Help my file is unworkable!

[bjvander]

I have been working with a 3-d model with numerous solids in the student version of ACAD 2014. Here lately the file has become almost unusable. It rarely opens without making CAD unresponsive. When it does, using "flat" views such as Top or Right for example and then attempting to zoom will also make it unresponsive and require closing. I have tried everything I have read on these forums and others to clean up the file (about 68mb) and reduce unecessary program settings but it barely helps. My hardware includes Core I-5 (3.2ghz), 4gb Ripjaws RAM, EVGA 630GT 2gb graphics card. I need to try something new because I can't get any work done like this. Thanks a bunch.     

[kasperwuyts]

Is your visual style set to 2d wireframe when working in flat views?

[bjvander]

That is something I considered trying, it has been set to either realistic or 3-d wireframe until now. I had started switching my blocks to xrefs because I thought that would help but I swear it's getting worse now. In about the last four opens the program has failed to open the file and became unresponsive. In the course of writing this I did a partial open, switched it to 2-d wf and it does not help.

[jggerth1]

4 gb RAM?  Better stick to drawings in the single mb size.  4 gb is adequate to run windows, not 3d models

Other than that, take it up to 16GB Ram, and swap out the hard drive for an SSD

[bjvander]

I hadn't read anything equating file size to RAM requirements, but I am not too surprised. Thanks! 

[bjvander]

My system now has 20gb of ram which is all available in the system and of which CAD is shown using about 3.5gb.  The problem I was having has not been helped in the slightest. When opening the file it gets to 6% and just stops, unresponsive everytime. About to pull out my hair...So the memory I'm sure is an issue but there's something else going on. I have a laptop with 4gb ram and it opens it but still freezes with certain actions.

[ukdxb012]

You mentioned you are using Xrefs? Are you using them correctly in terms of attachments and overlays? Check to see if you have any circular Xrefs... http://docs.autodesk.com/ACD/2010/ENU/AutoCAD%202010%20User%20Documentation/index.html?url=WS1a91938...

I resolved an issue where a user had redefined a block to incorporate an xref, not intentionally. This made the file not responsive so I had to pin point the block that was wrong, remove the mistake and redefine. Then I resolved Xrefs that referenced themselves and file was a lot easier to use.

What you could try is to recover the files, purge and audit are also good but recover should do an Audit anyway. Have you tried resetting the scalelists in the DWGS using the scale list clean up utility... http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/scale-list-cleanup-ut...

The scalelist bug still exists and Xrefs can make this issue 10 times worse.

[Bob_Zurunkle]

OP check to see if your graphics card is enabled for AutoCAD. Then check to see if harware acceleration is on or off, and try toggling this.

[bjvander]

I did find a problem block, have not removed yet. I will need to partial open without it and then create a new file. Why is it that a file consisting of xrefs only will not display the xrefs? I'm a noob so forgive me, just starting to use the xrefs,

[bjvander]

How does enabling the graphics card work?

[ukdxb012]

Please refer to the following regarding Hardware Acceleration... http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-...

Have you now resolved this? Was it the problematic block causing the issues?

[bjvander]

I am still trying to figure out what to do. The block is a series of ropes created by sweeping a profile along a path with a twist. They are pretty unwieldly but I have another similar block that works okay. I don't know what might be wrong with it, but partial open without block = fine, partial open of just that one block = fail. I don't know how to get rid of it other than to reconstruct the drawing using the individual blocks that are good. I would love to know how to avoid this in the future though.