MText Slow in 2017

[jmartt]

I wonder if anyone else is experiencing this and if there are any other solutions:

I noticed MText was slow to create, and especially to edit, in C3D 2017. After trying everything I could find online as a solution, I tried changing the MTEXTED sysvar to OLDEDITOR and that worked. I experience no lag now.

But I don't like the old editor.

After exhaustive trials where I attempted to pinpoint what, exactly, was causing this slowdown, I concluded that it was something to do with my template. There were too many settings, add-ons, purges and things that I tried, to list them here, but when I use the ootb template in 2017, I see no slowdown with MText using the regular, "INTERNAL", MTEXTED. So, I did a test on the template.

I had copied my 2016 template for use in 2017 and had improved upon it a bit, but I had kept the old one that I was using in 2016. When I loaded the old 2016 template onto C3D 2017, I experienced the MTEXT slowdown...Just the same as I had with the newer 2017 template. But when I loaded the 2016 template onto C3D 2016, I experienced no slowdown. (All these tests were done with the "internal" MTEXTED setting, not using the old editor.) 

So, I must conclude that, while it may be something with my template that is causing this MTEXT slowdown, it definitely is only when I use the template in C3D 2017. Does anyone have any idea of what changed between the versions that might cause this?

If someone has an idea, and wants the template to check, I'll etransmit it to you.

Thanks.

[rl_jackson]

Check hardware acceleration see if an on / off situation helps

[jmartt]

Thanks for your suggestion. I had tried that. It made no difference.

I don't think it would be a graphic card or RAM issue. I'm using an nVidia Quadro M5000 with 8GB memory and an Intel Xeon E5-1650, v.3, 3.5 GHz, 6-core CPU with 128GB RAM. (I think that's pretty good. I'm not a hardware guy.)

I had also tried selecting to exclude multiline text in the visual effect settings under the Selection tab of Options. No difference there, either.

Frustrating.

[jmartt]

I've discovered that I can't edit text that was made with the new Mtext editor (Mtexted="internal") with the old (Mtexted="oldeditor") editor.

So. If I'm forced to use the old editor because of the time the new one is robbing from me, I at least want a toggle switch to go back-and-forth between an Mtext editor that is useless to edit anything that I've created in the past year and the one that takes forever.

I tried this:

^C^C$M=$(if,$(=,$(getvar,mtexted),oldeditor),mtexted;internal;;,mtexted;oldeditor;;)

which I thought would work like this does:

^C^C$M=$(if,$(=,$(getvar,osnapz),1),osnapz;0;;,osnapz;1;;)

But it doesn't. The first time I attempted to use it, I crashed. The second time, the command line just returned "ADCENTER", but trying it again just now, I crashed again.

I'm not very good with the programming. Can anyone help me with this?

Maybe I should just revert back to 2016, where the MTEXTED="internal" editor worked fine. But I want to Dref corridors and attach assemblies to feature lines. And, y'know, use the newest stuff.

[Jeff_M]

Hey @jmartt, send me your dwt and I'll have a look. I'm able to create & edit Mtext in new drawings, old drawings, other user's drawings, without any slowness.

[jmartt · Accepted solution]

Thanks, y'all, for the help.

I found it: I had "trusted locations" pointed at specific files on my server. I never thought to look there because I didn't think CAD paid any attention to the folders, except as a check for, you know, trusted locations. When I removed all the pointers that looked at the server, Mtext immediately sped back up.

Interestingly, when I then added to the trusted locations "X:\Civil 3D\...", which was where all the previous trusted locations were pointed to; just in certain files within that folder, Mtext remained fast. (Thanks to @neilyj666j for a post where I learned that the "..." worked. http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-general/c3d-2015-trusted-file-locations/td-p/5449197)

Sincerely hope this helps someone. Bad couple of days.

[jmartt]

Update: The slowness returned. I took all mention of files on the server off both the support and trusted location paths but it still slows Mtext way down. 

Also, the plot dialog box is super slow and doesn't "build" all the way until I move my cursor around it.

Also, the inquiry tool for profiles doesn't "build" all the way, either.

Also, 2017 will apparently crash on me if I give up, decide to go back to 2016 (until at least 2017 SP1 comes out), and try to export drawings back to 2013 format. Now I'm stuck with all these 2017 drawings I can't revert back and use on 2016.

Dammit.

[Anonymous]

Your not alone in this, I have noticed that it will show up in my larger files mostly(but not al of time), and not so much with my smaller files.

Going through and following all of the above steps are fine and a very smart idea, however it is not the fix to this issue.

I can offer a quick "work-a-round" for you though.

Paste in text from your clipboard, you can simply copy text on your command line and then paste it into the drawing.

Not a fix I know, but it is WAY faster then then using the Mtext command.

Autodesk, how about it? got anything on this issue?

Hoping it will be fixed with the 2018 products. 

[jmartt]

rrien07, I'm not experiencing any problems whatsoever at this time with MText.

I do wish I had dropped a post on here to document what it was, exactly, that fixed it, as I don't remember for certain now.

Jeff may have helped me, as I see he asked for my template. But I think the fix may have been installing SP1.1.

I have nothing at all pointing at the server now, however. I'm sold on that, whether that had something to do with fixing this problem or not. I'm now way faster overall.

[lstarbird]

---

@Jeff_M wrote:

Hey @jmartt, send me your dwt and I'll have a look. I'm able to create & edit Mtext in new drawings, old drawings, other user's drawings, without any slowness.

---

Howdy Jeff,

Since the OP didn't post the fix & we're running into the same issue, would you mind looking at our DWT as well?

Thanks a bunch!

[dleard]

Has anyone found a fix for this MTEXT slowness in C3D 2017?  I've been fighting it for a couple days now and am totally frustrated.  Click MTEXT, type, click close editor and wait 1 minute 48 seconds before I can do ANYTHING else.  I'm working with very large C3D files as it is and this is just maddening.

[lstarbird]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Has anyone found a fix for this MTEXT slowness in C3D 2017?  I've been fighting it for a couple days now and am totally frustrated.  Click MTEXT, type, click close editor and wait 1 minute 48 seconds before I can do ANYTHING else.  I'm working with very large C3D files as it is and this is just maddening.

---

Just curious, how many annotation objects do you have in this drawing?  Also, are you using label styles?  Our AD reseller says that the dynamic properties of C3D labels make them more bloated.  Once we get to about 300+ in one drawing, it take 5 seconds until the MTEXT object will show up on screen.  The more we have, the slower it gets.

Have the DWG local or on the network does not make a difference.  Also it doesn't matter if the DWG was started from our template or an OOTB one.

Since this really only affects our Mapping department & they were able to live without dynamic labels in the past, we're considering moving their labeling workflow to plain ol' AutoCAD.

[lstarbird]

---

@Jeff_M wrote:

Hey @jmartt, send me your dwt and I'll have a look. I'm able to create & edit Mtext in new drawings, old drawings, other user's drawings, without any slowness.

---

Jeff, Just curious if you remember what the fix was?  Did you find something in the template?  If so, how did you locate & resolve it?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I was just going to suggest that you do your labeling in plan AutoCAD, Ref. in your Civil 3D data, it may be a pain but it does work faster.

I have a lot of labels like you said, around that same amount or more and sometimes just a few, as you know, it really just depends on the drawings I am producing at the time.

Details vs. Production Plans sheets.

My files are not like most designers drawings, I work on massive grading projects presently, moving 200 to 300 billion metric tons of rock and materials.

So comparing my file just would not be fair, but your reseller would not know this. They are correct in their statement about the C3D notes do get fat, this is why I never use them, plus I find them to clumsy to use personally. I use leaders and mtext for all my labeling with background masking. About the only C3D labels I do use are the slope, contours, and Spot, property and line labels. (Survey Point data do not count as labels here).

I do use a lot of Attributes in my plan production because I am using Sheet Set Manager (SSM) the sheets are where I have found the errors occur most often, not my smaller block callout labels.

What I did do and so far it has work was to completely rebuild my Title Sheet Block, I clear all of the extra stuff, reassigned all of the attributes in the order I wanted to see them and also I removed my extra hidden sheet from the block.

I cannot say that this fixed the problem, but so far in all of the 40 sheets I have made sense; not one has screwed up and when I did resync (attsync) the block I have not lost any of my filled out data.

I you would like my title block let me know, I will be happy to share it, it is a 1/2 scaled 34X22 sheet, when plotting 11x17 on the printer.

Just shoot me a private email and I will send it out.

The network here at my clients office has to be one of the fastest I have ever had the opportunity to work on, I pull my files straight from the server daily without any issues. Although I will do my massive Grading on my local HD just for speed only, it takes long enough and I do not want to slow the rest of the office down by taking over the network processing data.

I use the Data Short Cuts like made and even have been taking advantage of the new Folders option in 2017, really helps people coming in behind me to know where to find the data they need. 

[lstarbird]

Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but we've been solely in C3D for so long, would we still have a way to achieve the following if we did our other annotations in ACAD?

1. label lines and curves (We currently label lines using “line between two points” and curves by selecting the object that are live in the drawing)
2. Insert, move, and export points...or would this portion still be handled in C3D?
3. See survey figures (C3D generated topographic linework).  Would we just need an C3D OE for ACAD?
4. Would we still continue to process topos and generate the linework in C3D?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

First there is never a dumb question, some one is always thinking it too.

I would and do use C3D for "auto labeling" it would be silly not to, this is part of the intelligence of the application and it would be completely lost if you dumb down the files and remove the C3D portion of the drawing file(s).

However with that said, what I will do on "occasion" because of the size of my file(s); is that I will make a "dumb" copy by exporting the file(s) out my C3D file(s) so that I can reference them into my production sheet sets, I do NOT work on these "DUMB" file ever; I am only using them as a background image so to speak.

Then in the production sheet set files I will use mtext for my simple callouts, (Property LIne, Site Location, Chain Link Fence, etc.) these types of callouts would normally be placed using Mtext or a leader, I do not use the C3D Note for these types of labels. I will also use attribute blocks for details/note callouts.

Your questions: (my comments in red).

1. label lines and curves (We currently label lines using “line between two points” and curves by selecting the object that are live in the drawing) (Use C3D)
2. Insert, move, and export points...or would this portion still be handled in C3D? (Yes, stay in C3D)
3. See survey figures (C3D generated topographic linework).  Would we just need an C3D OE for ACAD? (I use both, and would use both in your case as well)
4. Would we still continue to process topos and generate the linework in C3D? (Yes, this is why you purchased C3D, AutoCAD will not process topo by it's self).

We seem to be getting a little off the original topic of slow Mtext, but just to be clear my posts are what I do to help improve my speed of my PC, not all PC's have the same configuration or software or networks, these steps help me and I know that if someone else has the same issues it will help them as well.

Creating a clean DWG file that has very few layers, and objects will speed up a production drawing file when referenced into it.

Just look at the file size of the C3D exported file vs. the original C3D file, there will be a major size difference.

Does this involve more steps, absolutely it does, but you can always start by using the C3D drawing as the xref'd file and then switch when appropriate.

Exporting out dumb files is what Caltrans is doing for their drafters. All design is done in C3D, then exported out to Microstation DGN file format where the drafting side takes place. They do not ever touch the linework or design data on the Microstation site any longer, if there is a design change the designer will make the change in C3D and then once more export it back out to DGN for drafting labeling.

Hope that this answered your question. 

[jmartt]

I'm kicking myself (though not as hard as you would, prob), for not posting the Thing That Fixed This immediately.
I did mention it above, but maybe worth it to ask: are y'all that are having this problem using Sp1.1, having installed that update after completely uninstalling Sp1?

That's really all I can think of. My apologies for not being more vigilant.

[Anonymous]

SP 1.1 myself

[lstarbird]

Thanks for the extremely helpful response!

I don't mean to get off topic, but where we're seeing the slow down is in DWGs with a lot (~300+) of C3D labels.  The speed of C3D labels do not seem to be affected by the amount of labels.  But when we add or edit MTEXT in DWGs with a lot of C3D labels, MTEXT is painfully slow...3 seconds or more to show up on screen.

This happens regardless if:

1. our DWG was started from a OOTB template or our own
2. the DWG is local or on the network
3. we're using an OOTB C3D configuration or our own customizations

We're on C3D 2016 SP4.

[lstarbird]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

SP 1.1 myself

---

For kicks, I'll work on setting up a workstation with C3D 2017 & SP1.1 for testing & will follow-up with our findings.