Navisworks Manage 2012 Slow startup times

[mlabell]

When I start Navisworks 2012 on my computer or any other computer on the network it takes no less than 30 - 40 seconds before the splash screen displays.  This is somewhat concerning since most people launch the app 2-3 times just because they don't see the splash screen.  Navisworks Freedom 2012 splash screen opens within 3-5 seconds.

I am running Navisworks Manage x64 SP1 from Building Suite.

All computer builds (laptop and desktop)

Windows 7 x64 SP1

Minimum of 8GB of RAM

NVIDIA Graphics cards, desktop driver ver 265.70, laptop driver ver. 257.38

320GB HDD, 10k in Desktops 7.2k in laptops

We are getting ready to upgrade all computers and this is a concern from multiple people.

[john.lipp]

Hi mlabell,
 

Since the time to show the splash screen is short with Freedom, which doesn't require a license, I believe the issue is related to accessing a Network license from your license server.

Please try the following:

1. Open Navisworks Manage

2. Click the application button, hold down shift and select options to open the editor with advanced options

3. Expand General > Logging

4. Mark “Enable Console”

5. Close Navisworks and reopen it.

A console window will open and display logging information.  Note what is being outputted to the screen before the splash screen is displayed.  Are lines regarding licensing remaining before the splash screen?

Do you have a FLEXLM_TIMEOUT environment variable set?

The following is an article on this environment variable.
 - http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=TS1057817

If you set the variable to various values (100000, 1000000, 10000000), does the time for the splash screen to display differ, and does changing the value to a smaller value cause the splash screen to open sooner?

Best regards,




John Lipp
Support Specialist
Product Support
Autodesk, Inc.

[mlabell]

As a part of our logon process we delete all Licpath.lic amd cascadeinfo.cas files from C:\ to prevent licensing issues.  We use a FLEXLM_TIMEOUT value of 1,000,000 to help our VPN users when they are off-site.  We also have servers in multiple offices with a small portion of our license files just in case the main license server goes down set as an environment variable (ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE).  Did the license checkout process change for Navisworks 2012?  We have the Building Design Suite Ultimate Edition for Revit and Navisworks and the Revit splash screen opened within 10 seconds where as Navisworks took 45 seconds.  So does Navisworks verify each server in the ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE variable before actually checking out a license? 

I set the FLEXLM_TIMEOUT to 10,000 and the splash screen loaded much quicker.  Also as a test I borrowed the license and the splash screen loaded.  I also attached a dump of the console prior to the splash screen loading when the FLEXLM_TIMEOUT was set to 1,000,000.

[lee.mullin]

I know this isn't the answer you are looking for but we wouldn't consider 45 seconds as particuarly slow, obviously other applications have faster startup times but Manage does have a lot to load up.

If you feel this is a strong issue then can you please submit feedback through the following page: -

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794

[mlabell]

We understand that Navisworks is a large program, but 45 seconds just for the splash to load up is terribly slow.  The splash screen is the indicator to the end user that the program is loading.  Like I mentioned earlier I downtuned the FLEXLM_TIMEOUT variable and the splash screen load time did increase significantly, ~10 seconds.  So my question in return is why does downtuning the FLEXLM_TIMEOUT variable decrease the splash screen load time in Navisworks when our Revit 2012 pulls the same exact license and the splash screen displays ~10 seconds with the FLEXLM_TIMEOUT variable at our original value?  Sounds to me there is a bug with the licensing in Navisworks.

[mlabell]

Lee, any additional thoughts on this issue?  We are waiting to deploy 2012 based on what solutions are offered.

Regards,

[lee.mullin]

Please accept my apologies, I misread this as click to open > Navisworks being ready to use at 45 seconds. The splash screen taking this long is obviously more serious.

As you suggested this is likely to do with the licensing as this occurs before the main Navisworks program opens.

I'd suggest that you look at possible causes as to why it may be taking a while to draw a license. There are two areas I'd concentrate this search on.

Firewalls - Anything that could be slowing down the license request and response should be looked at. It's worth disabling the firewalls on the machine to see if there's a big improvement in the speed to get the splash screen. If there's not then this is unlikely to be the cause. Also check out the Anti-virus on the machine, does disabling this have any improvements?

Bandwidth - Try pinging the server that hosts the licenses from that machine is giving a quick response or not. Is it possible that there may be network issues to that server or from those machines?

You can create exceptions in the license file but I'd have to move this thread to that board for more information above what is in the help guides on that.

I appreciate that this doesn't occur to the same extent on Revit but you should still try these troubleshooting techniques to narrow the problem down.

[mlabell]

Lee,

We found that in our ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE environment variable had a decomissioned server in the listing.  We updated the server listing through Active Directory but still saw the splash screen load slowly.  I then stumbled on this thread.  Cleaning out the reg entries on the computer was the additional step that we needed.  Now the splash screen loads in ~5 seconds.  Still strange that the other Building Design Suite products loaded quickly before the fix.

Thanks,

[lee.mullin · Accepted solution]

Hi Mark,

I'm sorry we didn't find the answer for you on this thread. For ease of searching here is the answer again for anyone who does find this.

1.   confirm that the following entries if they exist have the same value.  i.e. @computername.

  *   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Flexlm License Manager \ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE

  *   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Session Manager\Environment\ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE 

  *   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet002\Control\Session Manager\Environment\ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE 

  *   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment\ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE

  *   HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-2340522973-3312589127-2506886367-500\Software\FLEXlm License Manager\ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE
2.  Solution for setting environment variable:  (This will show up in CurrentControlSet!)

http://usa.autodesk.com/getdoc/id=TS1065268

3.  Confirm the following is set correctly:

http://upandready.typepad.com/up_and_ready/2011/06/general-licensing-what-license-file-or-license-se...