Unusual object highlight when opening drawings - AutoCAD 2025

[JBerns]

Community,

Since upgrading from AutoCAD 2022 to 2025, my coworker experiences unusual object highlighting while opening most drawings. The objects appeared highlighted for 1 - 2 seconds...

and then generally return to normal.

Occasionally, the objects appear pixelated. In those instances, scrolling the mouse wheel causes the screen to refresh and then all appears normal again.

I have been able to reproduce the problem on my PC using his exported/imported AutoCAD settings.
See the attached video.

I discovered that if I change MENUBAR from 1 to 0, the highlighting stops. Enable MENUBAR and the brief highlighting returns.

Three different graphics cards and multiple drivers tested - the highlight behavior occurs with MENUBAR = 1.

Hardware Acceleration off stops the highlighting, but also lose performance.

What in the pull-down menus could be causing this behavior?

When using the Drafting & Annotation workspace (out-of-the-box with AutoCAD), and MENUBAR=1, no highlighting occurs.

This leads me to believe there is something in the workspace(profile) causing the highlight behavior.

BTW - I have another coworker that also uses MENUBAR=1, and his system does not exhibit the highlighting when opening drawings.

This is a puzzler. Hope someone can help.

Regards,
Jerry

This post has been edited due to: @heather_tracy added the product to the title to help more community members find this topic. 

[paullimapa]

Definitely looks like a graphics card compatibility issue. Try the following 

At command prompt enter:

GFXDX12

0

Thats a zero, close & restart AutoCAD

If still no good, at command prompt enter:

GRAPHICSCONFIG

Select another option under 2D Display Settings

[JBerns]

@paullimapa,

I tried two different workspaces. Brad was migrated from 2022. The Design & Annotation workspace is a default installed with AutoCAD 2025.

Test results for GFXDX12 and GRAPHICSCONFIG:

Workspace	Hard. Acc.	GFXDX12	MenuBar	Highlght-Open
Brad	ON	1	1	Yes
Brad	ON	1	0	No
Des. & Annot.	ON	1	1	No
Des. & Annot.	ON	1	0	No

.

I discovered that both Hardware Acceleration and GFXDX12 could be On regardless of active workspace.

When using the Design & Annotation workspace, no unusual highlighting occurred with MENUBAR=1.

Our thought was that if the problem was card/driver related, it should occur with all workspaces or MENUBAR settings.

Why would turning on pull-down menus cause this highlighting behavior?

On Monday I can explore other options in GRAPHINCSCONFIG..

Regards,

Jerry

[paullimapa]

FYI: If problem arises, I would always avoid migration...have a great weekend!!!

[JBerns]

Ackn. May need to rebuild from scratch.

And a good weekend to you too, Paul.

[heather_tracy]

Hi @JBerns,

I wanted to check in and see if you still needed assistance, or if you found a solution to your question already? Let us know if you need further assistance by providing an update or if you have found a solution, please share it with the community so other members who may have the same question could learn from your experience.

All the best,

Heather | Community Manager

[JBerns]

@heather_tracy,

No solution found other than to rebuild the workspace/menu/toolbars.

Still seems odd that just enabling the MENUBAR causes the issue.

Regards,

Jerry

[BhaskarMurari]

@JBerns Can you share your AutoCAD profile or settings so that I can test with my machine. 

[manieshkumar.suresh]

Hi @JBerns,

Good day! 

Do you have any LISP or plugin with your setting .

Are you able to reproduce the same issue with default setting of AutoCAD.

Could you set SELECTIONEFFECT = 1 and check the behaviour.

Could you set AutoCAD to use high performance graphics - https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-force-your-... 

[BhaskarMurari · Accepted solution]

Have you tried this ?
Also can you share your AutoCAD profile..

Do you have any LISP or plugin with your setting .

Are you able to reproduce the same issue with default setting of AutoCAD.

Could you set SELECTIONEFFECT = 1 and check the behaviour.

Could you set AutoCAD to use high performance graphics - https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-force-your-... 

[JBerns]

@manieshkumar.suresh,

Yes, we have several custom LISP routines that load. Other users load the same LISP routines, but do not see the highlight effect.

When I load the profile on my PC, the highlight can be reproduced. When I turn off MENUBAR, the highlight does not occur. All LISP routines loaded.

Regards,

Jerry 

[JBerns · Accepted solution]

@manieshkumar.suresh / @BhaskarMurari ,

With MENUBAR = 1 (On), I tried loading drawings with SELECTIONEFFECT either on or off. The drawings opened with object highlighted regardless of SELECTIONEFFECT setting.

With MENUBAR = 0 (Off), the highlight behavior does not occur.

I suspect their is some legacy info in the pull-down menu from previous AutoCAD versions. A rebuild will be required.

Thanks all for your input and suggestions.

Regards,

Jerry