Pipe routing choppy / laggy

[djeffroy]

I have just joined a new company as a piping designer and have noticed that pipe routing in their models is quite choppy. Routing pipe does not progress smoothly, it lags and jumps as you drag the mouse. I've gone through the typical troubleshooting such as detaching / unloading XREFs, toggling hardware acceleration on / off, purging the drawing, etc. with no results. Another issue which seems to be related is that snapping is very erratic. Even with only 'endpoint' enabled and only one available endpoint in proximity to where I am routing, the cursor jumps around as though it's cycling through several available snap points. I can take my hand off the mouse and it will continue jumping around for 5 seconds or so until it finally settles on a snap point. The mouse works flawlessly otherwise and my co-workers all experience the same issues so I think we can eliminate input device as a contributing factor.

I created a new test drawing under the project to see if there was some issue with the existing models and am getting the exact behavior in a brand new blank drawing with no existing elements or XREFs. The file size on the test drawing I created is only 84 KB and as I mentioned it's having the same issues so file size doesn't seem to be the issue either, these are not huge models.

The workstation is a brand new PC with the below specs. It's far superior to older machines I've worked on in the past which did not have the performance issues I'm seeing here. 

Intel i7 10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz

32 GB RAM

GeForce RTX 3080

Any insight on why the software is unable to route / snap smoothly would be greatly appreciated. My colleagues have just gotten used to these performance issues but I'm certain that this can be improved.

Thanks

[jabowabo]

See below for some settings I've tweaked in the past to help performance. Please don't use them as-is. Test (and test some more) and adapt to your needs. They are in LISP form here but you can type the commands in manually to see if they help at all.

;-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
;###############################   PLANT 3D SPEED OPTIMIZATION TOOLS ###############################
;----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(defun c:KpP3dInsulDispSettings ()
;   Note: Disable Windows Aero to increase performance. Also turn off windows transparency.
;------------------- Command Settings -------------------
	(command "PLANTINSULATIONDISPLAY" "0"); Hide Plant insulation
	(command "PLANTINSULATIONMODE" "simplifiedPartial")
	(command "VIEWRES" "Y" 100); sets viewres low - default is 1000
;	(command "VSCURRENT" "2dwireframe")

;------------------- 3DCONFIG Settings -------------------
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "A" "on" "4" "Exit"); Turn on adaptive degradation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "D" "off" "Exit"); Turn off dynamic tesselation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "G" "D" "on" "Exit"); Turn on "Discard Backfaces"
	;(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "L" "H" "E" "on" "Exit"); Turn on Hardware Accelleration

;------------------- Plant 3D System Variables -------------------
	;(setvar "PLANTLOCKFADECTL" 0)
	;(setvar "PLANTPIPESILHDISPLAY" 0)
	;(setvar "PLANTPROPMISMATCHDISPLAY" 0)
	;(setvar "PLANTSAVEDETAIL" 0)
	;(setvar "PLANTWELDDISPLAY" 0)

;------------------- AutoCAD System Variables -------------------
	(if (/= (getvar "cipmode") 0) (prompt "\nRun customerinvolvementprogram to disable."))	
	(setvar "DISPSILH" 0)
	(setvar "DRAWORDERCTL" 0)					;speeds up regeneration when switching tilemodes and when regenerating in model space
	(setvar "ISOLINES" 6)
	(setvar "VTENABLE" 0)						;disables smooth view transitions when zooming in/out (makes zooming instantaneous) 
	(setvar "WHIPTHREAD" 3)						;0 - use only a single processor (default), 1 - regen done on multiple CPUs, 2 - redraw done on multiple CPUs, 3 - both regens and redraws done on multiple CPUs
	
	(princ)
);----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(defun c:OPTIMIZEON ()
;   Note: Disable Windows Aero to increase performance. Also turn off windows transparency.
;------------------- Command Settings -------------------
;	(command "PLANTCONNECTIONMARKER" "1"); Set to 0 to turn off drips
	(command "PLANTINSULATIONDISPLAY" "0"); Hide Plant insulation
	(command "PLANTINSULATIONMODE" "simplifiedPartial")
;	(command "PLANTPLACEHOLDERDISPLAY" "0"); turn off placeholders
;	(command "PLANTSTEELSETREP" "SHAPE"); set steel graphics
	(command "_-SCALELISTEDIT" "_R" "_Y" "_E"); get rid of extra scale list entries
	(command "VIEWRES" "Y" 100); sets viewres low - default is 1000
;	(command "VSCURRENT" "2dwireframe")

;------------------- 3DCONFIG Settings -------------------
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "A" "on" "4" "Exit"); Turn on adaptive degradation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "D" "off" "Exit"); Turn off dynamic tesselation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "G" "D" "on" "Exit"); Turn on "Discard Backfaces"
;	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "L" "H" "E" "on" "Exit"); Turn on Hardware Accelleration

;------------------- Plant 3D System Variables -------------------
;	(setvar "PLANTLOCKFADECTL" 0)
	(setvar "PLANTPIPESILHDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTPROPMISMATCHDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTSAVEDETAIL" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTWELDDISPLAY" 0)

;------------------- AutoCAD System Variables -------------------
	(if (/= (getvar "cipmode") 0) (prompt "\nRun customerinvolvementprogram to disable."))	
	(setvar "DISPSILH" 0)
	(setvar "DRAWORDERCTL" 0)					;speeds up regeneration when switching tilemodes and when regenerating in model space
;	(setvar "DYNMODE" 0)
;	(setvar "DYNTOOLTIPS" 0)
	(setvar "FACETRES" 0.05)
	(setvar "HPDLGMODE" 1)						;displays hatch/gradient box for items selected in drawing 
	(setvar "HPMAXLINES" 100000)
	(setvar "HPQUICKPREVIEW" 0)					;disables hatch preview
	(setvar "INTELLIGENTUPDATE" 1)
	(setvar "ISAVEPERCENT" 50)
	(setvar "ISOLINES" 6)
;	(setvar "LAYERDLGMODE" 0)					;speeds up loading of layers palette 
	(setvar "LOGFILEMODE" 0)
	(setvar "LWDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "MBUTTONPAN" 1)						;middle button brings up snap menu, (set to 1) – middle button is PAN command 
;	(setvar "PICKADD" 1)						;enables subsequent selections when modifying properties
;	(setvar "PICKFIRST" 1)
;	(setvar "PREVIEWEFFECT" 0)
;	(setvar "PREVIEWFILTER" 63)
;	(setvar "QPMODE" 0)							;disables Quick Properties Palette for items selected in the drawing
;	(setvar "ROLLOVERTIPS" 0)					;disables rollover tips 
;	(setvar "RTDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "SAVEFIDELITY" 0)
;	(setvar "SAVETIME" 40)
;	(setvar "SELECTIONCYCLING" 0)				;turns selection cycling/overlapping off
;	(setvar "SELECTIONPREVIEW" 0)				;disables selection previewing
;	(setvar "SHOWLAYERUSAGE" 0)
;	(setvar "SNAPMODE" 0)
;	(setvar "SOLIDCHECK" 0)
;	(setvar "SOLIDHIST" 0)
;	(setvar "TEXTQLTY" 10)
;	(setvar "THUMBSIZE" 0)
;	(setvar "TOOLTIPS" 0)
;	(setvar "TREEDEPTH" 3020)					;Turns on spatial indexing. An integer of up to five digits is valid. The first three digits refer to model space, and the remaining two digits refer to paper space.
;	(setvar "UCSDETECT" 0)						;Controls whether dynamic UCS acquisition is active or not
;	(setvar "UOSNAP" 1)							;Determines whether object snapping is active for geometry in DWF, DWFx, PDF, and DGN underlays that are attached to the drawing
;	(setvar "VIEWUPDATEAUTO" 0)					;Controls whether model documentation drawing views are updated automatically when the source model changes
;	(setvar "VSMATERIALMODE" 0)					;Controls the display of materials in the current viewport
	(setvar "VSSHADOWS" 0)						;Controls whether a visual style displays shadows.
	(setvar "VTENABLE" 0)						;disables smooth view transitions when zooming in/out (makes zooming instantaneous) 
	(setvar "WHIPTHREAD" 3)						;0 - use only a single processor (default), 1 - regen done on multiple CPUs, 2 - redraw done on multiple CPUs, 3 - both regens and redraws done on multiple CPUs

		

	(princ)
)
(defun c:OPTIMIZEOFF ()
;   Note: Disable Windows Aero to increase performance. Also turn off windows transparency.
;------------------- Command Settings -------------------
;	(command "PLANTCONNECTIONMARKER" "1")
;	(command "PLANTINSULATIONDISPLAY" "1")
;	(command "PLANTINSULATIONMODE" "simplifiedPartial")
;	(command "PLANTPLACEHOLDERDISPLAY" "1")
;	(command "PLANTSTEELSETREP" "SHAPE")
	(command "_-SCALELISTEDIT" "_R" "_Y" "_E")
	(command "VIEWRES" "Y" 1000)
;	(command "VSCURRENT" "2dwireframe")

;------------------- 3DCONFIG Settings -------------------
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "A" "on" "4" "Exit"); Turn on adaptive degradation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "D" "off" "Exit"); Turn off dynamic tesselation
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "G" "D" "on" "Exit"); Turn on "Discard Backfaces"
	(command "-GRAPHICSCONFIG" "L" "H" "E" "on" "Exit"); Turn on Hardware Accelleration

;------------------- Plant 3D System Variables -------------------
;	(setvar "PLANTLOCKFADECTL" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTPIPESILHDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTPROPMISMATCHDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTSAVEDETAIL" 0)
;	(setvar "PLANTWELDDISPLAY" 1)

;------------------- AutoCAD System Variables -------------------
	(if (/= (getvar "cipmode") 0) (prompt "\nRun customerinvolvementprogram to disable."))	
	(setvar "DISPSILH" 0)
	(setvar "DRAWORDERCTL" 3)			;speeds up regeneration when switching tilemodes and when regenerating in model space
;	(setvar "DYNMODE" 0)
;	(setvar "DYNTOOLTIPS" 0)
	(setvar "FACETRES" 0.5)
;	(setvar "HPDLGMODE" 1)				;displays hatch/gradient box for items selected in drawing 
	(setvar "HPMAXLINES" 100000)
;	(setvar "HPQUICKPREVIEW" 0)			;disables hatch preview
;	(setvar "INTELLIGENTUPDATE" 1)
;	(setvar "ISAVEPERCENT" 50)
	(setvar "ISOLINES" 6)
;	(setvar "LAYERDLGMODE" 1)				;speeds up loading of layers palette 
;	(setvar "LOGFILEMODE" 0)
;	(setvar "LWDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "MBUTTONPAN" 1)				;middle button brings up snap menu, (set to 1) – middle button is PAN command 
;	(setvar "PICKADD" 2)				;enables subsequent selections when modifying properties
;	(setvar "PICKFIRST" 1)
;	(setvar "PREVIEWEFFECT" 0)
;	(setvar "PREVIEWFILTER" 63)
;	(setvar "QPMODE" 0)							;disables Quick Properties Palette for items selected in the drawing
;	(setvar "ROLLOVERTIPS" 0)						;disables rollover tips 
;	(setvar "RTDISPLAY" 0)
;	(setvar "SAVEFIDELITY" 0)
;	(setvar "SAVETIME" 40)
;	(setvar "SELECTIONCYCLING" 0)			;turns selection cycling/overlapping off
;	(setvar "SELECTIONPREVIEW" 2)			;disables selection previewing
;	(setvar "SHOWLAYERUSAGE" 0)
;	(setvar "SNAPMODE" 0)
;	(setvar "SOLIDCHECK" 1)					;Turns 3D solid validation on and off for the current session.
;	(setvar "SOLIDHIST" 1)
;	(setvar "TEXTQLTY" 50)
;	(setvar "THUMBSIZE" 0)
;	(setvar "TOOLTIPS" 0)
;	(setvar "TREEDEPTH" 3020)					;Turns on spatial indexing. An integer of up to five digits is valid. The first three digits refer to model space, and the remaining two digits refer to paper space.
;	(setvar "UCSDETECT" 0)						;Controls whether dynamic UCS acquisition is active or not
;	(setvar "UOSNAP" 0)							;Determines whether object snapping is active for geometry in DWF, DWFx, PDF, and DGN underlays that are attached to the drawing
;	(setvar "VIEWUPDATEAUTO" 1)					;Controls whether model documentation drawing views are updated automatically when the source model changes
;	(setvar "VSMATERIALMODE" 1)					;Controls the display of materials in the current viewport
;	(setvar "VSSHADOWS" 0)						;Controls whether a visual style displays shadows.
	(setvar "VTENABLE" 0)						;disables smooth view transitions when zooming in/out (makes zooming instantaneous) 
	(setvar "WHIPTHREAD" 3)						;0 - use only a single processor (default), 1 - regen done on multiple CPUs, 2 - redraw done on multiple CPUs, 3 - both regens and redraws done on multiple CPUs

	(princ)
)

[djeffroy]

Thanks very much for the reply. I'm more of an end user and less familiar with the inner workings / configuration side of the software. I work primarily in 2D wireframe. Are there any specific settings that you would determine as being most likely to resolve our issues?

I've attached a quick video where I've tried to demonstrate the choppy routing and snapping behavior where it jumps around.

[jabowabo]

Try turning off SNAPMODE. Other than that I'm not sure what else you should try first.

[h_eger]

Dear @djeffroy ,

Yes, the problem is quickly found the GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card used is NOT supported by AutoCAD and all vertical products.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/certified-graphics-hardware 

[George.Endrulat]

Autodesk put out a performance guide: [pdf] https://forums.autodesk.com/autodesk/attachments/autodesk/371/4330/1/WhitePaper_Performance_Configur...