McAfee and Autodesk products performance issues and solution

It is not the first time anti-virus software is in conflict with products on your computer. This time it affects AutoCAD 2011, AutoCAD Architecture 2011, AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011, AutoCAD ecscad 2011, AutoCAD Electrical 2011, AutoCAD LT 2011, AutoCAD Map 3D 2011, AutoCAD Mechanical 2011, AutoCAD MEP 2011, AutoCAD P&ID 2011, AutoCAD Plant 3D 2011, AutoCAD Structural Detailing 2011, Autodesk 3ds Max 2011, Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011, Autodesk Inventor 2011, Autodesk Inventor Factory Advanced 2011, Autodesk Inventor Factory Premium 2011, Autodesk Revit Architecture 2011, Autodesk Revit MEP 2011, Autodesk Revit Structure 2011.

Issue

You are experiencing performance issues with Autodesk products on systems where McAfee anti-virus software is installed and active.  These performance issues may include sluggish response times within the product and slow refresh of the UI.

This issue is being researched but preliminary findings indicate this problem may be due to a conflict between Autodesk products and McAfee anti-virus products.  Customers have reported the following problem behaviors:

• McAfee products appear to misidentify DWF as a threat.
• With the on-access scanning technology enabled, there can be a slow response time due to the McAfee product actively scanning Autodesk files.
• McAfee products appear to spend a long time examining Autodesk installer files, which can impact overall computer performance. It also appears to misidentify the installer files as corrupted.
• When attempting to browse to a directory that contains a zip archive, chm file, or installer, the explorer window freezes and there is a delay before it will display the contents of the directory.
• With McAfee enable, opening a CHM file can take as long as ten minutes to display and the application interface will appear frozen during this time.

Solution

To reduce the impact of the anti-virus software on Autodesk product performance, please try the following steps:

1. Create an exception in McAfee for the DWF extension located in c:\program files\common files\autodesk shared\dwf common\dwfshellextension.dll
2. Configure McAfee to exclude the file types used by your Autodesk application (e.g. DWG, IPT, MAX, etc.)
3. Configure McAfee to exclude the Autodesk installer files on your computer, e.g., Autodesk_Revit_Architecture_2010_English_Win_32bit.exe,
   AutoCAD_2010_English_SLD_Win_32bit.exe,
   Autodesk_3ds_Max_Design_2010_English_WIN_32_64.exe, etc.
   Alternatively, you can delete these files, if you no longer need the installers.
4. Configure McAfee to exclude the CHM file type to allow the Help files to open normally.

Note: For best performance, please verify that your hardware configuration is better than or equal to the minimum system requirements and install the qualified video driver for your graphics card and operating system. Please refer to the system requirements and hardware qualifications page for the Autodesk product you have installed for more detailed information.

Knowledge Base document: 2011: Performance issues caused by McAfee anti-virus software