Sheet Set Manager performance tips

A slow Sheet Set Manager (SSM) makes no one happy. So these tips are welcome both for AutoCAD users as well as the verticals like AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP that has the Project Navigator.

• Increase the network speed.
• Limit the number of sheets in the sheet set.
• Limit the number of users on the network that are accessing the same sheet set
• Increase the SSMPOLLTIME system variable to lengthen the time between refreshes. The default refresh time is 60 seconds, but you can increase it to a maximum of 600 seconds (10 minutes). Note: The system variable, SSMSHEETSTATUS must be set to 2 for the timer to operate.
• Turn off automatic refreshing of sheet sets completely by setting SSMSHEETSTATUS to 0 (in this case, refreshing must be done manually). Making this (or the previous) change for all the users on a network may help minimize the amount of traffic to and from a DST file.
• Turn off the Offline Files setting if it is enabled on your Windows operating system. If this setting is active, the Sheet Set Manager may include offline folders when polling for information during a file search. Note: The SSM does not explicitly poll offline folders; this is a result of the Windows functions called when a file search is performed. To turn off Offline Files, follow these steps:
  
  • In Windows Explorer, click Tools menu.
  • In the Folder Options dialog box, click the Offline Files tab, and clear the Offline Files check box.
• Check how frequently fields are refreshed. If your sheets contain a lot of fields and they are refreshed often, this will negatively impact sheet set performance. Check the FIELDEVAL system variable or the Options dialog box (User Preferences > Field Update Settings) and adjust how often the fields are evaluated.
• Close the DST file if you are not using it. This is different from simply closing the Sheet Set Manager. You need to right-click the sheet set name at the root of the SSM tree and select Close Sheet Set from the shortcut menu.
• Disable background publishing.
• Turn off SSMAUTOOPEN to prevent the automatic opening of a DST file when you load an associated drawing.
• Try to temporarily disable your Antivirus software to see if it is causing the problem or not.

Knowledge Base document: Improving performance of Sheet Set Manager
Previous post on SSM performance.

If you further want to enhance the speed of working with SSM take a look at SSMPropEditor.