Multicore processors (MORE 2 cores)- C3D peer support

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

crazy to me that I'm coming to the forums to see if anything is being done in this regard - 6 YEARS LATER.

Seems CAD has started to multicore/thread some of their new processes but refuses to attempt to make old CAD work on any modern computing power

@jwilliamsZRQUC - moderation edited title for clarity.

[pendean]

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@jwilliamsZRQUC wrote:

crazy to me that I'm coming to the forums to see if anything is being done in this regard - 6 YEARS LATER...

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AutoCAD's core is 40-years-old. It is what it is today in the year 2025. Autodesk has repeatedly stated their are not going to rewrite the core anytime soon, just tweak it within limits. There is nothing you can do much about it as an end user and no one working for Autodesk is going to share information you cannot find in a websearch yourself today. Sorry.

If this is a dire business need, consider other software offerings from Autodesk or other software vendors that meet with your expectations.

Best wishes.

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

It boggles my mind the AutoCAD isn't being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of modern computing power.  Maybe AutoDesk is waiting for the next big leap in processing?

What other software needs does AutoDesk provide that would work for Land Development other than Civil3D?

Is it unreasonable to think a company with the base AutoCAD software supporting the largest portion of their user base would actually update to modern tech?  I know Solidworks, alone, takes the cake on market share, but doesn't AutoCAD based programs take the cake over Solidworks?

I suspect AutoDesk doesn't because the only competition is MicroStation which already does MultiCore but too many of us don't like change so we continue with CAD even if life might be better on Bentley.

[dan908]

Yes, AutoCAD multi‐threading focuses on specific areas like publish,  hatch, and 3d.

If you are on the newest versions you no longer need the sysvars to see the new graphics. High CPU power on base (not just turbo) is usually the best solution.

[pendean]

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@jwilliamsZRQUC wrote:

It boggles my mind the AutoCAD isn't being rewritten...

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Never going to happen: they claim the installed user base is too massive to take the risk. You could come up with a $1B, buy a seat on the board, and push from there: that seem more realistic way to get it.

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@jwilliamsZRQUC wrote:

...What other software needs does AutoDesk provide that would work for Land Development other than Civil3D?...

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Ask in the C3D forum if that alternate you listed is not it. But if you own the market, are you really incentivized to spend any money? No one does that.

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@jwilliamsZRQUC wrote:

..Is it unreasonable to think a company with the base AutoCAD software ....

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Not really, see my reply to at the very top here and ho to change it and your guess at the bottom of your reply.

Thanks for the mid-day break 🙂

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

I mean that's my point.

Call it something different.  We went from CAD to AutoCAD, something called LDD? to CAD

Why does AutoDesk think they should switch to AutoCAD MultiThread? and charge more for it.

Maybe I will buy 51% of the shares and join the board - it's probably not much money anyways

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

Are you able to tell us what features do take advantage of new computer processing?

I've hear synchronizing civil3d features uses extra cores (pipe networks, surfaces, alignments, etc)

I'm frustrated because CAD has been crashing multiple times in the last week. Short of installing 2025 all updates are installed, reset to default, all suggestions applied- no other programs have this issue.

Arguably CAD is the hungriest of the programs, I use,  but we're not even hitting RAM limits or processing limits - most likely because I'm running an audit to figure out if I just have a crappy drawing and we're barely touching the abilities of this computer

Is there any CAD settings that can make better use of my hardware?

[Brock_Olly]

Just wanted to say I use autocad daily and I never crash, are your files either huge or corrupted in some way?

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

They are sizable.  Normally 150MB to 325MB base drawings: 3-4 surfaces, multiple pipe networks, alignments, profiles

Land Development for 800+ homes 

I did have 2 days of no crashing.  And it's not normally a typical crash where you get the Reporting window - it's catastrophic: the program just goes poof - gone

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

someone from AutoDesk moved this post here and added the "Re: ..."

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

your moderated title makes about as much sense as the program not taking advantage of multicores - are you claiming it uses CAD does use 2 cores?

Cause I just checked and the cheapest computer I can buy from Best Buy that's not refurbished is 4 cores - we've been asking for more cores for years and Autodesk hasn't barely budged.

[dan908]

Unfortunately, I'm on vacation currently so I can't look up your crash, but contact support through manage.autodesk.com and they can look up your crash report. At least then they can tell you what is going on with the drawing.

[m_kingdon]

From what I read, the fundamental way AutoCAD works does not translate well to multicore.  Something to do with numbers and delegating calculations to be done over multiple cores just makes the process harder or something on those lines.  Similar to how quantum computers aren’t a direct replacement to traditional computers.  I think AutoDesk will continue to strap on extra subapplications that are more modern and multithread friendly onto AutoCAD rather than change the core application.  For example, the Grading Optimizer and Project Explorer are new features that I believe are applications invoked by AutoCAD rather than part of it.

[jwilliamsZRQUC]

It does seem from the red 13 circle you know far more than most of us and I should probably learn to bit my tongue on how terrible CAD sometimes is.

It's because of the crashes and hangups running recoveries, etc that I have time to come to the forums and look for solutions but rarely do I find any.

[steve_lozano]

Hi, I was doing some research and came across your post. This is just my personal opinion, your rig looks more like a gaming system than use for CAD. I would recommend an Intel, while I do like AMD, I have a bad taste for AMD due to early in development using AMD processors with CAD. AMD had a problem with floating point errors with their math co-processors and even though this was years ago, I still do not fully trust AMD with CAD. This is why I always select an Intel processor. 64gb RAM is a great start specially for Civil 3D. Also, do no use a Geforce graphics card, while they seem to be fine, you will benefit more from the professional series Nvidia card. I would recommend a mid-range card line the RTX A4000. You can get a complete system as describe for under $3,000 currently. I do like that 10gb interface, wow, very nice. Image below is a little higher, price will fluctuate with the market. Good luck, hope this helps.

[Cadguru42]

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@jwilliamsZRQUC wrote:

They are sizable.  Normally 150MB to 325MB base drawings: 3-4 surfaces, multiple pipe networks, alignments, profiles

Land Development for 800+ homes 

I did have 2 days of no crashing.  And it's not normally a typical crash where you get the Reporting window - it's catastrophic: the program just goes poof - gone

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Those drawings seem excessively large. I'm working on a 12 mile long water transmission main project and our surface file is only 48MB. I worked on a very large airport terminal project where we had 10s of thousands of feet of potable water, reclaimed water, sanitary, force mail, and storm. We separated each utility into its own drawing, i.e., a water DWG, a sanitary DWG, etc. The largest one was the water and it was 14MB in size. 

It sounds like you need to use a better project setup. Separate each type of major civil object into its own data shortcut source drawing. I.e, an alignment & profile drawing, an existing surface drawing, existing utilities (separated if lots need to be modeled), proposed corridor, proposed utilities (separated if lots of piping), etc. Use data shortcuts and everything will run very smooth even with large projects. You can also split these files into smaller ones if you're still having issues or need multiple people working on the drawings.