Is it better to work in SDI or MDI mode?

[vladop]

Does anybody know is it better to work in SDI or MDI mode; or in MDI mode with limited number of opened drawings?

I did some testing on Title update and Retag.

It seems that it doesn't help if all drawings are open (MDI).

Of course, transition between drawings is faster with both drawings open.

In the other hand, previous drawing is not saved in MDI mode.

Is database completely refreshed if previous drawing is not saved?

Is there any other problem in MDI mode?

I read that older AE versions don't work in MDI. Why?



Vlado

[Anonymous]

Not a Acade user myself, but the company I work for uses Acad and Acade
2006.

The Acad users work in MDI mode, while for some reason or another I've
been told that Acade users must work in SDI mode.

Maybe it is a limitation for older versions of Acade?

[vladop]

MDI is possible in newer versions, but I'm not sure if there is any "side effect".

[dougmcalexander]

SDI (single document interface) mode is a bit faster, especially for project-wide functions. The default out-of-the-box mode is MDI (multiple document interface). You must close all but one drawing down in order to switch to SDI. Type SDI at the command line, press Enter, and type "1" for SDI=Yes followed by Enter again. You will now be in SDI mode.

I prefer SDI for three reasons:

1. Speed.

2. In a network environment sharing a project I don't want to get happy opening drawings and lock my comrades out of being able to open them for editing should they need to.

3. I never saw a database error until MDI mode was introduced. MDI mode is more complicated for the project database manager. Think about it. It must track the last saved state of all open drawings and yet allow you to make changes without permanently writing the changes to the database until you save each drawing. So it is attempting to keep up with the real-time changes you make, possibly to many open drawings, while yet remembering their last saved state and finally writing your final decisions to the database when you finally save the drawings. Again, this is very complex and I never saw database errors until MDI mode. Edited by: dougmcalexander on Jan 30, 2009 6:48 AM

[Anonymous]

Good tip! I knew of the change to MDI mode and that I could change to SDI mode but I did not know it was faster. We have been complaining of slow drawing changes and problems with updates on large drawings for a while now. This looks like it will be a good workaround when in a pinch.