ACA 2018 locks up after an hour of grip editing dynamic blocks

[Anonymous]

Autocad Architecture 2018 ceases operation after an hour when editing dynamic block variables using grips.

An example is selecting multiple dynamic blocks and change the values from the Properties palette.

Every time this is done, the AutoCAD increases its memory usage (as observed in the Task Manager) and as soon it reaches 1GB+, then AutoCAD ceases operation and AutoCAD would NOT respond to any other commands, EXCEPT the SAVE command  (a good thing 😞 ).

Any ideas?

@Anonymous for clarity VStudley edited the original subject: Autocad Architecture 2018 ceases operation

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Anonymous,

Welcome to the Autodesk Community, and thank you for posting your question here in the AutoCAD Architecture forum!

Could you tell us a bit more about the problem?

• Does this happen in certain files, or does it also happen if you create a new drawing with a new simple dynamic block?
• How complex are the blocks you're editing?
• Could you post a sample file here for us to test, and try to reproduce the issue?

Have you checked the files for corruption? See the recommendation in the following article:

• Editing a block in AutoCAD results in AutoCAD freezing for a few minutes

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply.

I am using AutoCAD 2018 and Windows 10 Pro 64bit OS with 32GB memory.

I attached an image of what I am doing.

I am doing ductwork layout using a dynamic block of a duct with duct information as Duct Length, Duct Width, BOD, Toggles (for duct size, insulation, BOD and insulation tag).

This duct block is let's say inserted to make up 20 meter long run @ 1500mm section (total blocks will be 14).

The problem occurs if I select/pick the duct blocks (as in the attachment) then edit the info. in the Properties Pallete, the AutoCAD memory increases dramatically, then operation becomes slower and slower. If I do this to other dynamic blocks and the AutoCAD memory reaches over 1 gb, then AutoCAD stops responding to any commands, like copy, move or delete. It will respond to SAVE or QSAVE command, then I will have to close AutoCAD and bring it up again.  This never happens in AutoCAD 2016 using Windows 7 64 bit OS.

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thank you for posting some additional details.

• Did you try cleaning up the DWG file using the article I posted last week?
• Will you be able to post the DWG file? The JPG image is good, but we can't tell what's going on with the file / block itself from the image.

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Hi Victoria,

Thank you for your interest in the issue.

I believe this is the first time I have seen this issue in AutoCAD in my 33 years of using AutoCAD from release 2.6 to version 2018.

The drawing concern is created completely from scratch using mainly of dynamic blocks with attributes - equipment, ducts and duct fittings.

The drawing also consist of XREFS (arch, structural, fire, elec, fuel, hydraulic - attached and overlay), PDFs and blocks, drawing size 4MB+.

Dynamic blocks may range from 500 to 1000+ for a HVAC of a building area of more than 4000sq.m.

As I have said after AutoCAD 2018 stops executing commands other than the SAVE or QSAVE command, all I need to do is save my drawing, quit/close AutoCAD and open the drawing again and everything will be fine. I have purged all the unnecessary objects, did recover/audit the drawing and the same thing happens again.

As observed, AutoCAD memory usage increases dramatically when I use dynamic blocks on the drawing and use the Properties Palette UI extensively.

The problem occurs whenever I update the parameters of the dynamic block using the Properties Palette UI.

First I pick or select the dynamic blocks (say 50 of similar blocks) as shown in the jpg, the update the parameter values in the Properties Palette UI.

If I keep doing this, AutoCAD stops responding,  so I created an AutoLisp routine to update it from the command prompt and I have no issue.

I have tried editing the drawing using AutoCAD MEP 2018 and AutoCAD Electrical 2018 and the same this happens on the same machine (Intel Xeon CPU E5-1630 v4 @ 3.7GHz.

I have attached one of the duct dynamic block.

[Anonymous]

Hmmm... seemed like there is NO solution to this problem.

As attached the Task Manager shows AutoCAD application (3-files open at the same time)  uses 1,180 MB and about 400 blocks in a drawing, AutoCAD 2018 stops responding to any command, except the Save and QSAVE commands.  All I need to do is close all the drawings, Exit AutoCad andOpen the AutoCad application again.

[dbroad]

This may or may not be related but that duct dynamic block couldn't have possibly been made in the block editor since there are at least 4 visibility states and only one visibility state is allowed by bedit.  In addition, adjusting the size of the duct has no effect on its size attributes so it could lead to plans with conflicts. Duplication and potential conflicts between multiple visibility states within 500 dynamic blocks could easily choke the system.

AutoCAD MEP has ductwork features built-in, including autosizing, I believe. Is there some reason that you are not using those features?

[Anonymous]

Hi dbroad,

I understand that dynamic block has only one visibility state, but the blocks uses lookup table to fake the visibility. It involves linear dimension in relation with the on and off state. It actually reduces or scaling the object to a dimension of 1 to hide it at minimum but the object is still visible.

I used about 16 attributes in a block using AutoCad release 9 as a matter of fact on a 286 computer with a 287 math coprocessor using DOS 5.0 operating system (late 80s) with over a 1000 blocks in a map drawing and AutoCad release 9 did not even stop working ... only slower.

IMHO, we cannot be holding back using dynamic blocks just because AutoCad freezes after a while.  We use a very expensive software and it should do the job it offers, ie: dynamic blocks, datalink, grip editing on objects.

Thanks for your review.

[dbroad]

Thanks for the explanation.  I agree that AutoCAD should be stable and shouldn't crash on you, but don't know what could be happening.  In my limited tests, they seem to work fine.  Since this is an issue of dynamic blocks rather than AutoCAD Architecture, you may get better help in the dynamic block forum or in the AutoCAD forum.

Since you suspect a memory leak related to dynamic blocks, you might want to report it as a bug through those channels.