Tuesday, September 9, 2008

AutoCAD 2009 slow performance tips

In the Knowledge Base document Slow performance you find 7 tips worth knowing about.
Issue
You experienced unusually slow performance when using AutoCAD®, especially when working in palettes (for example, Properties palette, Design Center, Tool Palettes, Sheet Set Manager, Layer Manager).

Solution

To improve performance, try the following:


  1. In AutoCAD® 2009, enable the AutoCAD Classic workspace.
  2. Dock any desktop element and make sure that none of the palettes are floating.
  3. Turn off any unused palettes.
  4. Update the graphics driver.
  5. If using multiple monitors, see if using only a single monitor improves performance.

    (The graphics hardware certification tests conducted by Autodesk are performed on systems using only a single video card with a single monitor attached.)
  6. Reduce the level of hardware acceleration
    • Click Start menu (Windows) > Control Panel.
    • In the Control Panel, double-click Display.
    • In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.
    • Click the Advanced button.
    • On the Troubleshoot tab, adjust the Hardware Acceleration slider as needed.
  7. If you are using an nVidia graphics card adapter, check to see if a process called nwiz.exe is being loaded when AutoCAD is started. Disable it from being loaded by default. If you have installed the nView Desktop Manager, make sure no additional features are used. Uninstall it from Add or Remove programs in Windows, if possible.

4 comments:

  1. good performance tips, success

    ReplyDelete
  2. We are using Acad MEP 2010 with new Dell Precision T5500, Quad core etc, more power than needed to run Acad. Cad performance was terribly slow, palettes opened at a snails pace, basically unbearable. Adjusted the Hardware Accelerator slide like they recommended and performance instantly improved. Great tip!! Thanks a million!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I spent 4 hours this morning trying to diagnose the problem of the very slowly regenerating properties pallette. I finally discovered that turning off McAffee's Realtime Scanning solved the problem completely. I tried to find a way to create an exception for AutoCad (within McAffee), but came up short. I then contacted McAffee's technical support department to see if there was a way to create an exception. They spent the next hour and a half trying to convince me of the following things: that there was no problem, that there was no significant problem, that the lag was normal because of the amount of memory AutoCad uses, that the lag was not a big deal (3-4 seconds every time I select an object seems like a big deal to me), and finally that I should contact AutoCad support. Does anyone know of a virus scanning program that is compatible with AutoCad? For now, i just have Realtime Scanning turned off, and I will take my chances.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials and have not had any problems.

    ReplyDelete