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Demand Load Xref setting?

9 REPLIES 9
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Message 1 of 10
Anonymous
912 Views, 9 Replies

Demand Load Xref setting?

I've been setting our CAD stations to "disabled" as "enabled" locks any
xrefs when more than one person is working on a project at the same
time. So far there doesn't seem to be any problems doing this, but I've
been trying to figure out just what the practical
advantages-disadvantages there might be to using "enabled with copy" vs
"disabled". Can anyone tell me what the use for this option (enabled
with copy) would be?
9 REPLIES 9
Message 2 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

The "enabled with copy" is my preference.
It allows other users to open/edit and xref.dwg while being referenced in
another open *.dwg.

"Rob Nevitt" wrote in message
news:3B6FF49E.E6A6061@gbis.com...
> I've been setting our CAD stations to "disabled" as "enabled" locks any
> xrefs when more than one person is working on a project at the same
> time. So far there doesn't seem to be any problems doing this, but I've
> been trying to figure out just what the practical
> advantages-disadvantages there might be to using "enabled with copy" vs
> "disabled". Can anyone tell me what the use for this option (enabled
> with copy) would be?
>
Message 3 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

So does disabled.

jason martin
frankfurt-short-bruza

"Corey A. Layton" wrote in message
news:19C54557569B9C529F7C69E04158CDCA@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> The "enabled with copy" is my preference.
> It allows other users to open/edit and xref.dwg while being referenced in
> another open *.dwg.
>
Message 4 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Rob,
We here are set to "enabled with copy". We many times have short deadlines
and need many techs to be working simultaneously on many sheets or files of
the same job. This works well with a lot of cad users thus not locking
others from making edits on xrefs. It only takes one person to open a file
and walk away from his station for the day thus locking others out and
making me have to cruise the office for the offender. We have a few with bad
habits here. I dislike the "disable" setting as it will allow overwriting of
the host file by any one accessing this file (i.e. Party 1 opens file and
makes minor edit, party 2 opens file after party 1 makes major edits and
saves, then party 2 saves after being away from his machine for 2 hours.
Party 2 edits our overwritten with party 1 minor edits = lost work. Which
usually isn't discovered until the next time this file is opened some time
days later.)

Hope this helps.

Ron Meicho
Cad Manager
Gray & Osborne, Inc.
Message 5 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

The manual says that demand loading can have performance advantages under
certain circumstances. Enabling it with a copy is generally the same thing
except that ACAD creates a temp copy of the file and reads from that. After
reading the manual I have changed from disable to enable with copy. We will
have to see if there is any speed advantage. I think that crux will be
getting the right settings for two system variables, xloadctl and indexctl.
What to people have for these settings?

Robert Connor


"jason martin" wrote in message
news:A417A0F2DD42D19A1C5F8C6D35113051@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> So does disabled.
>
> jason martin
> frankfurt-short-bruza
>
> "Corey A. Layton" wrote in message
> news:19C54557569B9C529F7C69E04158CDCA@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > The "enabled with copy" is my preference.
> > It allows other users to open/edit and xref.dwg while being referenced
in
> > another open *.dwg.
> >
>
>
>
Message 6 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

You have twoi choices: Disabled and Enabled with Copy. From a user standpoint,
both allow people to work on Xrefs that are referenced in another drawing.

My preference has always been Disabled.

Using "Enabled" creates spatial and layer indexes in that xref, which simply
loads only that portion of the Xref which is visible in the original file. If
you have a huge plan in your drawing as an Xref, and you freeze out extraneous
xref layers, AutoCAD will only bring in that data which isn't frozen. Same thing
with Xclips. Yippee.

However, a layer thaw * in that drawing will then load all of that data back
into the file. Same thing with modifying an Xclip clipping boundary.

However, creating a local copy which Acad uses instead of a network version
doesn't do anything for you except create goop in your user's TEMP folder.

Autodesk's line is that you gain performance increases with Demand Loading
enabled w/copy; however, I've not seen this to be the case. I've not enbabled it
in A2K, but in R14 it performed rather poorly on our systems. Hence I've simply
disabled it.

Matt
mstachoni@home.com
mstachoni@beyerdesign.com




On Tue, 7 Aug 2001 07:01:02 -0700, Rob Nevitt wrote:

>I've been setting our CAD stations to "disabled" as "enabled" locks any
>xrefs when more than one person is working on a project at the same
>time. So far there doesn't seem to be any problems doing this, but I've
>been trying to figure out just what the practical
>advantages-disadvantages there might be to using "enabled with copy" vs
>"disabled". Can anyone tell me what the use for this option (enabled
>with copy) would be?
Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

Rob,

As I understand it you need to have layer and or spatial indexing turned
on for it to make any difference anyway. Do you have it turned on
currently? If so then you should look at that. There are mixed results
on that and it depends on how you operate and how large your files are.
I believe in most cases not using indexing and setting demand loading to
disabled works best. I could be wrong but I do not believe setting
demand loading to enabled or enabled with copy automatically sets your
file to save with indexing.

You do have larger files if you have indexing turned on and you have
performance hits if you do need to access things not loaded so there are
drawbacks. The benefits however can outweigh that if you have large
files and not enough ram to handle the files and xrefs by not loading
the whole file.

Evan

Rob Nevitt wrote:
>
> I've been setting our CAD stations to "disabled" as "enabled" locks any
> xrefs when more than one person is working on a project at the same
> time. So far there doesn't seem to be any problems doing this, but I've
> been trying to figure out just what the practical
> advantages-disadvantages there might be to using "enabled with copy" vs
> "disabled". Can anyone tell me what the use for this option (enabled
> with copy) would be?
Message 8 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

This is my understanding:
-----------------------------------------------
Two settings must be made to get the advantage of smaller file size when
xclipping
INDEXCTL = 3 Layer and spatial indexes are created to allow partial loading.

XLOADCTL =2 [1 may be OK?] Creates a temporary copy of the file [and] allows
editing while being xreffed.
-----------------------------------------------
Also from the help files:
INDEXCTL -Controls whether layer and spatial indexes are created and saved
in drawing files.
0 No indexes are created
1 Layer index is created
2 Spatial index is created
3 Layer and spatial indexes are created
[3 gives you everything & doesn't bloat the files that much. You only need
this in the child file but who wants to keep track. Make everything 3 &
sleep better].

XLOADCTL Turns xref demand loading on and off and controls whether it opens
the original drawing or a copy.
0 Turns off demand loading; entire drawing is loaded
1 Turns on demand loading, reference file is kept open
2 Turns on demand loading; a copy of the reference file is opened
When XLOADCTL is set to 2, the reference file copy is stored in the AutoCAD
temporary files directory (defined by the OPTIONS command) or in a
user-specified directory.
[Matt is saying that a setting of 1 is fine & there is no benefit to having
another copy locally]

Rob Nevitt wrote:

> I've been setting our CAD stations to "disabled" as "enabled" locks any
> xrefs when more than one person is working on a project at the same
> time. So far there doesn't seem to be any problems doing this, but I've
> been trying to figure out just what the practical
> advantages-disadvantages there might be to using "enabled with copy" vs
> "disabled". Can anyone tell me what the use for this option (enabled
> with copy) would be?
Message 9 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

I've had trouble with setting indexctl to other than 0. Everything works
fine most of the time, but occasionally, with indexctl set to 2 in the xref
files, information from the xrefs would disappear in the sheets.

Now we always set indexctl to 0.
- Aaron

"Robert Connor" wrote in message
news:15722F2149686106F31AAFDA236D6EBC@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> The manual says that demand loading can have performance advantages under
> certain circumstances. Enabling it with a copy is generally the same
thing
> except that ACAD creates a temp copy of the file and reads from that.
After
> reading the manual I have changed from disable to enable with copy. We
will
> have to see if there is any speed advantage. I think that crux will be
> getting the right settings for two system variables, xloadctl and
indexctl.
> What to people have for these settings?
>
> Robert Connor
>
>
> "jason martin" wrote in message
> news:A417A0F2DD42D19A1C5F8C6D35113051@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > So does disabled.
> >
> > jason martin
> > frankfurt-short-bruza
> >
> > "Corey A. Layton" wrote in message
> > news:19C54557569B9C529F7C69E04158CDCA@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> > > The "enabled with copy" is my preference.
> > > It allows other users to open/edit and xref.dwg while being referenced
> in
> > > another open *.dwg.
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
Message 10 of 10
Anonymous
in reply to: Anonymous

That's a mystery bug for which I've yet to hear an authoritative explanation.
I'd like to know if this is actually connected.

I definitely have noticed an improvement in regenerating an xclipped xref if it
has indexing turned on.


Aaron Lance wrote:

> I've had trouble with setting indexctl to other than 0. Everything works
> fine most of the time, but occasionally, with indexctl set to 2 in the xref
> files, information from the xrefs would disappear in the sheets.
>
> Now we always set indexctl to 0.
> - Aaron

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