Super Slow Drawing Movement

[alexcolodner]

Hello Everyone,

 

I have been having a problem with a particular drawing set for a while and have had no luck in troubleshooting. Hopefully somebody has an answer!

 

Keep in mind that these are all 2D drawings.

 

I have a drawing set up with one main MODEL space file which references several background drawings. In that model file there are devices drawn on top of the xrefd background dwgs. Several other files reference the main MODEL file and have several layout tabs each. Nothing else is drawn in the model space of these drawings... just the xrefd model file.

 

PROBLEM:

The main MODEL file is VERY slow. It is almost impossible to work in. No matter how zoomed in or out I am, it takes several seconds to pan or change zoom. If i try to draw anything or modify anything, it takes a long time (sometimes 15-30 seconds) just to do so. It is as if it is redrawing at a super slow frame rate. Same is true for the Paperspace files. If I have a DWG open in the same instance of AutoCAD as any of these files, that file is also slow even if it is not referencing any of them.

 

I have audited and purged many times. I have even went into the background files themselves and done the same, as well as consolidate layers to just a few. These steps have had no effect.

 

Here is where it gets really confusing!!!: I also tried detaching the background xrefs from the MODEL file one at a time to see if it was a faulty drawing. After detaching ALL xrefd files, it was still slow. Then I deleted EVERYTHING in the drawing and audited and purged and the drawing was STILL slow! I created a new file (which behaved normally at first) and then pasted in the objects from the old MODEL file and inserted the xrefs.... became super slow again.

 

I am out of ideas, so if anybody could help it would be GREATLY appreciated. I will try anything... it is such a nightmare to work in these files!

 

Thanks!

[SLW210]

Start with providing your computer specifications.

 

Can you post the empty drawing that is still slow? Is there a problem working any of the xref files? Does the drawing contain hatches or entities created by a vertical or other CAD program? Are you running any LISP or third party applications?

[Organic]

How many objects are in the drawing?

[alexcolodner]

Thanks for the replies.

 

My Computer Specs are:

 

Processor: Intel Xeon 3.07GHz (4 cores)

RAM: 8GB

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Video: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800

 

All of my VBA and LISPS are unloaded. I am running AutoCAD 2012, but I have tried in 2009, and 2011 as well on this and on other comparable machines - one running XP.

 

There are 86156 objects in the drawing. I expect this many objects to slow it down a bit, but not as much as it does.

 

I have deleted everything again from the drawing and purged/audited. It is not as nearly slow as it is with everything in it, but it is still not as fast as a new drawing. I cannot attach it because it is over the file limit (500kb) even when zipped.

[rkent]

Are there a lot of layers in that drawing? There is a fix out to take care of that particular problem. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=17013122&linkID=9240898

 

 

Does the drawing contain XREF files? Close the current drawing, open

each XREF file and audit and purge each one. Then go back to your

drawing. In 2010 you can use the RECOVERALL command to also include

XREFs.

 

Check the scale list to make sure you don't have 100's of scale lists.

2009 and higher does this for you automatically, 2008 use scalelistedit, reset.

Use Scale List Cleanup Utility

 

Get rid of blank text

http://lynn.blogs.com/lynn_allens_blog/2007/09/an-almost-autum.html

In 2010 and higher use –purge, e

 

Clean empty groups and unnamed groups out of drawing.

http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=50895

[irneb]

Check the scale list to make sure you don't have 100's of scale lists.

2009 and higher does this for you automatically, 2008 use scalelistedit, reset.

Use Scale List Cleanup Utility

They don't "get rid" of those ..._XREF scales, they just hide them. They're still in that DWG.

 

As a side-note, if you do use annotative objects, keep the scales attached to those as few as possible (i.e. only the needed). And keep annotative hatches as scarce as possible, they have caused slowdowns galore over here!

 

Then also there are several ways of cleaning other stuff out of DWGs. E.g. RegApps, unused Dictionaries, etc.

 

And if you have lots of layers (these include the xreffed-in layers) don't keep the Layer Manager open, rather use the ClassicLayer command or set LayerDLGMode to stick with the modal dialog.

 

Your drawing does sound a bit "large" with 80k+ entities. How are these drawn? Are there lots of hatching? Perhaps you should look at combining the same pieces into blocks - they tend to make the drawing a bit faster (e.g. rather than having 10+ lines & arcs etc. to indicate a diffuser, make a block of the diffuser, then insert/copy that to its relevant positions). Sorry, you probably know this already - just making sure to cover as many bases as possible.

[SLW210]

Thanks for the replies.

 

My Computer Specs are:

 

Processor: Intel Xeon 3.07GHz (4 cores)

RAM: 8GB

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

Video: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800

 

All of my VBA and LISPS are unloaded. I am running AutoCAD 2012, but I have tried in 2009, and 2011 as well on this and on other comparable machines - one running XP.

 

There are 86156 objects in the drawing. I expect this many objects to slow it down a bit, but not as much as it does.

 

I have deleted everything again from the drawing and purged/audited. It is not as nearly slow as it is with everything in it, but it is still not as fast as a new drawing. I cannot attach it because it is over the file limit (500kb) even when zipped.

 

The smallest you can make the drawing is 500kb!! Try using the -PURGE command (note the - in front).

[irneb]

Another option you could try is WBlock and choose the "Entire drawing" option. That usually gets rid of most uglies. Or even savas to an older version (e.g. 2000), sometimes that fixes some nasties as well.

[alexcolodner]

Thanks for all of the advice. I have tried all of the above. The recover yielded no errors in any of the drawings. The others things did not make any change to the drawing speed either, although a couple of them, such as the groups and and empty text.

 

I have blocked everything best I could, but the xrefed files are updated about once a week, so to go through and reblock everything would take more time than I have. I have done -Purge and selected all but no better after that.

 

I do not have many scales and no annotative objects either.

 

The xrefed drawings were made in AutoCAD Architecture, and I am in regular AutoCAD if that makes any difference...

 

Thanks for everyones help so far!

[alexcolodner]

Here is a link to the file with everything deleted out and purged.

 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27348938/AV-MODEL22.dwg

[SLW210]

Trying closing properties and quick properties. It is most likely the entities from AutoCAD Arch.

 

See THIS

[nestly]

How large is your drawing to begin with? If it's not massive, try uploading it to a free filehost like www.rapidshare.com or www.multiupload.com and post the hyperlink here.

 

( Since you have fewer than 10 posts, your link will not show up right away... a moderator will have to approve it.)

[Cad64]

Here is a link to the file with everything deleted out and purged.

 

Are you sure you posted the correct drawing? That file is only 87kb, which you could have easily uploaded here in the forum. You didn't need to use a file hosting service for that.

 

I opened your drawing and everything works as it should. No slow down whatsoever.

 

Maybe you should post the xrefs.

[irneb]

Yep, try making an etransmit - which would probably then need to be placed on something like rapidshare.

 

Unless of course you can't share those files to just anyone.

 

The drawing you sent opens extremely slowly in my Vanilla 2008, though in Vanilla 2011 it opens quite quickly.

 

I've checked the Dictionaries, the only 3 I find which aren't the "usual". I just used my DictEdit routine from here:

 

• AEC_CLASSIFICATION_SYSTEM_DEFS
  
• AEC_PROPRTY_SET_DEFS
  
• DWGPROPS
  

BTW, you didn't purge RegApps, there were 1019 left in the drawing:

-PURGE 
Enter type of unused objects to purge [blocks/Dimstyles/LAyers/LTypes/MAterials/Plotstyles/SHapes/textSTyles/Mlinestyles/Tablestyles/Visualstyles/Regapps/All]: r
Enter name(s) to purge <*>: 
Verify each name to be purged? [Yes/No] <Y>: n
Deleting registered application "_APP0".
Deleting registered application "_APP1".
Deleting registered application "319556811311093030410321BD1".
Deleting registered application "3195568392110920716060212EDS".
.......
Deleting registered application "TCAD".
Deleting registered application "VD_TEMPHATCH".
Deleting registered application "VDEXTRAPARAM".
1019 registered applications deleted.

After that the file seems a lot smaller: from 420kb to 72kb. Not to mention it opens really quickly (even in 2008 ).

AV-MODEL22-cleaned.dwg

[SLW210]

That's strange I have

 

1021 registered applications deleted.

[irneb]

Do'no! I did that purge in my 2008. If I do it in my Vanilla 2011 I get 1020. What version are you using? Or could it perhaps reflect on installed Object Enablers perhaps? (Seeing as the original file came from ACA I guess there might just be quite a lot of those in there!)