topic Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search in AutoCAD Forum

Change Timeout for Xref Search

nrz13 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 03:20:00 GMT

Here's my problem:
I'm taking a lot of work home lately and the drawings are referencing files on the network that I don't need at home, but that shouldn't have their network paths changed or be removed from the drawing. When I open drawings with such references, AutoCAD stalls for what seems like 30-60 seconds. Every time it does a save or autosave or I switch between drawings, it stalls for 30-60 seconds looking for xrefs I know it's not going to find.

Query:
Is there a user-accessible system variable to control the timeout for those searches? I could set it for 3 seconds instead and the program would be a lot snappier.

Thanks!

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

Alfred.NESWADBA — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 09:43:11 GMT

Hi,

sorry, I don't know any variable which might help, but you can start XREF manager, select the XRef's you don't want to be loaded, right-click and select "Unload", when you are back in your office, do the same and select "Reload", this enables or disables the display of the referenced files, but all the settings like position/scaling/rotation/layer ... will stay resident.

In case you have relative paths a bad trick would be to have on your home computer the same paths, but just empty DWG-files, so AutoCAD find's files with that names, but as they are empty there's no performance issue. The disadvantage here might be, that the layer setting (of you made changes to the XRef-dependent layer settings) might get lost.

-.alfred -

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

nrz13 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 13:17:50 GMT

Thanks for the reply, Alfred. Most of the files are already relative to the project folder and work. But some of the files are global references used for every project and those I wouldn't know how to duplicate the network paths to.

I also tried using Unload, but that doesn't help with the opening delay. Also, many of the files I'm opening are for reference from our archives and are read only. For those my work-around would be to copy the 60-some files, unlock them and edit them at work, and bring them home that way. I was hoping to avoid that with a variable to change the timeout for the xref search.

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

paullimapa — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 23:30:52 GMT

Hm..this sounds strange. Usually if xrefs are not found, AutoCAD would just ignore them after the drawing file is already opened.

Have you tried detaching all xrefs and taking that drawing home to see if there's a similar delay during saves?

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

nrz13 — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 02:20:22 GMT

After I open the drawing, I can detach the references and performance instantly improves. But then I can't save it because the attachments would be removed. The only way I can think of now is to make a copy of the drawings and save them that way as I use them. I was hoping to avoid having a duplicate version of a drawing, even if I'm only using it for reference right now. I don't like the idea of accidentally overwriting the original as I'm copying files back and forth.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but it's now just .dwg references, but .png as well.

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

wispoxy — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:29:55 GMT

You should not be using XREFs from a network. If the network goes down it will render you completely useless when it comes to XREFs.

You should be saving a local copy and your network should hold auto saves or create its own copy of your local files.

Re: Change Timeout for Xref Search

nrz13 — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 15:42:35 GMT

All of our files are stored on the network so every user has access to them. Our AutoCAD templates and settings are also stored on the server so they can be updated on all computers by editing just one file on the server.

Copying files back and forth would surely result in files not being kept up-to-date or being lost or overwritten. It works flawlessly the way it's setup and we have not had a network or server issue (for our files, anyway) for as long as I've been in this office. If the network were to go down for some reason, then we'd walk the 20' over to the server and copy the files onto a USB drive. If it goes down because the computer fails, we'd copy backups to our workstations until the server is back up and running.