free RAM available.
It is a mystery why this acts laggy and I can't figure it out because I don't know a lot about CAD yet. And this is ACAD 2002 version.

There is only one thing it could be. Bascially 2 of the PCs are wireless and 2 are wired. The server PC is actually wireless, the one that has the files we work on. And our network is not that great right now (I'm working on it), so one question is, if the files we work on are on a bad wireless connection, can that cause a continual lag while working?

Any help would be great. Talk later, thanks.

[zars]

Very weird

Well, your Pc seems better than mine and ACAD here doesn't act laggy. I'm not quite sure what can be the problem.

If it was a wireless problem you'd have problems when opening, closing or saving cuz it's when ACAD loads the files you'll be working on.

My case is similar our sever is on a wireless computer too, and ACAD acts normal, the only problems I've had are the mentioned above with the drawings (when my boss forgets his computer is the server and just turn it off).

What ACAD version are you using?

[Vigilante]

It's ACAD 2002.

I am very much thinking it is the wireless, mainly because of how it is can be sometimes to open, save, autosave, etc... And yet, sometimes the docs open just fine, even if it lags later on.


I might fish for another question regarding wireless. Does ACAD maintain a very active connection with the file while it's open? Seems to me once it's open, it no longer needs to contact over the network, but I may be wrong. Because there are other things like xrefs in the document which must be indirectly opened I guess.

So IF acad keeps a continual connection to the file, I can see how the wireless would be an issue. But if it DOESN'T, then it shouldn't be laggy while working after the file is open.

It's silly to think it's not the wireless now that I think about it. Because the CAD PC that HAS the files, even though it's wireless, is rarely laggy, and the files are local. And then today when the "fast" PC was extremely laggy, I just copied the whole work folder from the "server" to the local box, and was able to work pretty good.

But does anybody know if acad maintains a constant connection to the file? Where it keeps connecting over the network every second or two?

Thanks.

[zars]

As far as I know ACAD just needs to deal with the files when opening or closing(saving), and it's when it could seem laggy.

I guess that your ACAD was set to be autosaving every minute and if your net isn't working ok, it would be a problem. Check out your ACAD open/save settings (incremental percentage and minutes between saves), disabling create backup copy with each save, also would help.

Alex.

[Vigilante]

Well, this is getting frustrating. When it starts lagging uncontrolably, it can take me like 3 minutes just to draw a 12" multiline from A to B because the cursor is jumping around and I can't make precise connections etc...

OK, so if acad does NOT maintain a constant connection to the file, why is it that it can get so laggy? And I mean EXTREMELY laggy sometimes, to the point where the cursor just stops for about 20 seconds and acad will turn to "not responding" until it comes back to life again. All the while my CPU usage and free RAM is perfect.

I checked autosave, it was 5 minutes so I changed to 15 (we like to be carefull here), and also turned off backups.
Also the force xref option on the same option page is set to disable as well.

I am actually a PC Technician by trade, and just now getting into CAD. So I have looked this system over in that regard. Reset page file, defrag, checked for spyware, virus, etc... I've done all that kind of stuff. It has to be just acad, or something with working over wireless. I just don't know how to find out.

Thanks for your thoughts, if you can think of any more options I could change, that would be good.

[zars]

The PC I am working on now is probably the best one in the office, here are the specs:
XP Home SP2
P4 3.06ghz
1.5gb RAM
GeForce4 MX 4000
160gb

Well, as you must know computers can generate a lot of problems from nothingness...

I'd check the RAM memory, the hard disk (you know the RPM or bad sectors), and also the GeForce Drivers, sometimes drivers generate errors, and the net settings.

Hope you can find out what's the problem and let us know.

[Regen]

Here are a few steps you might want to try:

1.) Disconnect the network cable and work from the local hard drive.

2.) Update you drivers, mouse & videocard.

3.) Check for updated patches for AutoCAD.