3d blocks

I don't think it's unreasonable to consider whether AutoCAD really uses less system memory to display a hundred 3D xrefs vs a hundred 3D blocks, rather than only adding up the size of the individual drawing files.

I've got 20mb 3D drawings containing 3D blocks that are xreffed into other 20MB 3D drawings containing different 3D blocks, and if everything is turned on, it ain't pretty, so I have a genuine interest in figuring out what method is most efficient. However, having a 10s of dozens of 3D xrefs resulting in 10's of dozens of additional layers, resulting in the need for dozens of additional layer filters isn't very appealing either. Until I see some hard evidence one way or the other, I'm not inclined to spend days converting all my blocks into Xrefs and re-attaching them in the proper location and rotation in the drawing.

When I get a chance, I'll do a real-world test on one of my projects to evaluate blocks vs xrefs in terms of system resource usage.

If this doesn't convince you, I dont' know what will.

Solids only

File Size = 17.7MB

Memory Usage = 940,324K

Blocks Only

File Size = 17.2MB

Memory Usage = 816,296K

XREFs Only

File Size = 131K

Memory Usage = 628,788K

I found out two years ago that my drawings were to heavy, my machine became very slow Then I tried the XREF and now my machine can handel it easely

I'm convinced :wink:

If this doesn't convince you, I dont' know what will.

It may depending on your methodology. I assume you saved 3 versions of the file (your original made of X-refs, then where you inserted the xrefs to make them blocks, and then the one with the inserted blocks exploded) Did you restart AutoCAD each time before opening each of the 3 versions of the drawing to check memory usage?

Did you restart AutoCAD each time before opening each of the 3 versions of the drawing to check memory usage?

Yep. I also made sure that none of the other programs were running at the same time.

Also, just to clear up any confusion, you don't "convert" files into XREFs. You simply load the DWG file using the External References box and it will load the drawing into the current working file. However, you need to be sure that there isn't any other geometry in the file, otherwise you'll need to crop/trim the XREF to block out what you don't want to see.