Hardware and large corridors

[Blessed4x]

I am having a lot of issues with larger corridors and cross section files in Acad 2013 civil 3D.  We have the full design suite and I am using a pc with the system specs listed below.  The trend to stick everything in one file (ie alignments, profiles and corridors) leads to some large files that take a lot of time to open and save.  One file in particular, a corridor file, for a mile long roadway job is nearly 20 megs and takes about 6 minutes to open and the same to save.  The cross section file is a monster.  Because you cannot xref cross sections and must create the sheet views in the file where the

cross sections exist, the file has grown mammoth.  It takes nearly 8 minutes to open the dwg and the same to save it. 

It's to the point that we are considering doing larger corridor projects in "chunks" to limit file size.  This isn't very efficient, though.  I routinely purge styles to keep file size down.  Trying to use the section editor in these projects is just not feasible.  Trying to override one slope or one offset will take upwards of 2 minutes with rebuild surface automatically turned off and extra sample lines kept to a minimum.

Is it the way we are doing the corridors or is it my machine?

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description  Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer Dell Inc.
System Model Precision T5600
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2620 0 @ 2.00GHz, 2001 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Dell Inc. A05, 9/6/2012
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
Time Zone Central Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 16.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 15.9 GB
Available Physical Memory 12.4 GB
Total Virtual Memory 31.9 GB
Available Virtual Memory 28.3 GB
Page File Space 15.9 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Video Info

Name NVIDIA Quadro 2000D
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0DD8&SUBSYS_091410DE&REV_A1\4&2F775CDF&0&0010
Adapter Type Quadro 2000D, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA Quadro 2000D
Adapter RAM 1.00 GB (1,073,741,824 bytes)
Installed Drivers nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver Version 9.18.13.1135
INF File oem133.inf (Section028 section)
Color Planes Not Available
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1280 x 1024 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32

[Blessed4x]

...and before you tell me to data reference the alignments and profiles, you can't if you wish to utilize the interesection wizard.  The profiles must reside in your corridor file and not be a data reference so that civil 3D may lock and manipulate the profiles.  At least we haven't been able to make that work.

[MikeEvansUK]

Can you data ref the main alignments? I don't use the intersection due to uk design limitations on profiles but it shouldn't adjust the main profiles.

Intersection & drefs - Perhaps this is a wish list item??

I do recommend breaking it down and using dregs somehow.

Do you really need the corridor model in the sections? I rarely do and xref /drefing then sectioning would work here.

[Blessed4x]

For the cross sections, I am unable to xref the base file into a "production sheet" as it looses much of the cross section data.  Apparantly this is a known problem as far as I have seen. 

[SkipBurns]

For the cross sections.... Make sure you have a clean drawing, then xref in the corridor drawing.  Create your sample lines and section views.  Then can run the plan/production tools to create the sheets in the sections file, then save a copy of that file.  In one, delete out all the layout tabs... in the other, delete out all the data/objects (so it's just the layout tabs, then xref in the other file (with the cross sections).

For the corridor drawing, what I do is make sure that there are no profile views over saved in the drawing.  Always delete the views after doing the design work (you can always recreate them with the click of a button).  This saves a TON of time on saving opening.

[Lisa_Pohlmeyer]

Take a look at this thread  http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-Civil-3D/Civil-3d-2012-Most-efficient-drawing-management/m-p/4...

[Hammer.john.j]

lol at the reference to my question, nice!