Drawings take an age to open following upgrade from LT 2013 to LT2020

[Anonymous]

Hello,

This is my first time posting and would be grateful of any advice. I recently upgraded from AutoCAD LT 2013 DVD Non-Subscription software to AutoCAD LT 2020 Subscription based software. Since upgrading some drawings take a very long time to open and AutoCAD hangs whilst opening the file - rotating circle in middle of screen and blue progress bar to the bottom right remains onscreen. Some drawings can take over 10minutes to open. All drawings previously opened instantly in 2013. It seems the pattern is that (some) drawings which I haven't yet been opened in 2020 are the ones which I am experiencing problems with?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as this is a massively frustrating problem which impacts on productivity.

I really hope somebody can help.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Regards,

Mark

[RobDraw]

It's impossible to determine what the cause is from your description as this is not a common issue.

It could be file related. Please share one of the old files so we can rule that out and focus on other possible causes.

[pendean]

Same old 2013-era PC too? What is the OS? RAM? Processor?
Where do you store your files?
Can you also post screenshots of both your ABOUT and GRAPHICSCONFIG commands pop-ups please? Lets see what you are working with?

Try some of these tips on a few of your older files and see if the problems go away https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCA...

[Anonymous]

Hi Pendean,

Thanks for your response. My PC is approximately 3 years old, the operating system is Windows 10 (which I recently upgraded to at the time of upgrading to AutoCAD LT 2020), Ram is 16GB & 1333MHz, processor is Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz.

I store my files on my hard drive.

When the drawing eventually opens, if I simply pan around then save changes it opens instantly next time of opening? If I don't save the changes, simply close it down & reopen it takes a long time to open again?! 

I have pasted the screenshots requested above.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Mark

[pendean]

Thanks for the great info and great screenshots: you are missing a 2020.1.2 update, please install it first then restart your PC.

If that does not sort out your unusual problem, could you let us know where you save your files to and open them from?

[Anonymous]

Thanks Pendean,

I am currently downloading the update and will revert with the result....

Regards,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Thanks RobDraw,

I am currently downloading the update suggested by Pendean, if this doesn't work I will send you a file which is affected by slow opening.

Regards,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hi Pendean,

Unfortunately the update hasn't made any difference. I work off of a single PC and save and open files from the built in hard drive.

I will upload an affected file as suggested by RobDraw......

Regards,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hi RobDraw,

Unfortunately the update didn't work for my issue. I have attached an affected drawing as requested.

Thanks for your help with this.

Regards,

Mark

[RobDraw · Accepted solution]

I can confirm that there is something in the file causing this. I'm currently waiting for the file to open. My first guess is that there is some feature or function being used in the files that has since been changed/upgraded in such a way that it needs to be converted and that conversion takes some time.

After opening, I found a ton of unused linetypes from mulitple bound XREFs that should be purged. There are probably other similar issues. After saving and reopening, the file performed more normally even without a purge but still had some performance problems.

I think this can be chalked up to poor file maintenance.

[pendean · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the 2010dwg file format file: when I opened it, this alert came up (as it probably did for you I suspect before you opted to hide it in the lower portion of the pop-up), it appears you maintaining 2010dwg file format may be contributing factor since your file contains custom objects not native to LT.

Your file, as noted by others, also contains an inordinate amount (like hundreds) of text styles, linetypes and so many anonymous blocks that all seem to be in use. Interesting for sure. I can see why this can be troublesome, I guess 2013 did not keep track of this stuff.

Do you still truly need to hold on to the 2010dwg file format? I suspect it is one source of problems for you as well as you content.

FWIW your file in most offices would be a dozen separate files xrefed together into one: have yo ever had a corrupt DWG file before? You risk losing a lot with this one file.

EDIT: forgot to give you back your file, updated to 2018DWG file format, see if this still gives you issues in your newest 2020 version.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Robdraw,

I tend not to use XRefs as my drawings generally aren't that big and I keep all info in one file - probably not the best way to do things but I work alone and have done it this way for years! As you can probably tell I am no expert at AutoCAD, I do purge and audit drawings usually before saving them. The issue may also come from the way I create drawings, when I commence a new project/drawing I carry out a 'save as' of a previously created drawing and work from there, I imagine there is a good chance this is perpetuating my problem?!

Thank you for your time and effort with this, it has been most helpful.

Regards,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Hello Pendean,

Thanks for your response. I don't require to hold onto the 2010 file format and am happy for it to be updated, I imagine this is what happens once it has been opened and re-saved? 

The file which you returned opened no problem thank you. 

You will see in my response to RobDraw how I tend not to use Xrefs and how I create new drawing files - probably not the most effective way! If I were to purge the drawings when I opened them would it remove all the of text styles, linetypes and anonymous blocks? 

Thank you so much for looking into this for me, you have been most helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Thankfully I have never had a corrupt file. 

[pendean]

>>>...Thankfully I have never had a corrupt file. ...<<<
It happens to all of us at one point: hope you are ready for it.

[Anonymous]

Hi Pendean,

No doubt it will! I do a weekly back up so hopefully it won't be too bad.......

Thanks again for all your help.

Regards,

Mark