New Sheet Set setup very slow

[LyleHardin]

AutoCAD 2016. I suspect I have a corrupt Sheet Set in my templates folder, but figured I'd run it by the forums to see if anyone else has this issue.

When I go to create a new sheet set based on "An example sheet set" and pick Next, it takes about 30 seconds to get to the next screen where I get to select the example sheet set. This pause causes many people to pick Next again, which ends up bypassing the next screen selecting the default example sheet set which usually messes things up for them. (Sorry if this is getting confusing...)

So, I'm wondering what to look for to fix this. 

I may end up removing sheet sets from my templates folder one at a time to see if one of them is corrupt. That sounds like meticulous, tedious, time consuming work I don't really want to do right now...

Looking for the easy answer, but I'll post my findings later if I get around to experimenting.

[wispoxy]

Issue:

You want to know how to improve performance when using the Sheet Set Manager.

Solution:

The performance of sheet sets is largely dependent on the following factors: the speed of the network, the number of sheets in the sheet set, and the number of users on the network that are accessing the same sheet set.

A slow network connection can have a major negative impact on the performance of the Sheet Set Manager (SSM). In addition, the more sheets you have in a DST file, the longer it will take the Sheet Set Manager to check the network in order to refresh its status. When you multiply the negative effect of these factors by the number of users accessing the SSM simultaneously—all periodically refreshing a network DST file—it is easy to see how quickly performance can degrade.

Aside from increasing the network speed (something over which you may or may not have control), you can use the following tips to improve performance when working with sheet sets:

• Increase the SSMPOLLTIME system variable to lengthen the time between refreshes. The default refresh time is 60 seconds, but you can increase it to a maximum of 600 seconds (10 minutes). Note: The system variable, SSMSHEETSTATUS must be set to 2 for the timer to operate.

• Turn off automatic refreshing of sheet sets completely by setting SSMSHEETSTATUS to 0 (in this case, refreshing must be done manually). Making this (or the previous) change for all the users on a network may help minimize the amount of traffic to and from a DST file.

• Turn off the Offline Files setting if it is enabled on your Windows operating system. If this setting is active, the Sheet Set Manager may include offline folders when polling for information during a file search. Note: The SSM does not explicitly poll offline folders; this is a result of the Windows functions called when a file search is performed. To turn off Offline Files, follow these steps:
  
  • In Windows Explorer, click Tools menu.
  • In the Folder Options dialog box, click the Offline Files tab, and clear the Offline Files check box. 
• Check how frequently fields are refreshed. If your sheets contain a lot of fields and they are refreshed often, this will negatively impact sheet set performance. Check the FIELDEVAL system variable or the Options dialog box (User Preferences > Field Update Settings) and adjust how often the fields are evaluated.

• Close the DST file if you are not using it. This is different from simply closing the Sheet Set Manager. You need to right-click the sheet set name at the root of the SSM tree and select Close Sheet Set from the shortcut menu.

• Disable background publishing.

• Turn off SSMAUTOOPEN to prevent the automatic opening of a DST file when you load an associated drawing.

[LyleHardin]

Thanks for the effort, but this boilerplate answer does not address my issue.

Accessing the Sheets Sets is not slow. What's slow is just one step in creating a new sheet set.

Typically, we have no problems accessing the sheet sets once they have been created.

[LyleHardin · Accepted solution]

Figured it out. It was a corrupt sheet set template. 

I renamed the sheet set templates one by one while trying to create a new sheet set from example.

I finally came across the one that was corrupt because now, creating a sheet set from example is back to normal.

Now I need to find out what is wrong with the sheet set template.