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Autocad stops responding when opening files

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Message 1 of 12
owyatt1980
19073 Views, 11 Replies

Autocad stops responding when opening files

Since upgrading the server in our office Autocad 2013 is having trouble opening files.  When I attempt to open a file the progress bar gets to about 85%, a "not responding" message comes up for about 15-20 seconds, and then the file opens.  Two workstations in the office have AutoCAD 2013, one has 8GB RAM and Windows 7 64 bit, the other has 16GB of RAM and also a WIndows 7 64 bit OS.  Neither PC had issues opening files before the new server went in, and neither PC is having problems with any other network program.  Is there somewhere within the program or in Autocad's registry entries that might still be pointing to the old server?  I have tried the following, Firewall has been turned off, VP has been disabled, repair has been run on the program (through programs and features in the control panel).  I have email support through Autocad and sent them an email this morning, but have yet to receive a response.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  

 

Thanks,

 

Owen Wyatt

11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
David_Knight
in reply to: owyatt1980

I would check every single path in your options.  It sounds like its getting hung up on a bad path that used to exist on the old server but not the new one.

 

Options -> Files tab, check every one of those... It'll take a few.

 

Try a fresh new profile and open the file on the server.  If it loads no problems it's got to be a pathing issue in there on your old profile.  

 

If it still hangs, copy the files to a local drive (all files, xrefs, etc...) and try opening it.  If it hangs again, I'm out of ideas... But at least you'll have an idea of where the problem is.

 

Good luck

Message 3 of 12
owyatt1980
in reply to: David_Knight

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

I checked the paths under the files tab and every entry was pointing to the C: drive.  Some of the headings had no entries such as "Additional Actions Reading File Locations" and "i-drop Associated File Location".  There was just an arrow pointing to a blank line.  Perhaps that is the issue?

 

I also tried a fresh profile and had the same problem.  

 

I then copied all of the files to a folder on the desktop and they opened right up with no problem.

 

Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  

Message 4 of 12
David_Knight
in reply to: owyatt1980

There could be blank items in your settings (that's normal).

 

Fresh profile, with out a server seems to implicate the server for sure.  I have no other ideas why this might be happening unless there is some sort of hardware limitation happening (perhaps throttling of bandwidth if the files are large? Or referencing large image files?)

 

Those were the things I would have checked first at least.  Good luck, maybe someone else will have some thoughts.

Message 5 of 12
rkmcswain
in reply to: owyatt1980


@owyatt1980 wrote:

Since upgrading the server in our office Autocad 2013 is having trouble opening files.   Is there somewhere within the program or in Autocad's registry entries that might still be pointing to the old server?  

 

Thanks,

 

Owen Wyatt


If you're adventurous, grab Process Monitor and watch file/registry activity in real-time when AutoCAD gets "stuck"

 

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 6 of 12
dgorsman
in reply to: rkmcswain

I will add that Win 7 is *very* quick to label a program as not-responding.  Its not necessarily a fault or error, the program is just taking some time to do whatever it is that its doing.

----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 7 of 12
edwin.prakoso
in reply to: dgorsman

Not responding means not responding to user input. It doesn't mean it crash.

In many cases, after we wait for a while we can use it again.

If this post solves your problem, please mark it as solved. It will help others with a similar problem to find a solution.

Kind regards,

Edwin Prakoso
LinkedIn | Website | Twitter
Message 8 of 12
owyatt1980
in reply to: rkmcswain

Thanks to all who have replied.  I understand Windows 7's quick trigger finger on the "not responding" message.  The true issue is that with the previous server, one that was very outdated, files would open much more quickly.  Perhaps I wasn't 100% clear.  The files do open eventually, but it takes 15-20 seconds. 

 

I downloaded Process Monitor and ran it while opening network files in Autocad.  I found that in many instances Autocad is, in fact, looking to the old server first when trying to open files.  It then looks to the new server where it successfully finds and opens the file, thus the delay. Is there an .ini file within Autocad that might be telling the program to look to the old server when opening files? 

 

Thanks again,

 

Owen

Message 9 of 12
David_Knight
in reply to: owyatt1980

If it is in fact looking for the old server, I would start by searching using the old server name in your registry... 

Not sure it will fix your problem, and changing your registry can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

 

You could also search your entire hard drive for the server name.  Tell it to look within the file for "OLDSERVERNAME".

 

Also, check your XREFs.  Are they hard bound?  Perhaps they are hard bound to the old server name instead of using relative pathing.

Message 10 of 12
rkmcswain
in reply to: owyatt1980


@owyatt1980 wrote:

 

 

I downloaded Process Monitor and ran it while opening network files in Autocad.  I found that in many instances Autocad is, in fact, looking to the old server first when trying to open files.  It then looks to the new server where it successfully finds and opens the file, thus the delay. Is there an .ini file within Autocad that might be telling the program to look to the old server when opening files? 



Start by having someone new log on to that machine (someone who has never logged into that machine in the past). When they log in, it will create a new Windows profile. Then have them launch AutoCAD. This will create a new AutoCAD profile (not to be confused with the profiles you see in the Options dialog)

Now while logged in under this account, can you open the files OK?

 

If so, the quickest way to fix the bad “profile” is to wipe it out and let AutoCAD create a new one.

 

Log back in as yourself, make sure file extensions are enabled and visible in Windows Explorer.

 

With AutoCAD closed, Go to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\Product\language\Support\Profiles and rename the file “FixedProfile.aws” to something else. Try again.

 

If no difference, then close AutoCAD and go back to the same path as above and then go one folder deeper (into the folder that matches your AutoCAD profile name). In there you will see a file named “Profile.aws”, rename it to something else. Try again.

 

If it’s still not better, you may have to resort to this: http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS19170578 (That is specific to C3D, but there is a similar doc out there for AutoCAD)

 

In a last resort, you can do this --> Edit the HOSTS file to block attempts to reach the “old server”. Here is a how-to:  http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/27350/   I had to do this recently when a user’s machine ground to a halt after a server here was retired. It's a kludgy fix, but can help when you don't have time for a good diagnosis.

 

 

R.K. McSwain     | CADpanacea | on twitter
Message 11 of 12
owyatt1980
in reply to: David_Knight

Thanks David_Knight!  I loaded the problem drawings into the reference manager and sure enough they were looking to the old server, once I changed that, the problem was solved.  I tracked the root of the problem down to a template pointing to the old server that many of the drawings were being based off of.  Thanks again for your help.

 

-Owen

Message 12 of 12
shallowhead
in reply to: David_Knight

I had the problem of autocad map 3d 2010 freezing when using the OPEN or SAVE command.

The problem was a bad filepath in the options>files>Support File Search Path. It was the first line and somehing like "username"...appdata\roaming\....

Instead  of C:\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Map 3D 2010\R18.0\enu\Support.

I changed it and by tagging it and then hitting Browse and setting path to the Support folder.

A big Thanks to David Knight for this fix!

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