Civil 3D 2017 - Poor Performance

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

I just got a new home computer for freelance drafting. I 'm currently at the tail end of my 1 month free trial of Civil 3D 2017. I am experiencing frustrating slow-downs, hang-ups, and poor performance compared to what I'm used to from my last job at an engineering consultant company.  Computer specs as follows:

- Windows 10

- Intel i7-6700 - Quad-core @ 3.40GHz

- 2x8 gig Ram (DDR4 2133)

- 240 SSD

- Asus Z170 Motherboard

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB

I hope this is enough information - not really a computer guy but I've been learning a lot as of late!

Im experiance random hang-ups (5 to 30 seconds) quite regualarly - with commands you would think would be an issue (polyline, circle, rectangle, join) not just the usual hatch or xref. It took an hour to plot a pdf of 6 dwgs from a sheetset today. Opening dwgs takes around 1 - 5 minutes. Just all-round poor performance.

Here's a list of tweaks I've performed to date:

- Disable Hyperthreading

- ensure program running with admin permissions

- All files located on local drive

- disconnected virus protection

- ensure work drives are trusted locations

- x-clip large base dwgs

- purge and audit all dwgs

- disable graphic acceleration 

- update all drivers

- Set computer to run in high performance mode (in the BIOS)

- switch layout regen options to  "cache podel tab and all layouts"

I know that this computer build does not fully conform to the "approved hardware" parameters for civil 3D but I wanted a machine capable of video editing and 3D rendering (as I hope to get into 3D MAX and animations in the future).

My questions to the experts are:

1) Is this machine capable of running Civil 3D even though it hovers on the gaming side of PC builds or

2) Should I exchange this computer for a proper "workstation" with approved hardware (civil 3D is my main source of income right now) or

3) Are there upgrades I could try to further tweak the system for Civil 3D (I've read many experts suggesting a larger SSD drive?)

I would really appreciate any thoughts on this - thanks for your time!

Please let me know if there is any missing information required to fully understand my issues. 

[Jeff_M]

Have you installed the Service Packs for AutoCAD 2017 and Civil3D 2017? The Autodesk Desktop App should have these shown as being available. After installing them, open, save, close each drawing, the next time you open them they should exhibit better speed and fewer issues.

[dgorsman]

- Disable hyperthreading

... why???

- turn off hardware acceleration

... turn it back on.  That's NOT intended as a permanent fix.  Turning it off is a diagnostic procedure to see if performance improves; if so, that's a good indicator there's a problem with the graphics system like drivers not installed properly or on-chip GPU hardware getting in the way.

Its not just the hardware though - there's various settings (such as automatically generating annotatively scaled layers).  You might try posting a typical file you're having problems with.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jeff

All service pack are up to date - according to the desktop app anyways.

[Anonymous]

I'm having the exact same issues. Especially if I'm in the layout tab, trying to do ANYTHING in model space. If I'm in my base drawing file, it seems to be ok. If I'm in one of my sheet set up drawings, with the base xref'd into it, the time it takes to do anything at all is just insane. I've done everything I know to do to my drawings, just as you have, to no avail. I avoid working in the layout tab as much as humanly possible but sometimes it can't be avoided for plan production sheets. I'm regretting starting this project in 2017, I didn't have these issues in 2016.

Jennifer Cholousky

Drafting Dept Supervisor

MWC Engr

[Anonymous]

I am having a similar issue with what seems to be reduced performance from previous versions? I'm processing an import from Infraworks 360 (a very large one, 1.7 GB .imx file) and I am watching the performance tab on Windows Task Manager.

What I used to see in Civil 3D 2016 was

*one core firing on full throttle
*~16GB RAM being used

Now with Civiil 3D 2017

*Multi-cores used, maxing out at about 25% usage

*no more than 7GB RAM being used

I'm running a workstation replacement laptop,  HP zBook with 32GB of RAM and intel Core i7-4800MQ @ 2.7GHz on Windows 7.  

This laptop used to out perform a workstation with an 8 core processor in it threaded to 16 because I had tweaked it to use more RAM and the single core clock speed was quicker.

Where is the bottle neck for Civil 3D 2017?  What else can be tried to increase performance?

[Anonymous]

Try this, type in WHIPTHREAD. By default, it is set to 1. Set it to 3.This will enable Regeneration and redraw multithreaded processing; regeneration and redraw processing is distributed across two processors on a multiprocessor machine.

Jennifer Nolen Cholousky
Drafting Dept. Supervisor

Mickle Wagner Coleman, Inc.
3434 Country Club Avenue
Fort Smith, Arkansas 72903
Phone: 479-649-8484
Fax: 479-649-8486
jcholousky@mwc-engr.com

[Anonymous]

Thanks, That's one change I had forgotten about.  I tried it out with a smaller model and it didn't change anything for the import process. Interestingly the RAM is still sat at about 7GB.

[nwray]

One thing I did not see mentioned was the temp files.  Some Civil 3D processes (like building and using surfaces) can make really large temp files, and clearing these out periodically can make a difference.

When I switched to an SSD, that made a really noticeable difference in most of my performance issues, but it looks like you already have that.  The other think that I can think of is that most CAD processes are single threaded and are run on the main CPU (only certain tasks go to the 3D card).  Having a faster CPU, even with less cores, will usually work better for CAD processes.

[tcorey]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

....Here's a list of tweaks I've performed to date:

....- x-clip large base dwgs....

---

This only helps if you have opened the xref'd drawing and set INDEXCTL to either 2 or 3. 3 is better because then it also create a layer index. This is a drawing setting that needs to be set in each drawing that will become an xref.

Be sure XLOADCTL is set to either 1 or 2. In an office environment with multiple users, 2 is best because others can still edit xrefs you have attached to an open drawing. This is a system setting, so it only needs to be set one time.

Also, VISRETAIN = 1.

[Anonymous]

I have a simialar issue. My C3D 2017 hangs up when opening. You go to launch it and it hangs for about 3 mintues or so then i get a warning, hit ok and C3D just hangs. I have done the performance hotfix but that does not seem to work like some people say that it does. There has got to be something else that can be done to fix this issue. I can't even get into anything as i do not have any ribbons or menus to get into. Any suggestion???

[M_c3d]

Set

• startup 0
• startmode 0

this should fix the startup issues