topic Re: Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers in AutoCAD Architecture Forum

Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 19:51:53 GMT

Hello I am the network admin, with 40 seats of AUtoCAD Architecture

I have installed the SERVICE PACK Released: 07/22/2016

AutoCAD 2017 64-bit Service Pack 1

AutoCAD 2017 64-bit based products Service Pack 1

Released: 07/22/2016

But a lot of the computers are running SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES

Most of the computers in the office are:

Intell Core i7 2.6GHz

8.0 GB Ram

64 Bit

Re: Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers

Ivan.Treguear — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 22:27:56 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

You may have noticed multiple (typically up to 9) copies of the process AcWebBrowser.exe, resp. "Chromium host executable" running in your Windows Task Manager.

These are helper applications for Autodesk products, taking care of web communication - they are based on the web (HTML) component "Chromium" (the same root as Google Chrome). These processes are used e.g. for the online Help, licensing mechanism, the Start (Home) screen, for the update tool Desktop App, Infocenter, etc.

Standard memory requirements of these processes are as small as cca 15-40MB each, but they may require more CPU power of they are blocked by an antivirus, or a firewall, or by a system component of a PC vendor. So if required, add them to the exceptions list (no-scan/no-block) in your antivirus.

To manually disable it, proceed as follows:

1. open firewall settings (Windows firewall with advance security)
2. Select inbound rules.
3. From right, select new rule, Program > This Program Path (Browse "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\AcWebBrowser\AcWebBrowser.exe", if you're using any other product browse there) > Block the connection > Name it anything. Done..
4. Do same for outbound rules.

Renameing it will also prevent it from loading as well - for example:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\AcWebBrowser\AcWebBrowser_bak.exe

Re: Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers

Anonymous — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 17:09:26 GMT

Thank you for getting back to me. Appreciate the help, however We are still having issues.

And I wanted to clarify some of the solutions offered.

1. [ALLOW COMMUNICATION] Our Antivirus (Bitdefender Endpoint Security) and our security provider tested your option

Add "them" to the exceptions list (no-scan/no-block) in your antivirus.

The "them" was => C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\AcWebBrowser\AcWebBrowser.exe

If there is a broader "them" like autodesk.com or simmilar let me know,

as of right now per your instructions, it is pointing directly to the AcWebBrowser.exe

Still had freezing & pausing issues.

2. [BLOCK COMMUNICATION] Manually disable it, proceed as follows:

open (Bitdefender Endpoint Security) is there another layer possibly from the (Windows firewall with advance security)
Changed inbound and outbound rules to block communication.

Still had freezing & pausing issues.

3. Re-naming it will also prevent it from loading as well - for example:
C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2017\AcWebBrowser\AcWebBrowser_bak.exe

THIS WORKED SO FAR BUT WE LOOSE THE A360 / IN APPLICATION HELP/ AND OTHER WEB SERVICES

I feel like there has to be a solution that allows us to use the web communication with out bogging down the system.

Is this a firewall / security issue? is this an autocad issue, with just to many thing running in the background?

Again computer specs (Intell Core i7 2.6GHz8.0 GB Ram64 Bit) I feel like these computer should be able to handle it.

If were not able to use any of the upgraded services that we pay for via the (Building Design Suite Standard)

And can not resolve than we may have to change our contract to just (AutoCAD Architecture)

Re: Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers

Victoria.Studley — Wed, 18 Jan 2017 19:44:21 GMT

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for testing Ivan's suggestions and for posting your findings.

There are a couple more things you can test regarding the AcWebBrowser.exe:

Disable the Welcome Screen options for each product. (Use the STARTUP system variable for AutoCAD.)
Add the acwebbrowser.exe *32 application to any Anti-Virus, Malware, Firewall or PC component tools/software as an exception (which you've alraedy done, from the sounds of it).
Set up your Windows user profiles to run AutoCAD as Administrator.
Disable or manually start the Autodesk Desktop App. You can do this by going to:
Windows Start > Run > and type in "services.msc"
Right-click Autodesk Desktop App Service and select Properties.
Under the General Tab choose a "Startup type" of your choice for this app (i.e. Disabled, Manual, etc.)

There are additional exclusions you can add to your antivirus/security program(s) or proxy server settings, which may also help you address the performance issue without disabling the web services:

Are there antivirus exclusions to make Autodesk programs run better?

Proxy server settings changes required to unblock Autodesk A360 services

Let me know if these help you resolve the issue, or if you need more assistance.

Re: Network Admin: SLOW - CRASH - PAUSES 15 of 40 seats, New computers

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Feb 2017 00:59:04 GMT

I'm getting the same thing as OP. Late model laptop with top specs, clean win 10 install but frequent 10 second freezes with Civil 3d 2017 SP1.1.

I can see that this is due to the Chromium Host Executable (32 bit) when I check the task manager. I have uninstalled Acad 360 and HELP files are offline and I actually uninstalled Chrome before I realized that wasn't related. I still get the freezes.

I haven't got our computer admin people to make any changes to anti-virus or network settings but others on our network don't seem to be having the issue.

I'm very keen for any easy fixes for this...

Auckland/NZ.

Cheers, Carey