AutoCAD 2014 - CPU memory usage

[ghamman]

Some background - I have been running AutoCAD since version 10. Currently my machine (a dell lattitude E6400) is running AutoCAD 2012 just fine. No problems with memory or CPU usage

We recieved the next version of AutoCAD 2014, which I installed. I also took the same disk home and installed it on my home computer. It is legal to do this and the software runs fine on that machine. I had a problem, where it crashed out my system when I first tried to use it. I only had two drawings open. I asked my IS support about it....but there was no error log to check on my computer. So thinking it was the software, I removed it and re-installed it. No difference in the results.

The problem is that when I run the software, the CPU usage will hit between 95-100% utilization and the physical memory used keeps climbing from 2Gb (before startup) until it uses over 3.2Gb (haven't let it run longer than this). Other information for you to consider....I have had the software running "by itself" without any other stuff running. The cursor continually keeps spinning, while allowing you to operate inside AutoCAD, don't understand this. Also....if I "quit" AutoCAD, the actual executable is still registering on the "processes" tab and holding the usage up until I "force" it to close.

The reason I am asking for help is basically that the actual CPU usage of the exectuable is no different from one version of AutoCAD to the other....but the overall CPU usage hits so hard, it will eventually crash the system. I can see no difference in the two pieces of software running, but I have this problem.

Anyone have any ideas?

[dgorsman]

The 2014 releases include two features, Content explorer and 360, which can use up a lot of computer resources if not set up. Content explorer is a search indexer, which will go through files on your computer and build an index which will be faster to search than searching the files themselves. 360 is a cloud access tool allowing drawings and settings to be saved/mirrored to a cloud service. Both are relatively new and aren't exactly optimized for the real world yet. Most companies will disable both since they are not needed (Content explorer) or potentially bad for business (cloud storage).

[ghamman]

By "disable", do you mean "remove" the program?

[dgorsman]

Not precisely.  Its more a matter of stopping the process from running automatically.  Do some searching here and in the AutoCAD forum, there's some excellent threads on how to manage installation so that features are disabled without leaving programmatic potholes.

[braudpat]

Hello from France

You can disable some Autodesk Services (or some others) ... If you are a Local Admin !?

Configuration / Admin Tools / Services / etc ... PLEASE be careful !

Click on a Autodesk Service (Autodesk Content Service for example) then Right Button then Properties

then "MANUAL Startup" instead of "Automatic Startup" !

Bye, Pat

[bryce.thelin]

There are some updates/hotfixes for AutoCAD 2014:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/index?siteID=123112&id=2334435&linkID=9240618

It possibly could be the extra features that come with AutoCAD 2014, but those should be running under their own EXE files, so you would see the CPU usage on something other than acad.exe in the Task Manager.

What version of Windows are you using? It may be that you are experiencing a driver conflict. Does you video driver need to be updated? Here are some links to get an update:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect

[ghamman]

All,

Thanks for all your suggestions. It seems the problem lies with my computer and not AutoCAD (which is what I originally thought). My home computer (about the same age and config) works just fine.

Thanks again!

Gordon Hamman
Project Manager
O-858-822-2654
C-858-344-3355