Civil 3d performance

[alexRR6ZB]

I'm working on a project all the modelling went quite well. Generating drawings however has been terrible. switching tabs takes a frustrating amount of time. Doing anything in a layout tab is just awful. I only have four layouts. My last project was larger and I had much less trouble.

I can see in the task manager that the program is "not responding" for several seconds. CPU is only around 20% and power usage is "very High".

This has been frustrating me for a couple days now. I don't think I've done anything very different than before.

Any help would be much appreciated,

thanks in advance

2020.6.1

[Neilw_05]

There can be many reasons you have problems. Without a file it is impossible to diagnose. All I can offer is some troubleshooting ideas.

Make a copy of the file and start removing objects until you see improvements. Start by purging everything you can, including regapps (look it up). Use QSELECtT and see if there are unexpected objects in the list of objects it finds. Watch for large changes in the file size as you remove objects. Likely your file size is very large which is a symptom of poor performance. Turn on frozen and off layers to ensure you don't overlook invisible objects. Detach all xrefs and images. Delete layouts, etc. This should get you thinking of other ideas.

[alexRR6ZB]

Thanks for the response Neil.

I don't think the file is very large. About 6.5 MB.
-i purged all unused objects and all regapps
-removed every xref.

I don't quite understand how qselect will help. maybe you could clarify.

I've stripped a bunch of stuff out and its still very slow. Maybe I just have too many viewports. some of them have different coordinate systems too.

I found that setting LayoutRegenCtl=2 might be exactly what I need.

[alexRR6ZB]

i was wrong. performance is still terrible.

[brburklund]

I am experiencing the same thing from Acad. It has performed much worse these last few months. 

[alexRR6ZB]

Perhaps its relevant that very recently I updated to 2020.6.1

not sure what it was before that

[Neilw_05]

I took a look at your file and did some basic troubleshooting. I checked for unusual fonts in the text styles, problems with the title blocks and a few others. Then I started erasing viewports and once they are removed the issue stops. In the process I found you have duplicate viewports around the general notes at the bottom of the sheets. Fixing that doesn't make much difference.

I don't have time to investigate further. One suggestion is to create blocks for the static maps that you have on the sidebar of the sheets and insert them in paperspace vs. using viewports. Same for the scale bars. If I had more time I would start looking at the labels, then the profile views, then the pipe pressure pipe networks, erasing them to see how it affects performance.

[Neilw_05]

One more issue to note: when you zoom extents in Model Space it zooms way out. That indicates there may be something that shouldn't be there. Try ERASE ALL then unselect all your model objects with a NON-CROSSING window and see if it gets rid of something you don't want. You will know it if ZOOM Extents refocuses on your model objects. I would investigate that. Then purge any blocks that might have been erased.

PS: do this with all live layers THAWED and ON.

Also check the list of blocks that are not purgeable to see if there are any that shouldn't be there.

[alexRR6ZB]

thanks so much for taking the time to check this out Neil. I'll take you notes and investigate further.

cheers

[alexRR6ZB]

when I attempt this it deletes things from prospector that are not visible on screen such as profiles of curb return alignments

[Neilw_05]

Hopefully you are working in a copy of your file. See which objects got removed and investigate why they got erased. Isolate them with the Isolate tool, repeat the Erase All/Un-Select procedure to see what is happening. Also try a CROSSING window to Un-Select when doing Erase All. There is a possibility you will also unselect the bad objects this way as well.

[Neilw_05]

Another troubleshooting tip: If you have narrowed down a model space problem, erase the layouts and other unrelated objects to improve performance. Once you have found the problems, you can go back to a fresh copy and fix it there, noting any performance gains with the layouts intact.

[Neilw_05]

There may be known issues with certain updates. Maybe file a support request.

[Neilw_05]

I spent some time last evening doing some troubleshooting and I cannot find any single culprit that is causing the problem. Now I am suspecting it may be something on a more fundamental level with the software. At this point I would submit a support request. Autodesk may have the answer. Please unmark my suggestions as a solution since we have not solved the problem. If others see it is not solved they may have a look to see what is going on.

[alexRR6ZB]

thanks Neil. I'll submit a support request as you've suggested.