Settings to make Civil3D faster

[m_kingdon]

Hi all,

I am on a constant quest to make AutoCAD (Civil 3D) run faster on my computer.  As well as the usual hardware requirements and hardware acceleration and whatnot, here are the commands I use to make my AutoCAD run faster:

PLQUIET 1 - disables pointless print warning messages

FILETABTHUMBHOVER 0 - disables drawing hopping when hovering over the drawing tabs

XCOMPAREENABLE 0 - disables that xref compare feature (not useful for me)

LAYEREVALCTL 0 - disables layer reconcile checks (not useful for me)

PROXYNOTICE 0 - disables warnings about proxy objects

I also launch my Civil 3D in High Priority mode using a modified shortcut:

This is the code for the shortcut:

Target: %windir%\system32\cmd.exe /c start "Civil 3D 2021 Metric" /high "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2021\acad.exe" /ld "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2021\\AecBase.dbx" /p "<<C3D_Metric>>" /product "C3D" /language "en-US"

Start in: %windir%\system32

Does anyone else have any tips or commands they use to keep their AutoCAD trim and quick?

***TITLE EDITED FOR CLARITY***

[rkmcswain]

Get the highest STR processor your budget will support. Ignore the core count, since AutoCAD (with very, very minor exception, only uses one core).

Regularly clean your MRU file and folder paths using this tool from @Jeff_M -- I deal with this on a weekly basis, where someone has pointers to something non-existent. Will grind AutoCAD to a halt.

Regularly clean your files (preferably automatically at start up) from all of the known DWG bloat issues, including, but not limited to:

Phantom Parcels
Scale List Entries
Regapps
DGN Linetype Data

[ВeekeeCZ]

Here's a list of mine. Some of those are just annoying, others performance-focused.

If comes to C3D, the biggest impact always has the workflow. 

Also, if you use ACAD as C3D profile a lot and want to make it faster, install the vanilla ACAD too.

- DYNMODE
- SELECTIONEFFECT
- PRESELECTIONEFFECT
- GRIPMULTIFUCTIONAL set 1)
- HPQUICKPREVIEW
- CURSORBADGES
- QUICKPROPERTIES doubleclick at CUI
- ROLLOVERTIPS
- NAVIGATION BAR
- INFOCENTRE
- STARTUP (STARTMODE)
- docking COMMANDLINE
- FILETABTHUMBHOVER
- FILETABPREVIEW

STATUSBARAUTOWRAP OFF ;

[ChicagoLooper]

Make these numbers smaller. The minimum you can go is 0 (zero). The smaller the number, the faster your load time when you fire up the program. (It doesn't affect performance when you are drawing.)

If you work with very large files or if your existing numbers are very high, you'll notice a difference when lowered.

[Anonymous]

Turn off properties tab and only use quick properties. I noticed when my properties tab is on I have lags whenever I click a smart object, i.e. feature lines, assemblies etc.

There are cases where you have to turn properties tab completely on but other than that I don't use it very often.

[m_kingdon]

I have turned off a lot for the sake of speed, but I'm not sure I can manage without the properties box. I don't think it slows down my drawings.

One window that does cause lag is the layers manager! Our template has far too many layers, combine that with a few xrefs and the number of layers the manager has to list becomes ridiculous.

[tony1978]

I typically focus on computer hardware for better performance for my gaming workstation and Alienware gaming laptop . For better performance, I have experience that having a higher end video card definitely helps. Both of workstations have a Nvidia 11 gb video cads. Second, I make sure that when I'm designing, that I dont have 10 dialog boxes open, like some user like to do.  That will definitely hinder some performance. I always tell my users please dont load your second monitor with all your dialog box like properties, layer manager, design center, toolspace, Xref manager, ..etc.  Next, I set a  limit on the number of data reference in my projects. I only use it if I have to, not because I can.  I have seen many projects where drawings took 8 minutes to open bc of data references. The more data references you have in your drawing, the longer it will take to open. I also limit the number of drawing tabs. I never go over 3 drawing tabs. In addition, I also look closely at the number of viewports in one drawing. If you go and create 5 drawing tabs for a street profile, now you have 10 viewports. That's a lot of annotative text C3D has to look at. Next, I never turn on the Graphic Hardware Acceleration feature.  I rarely use the Properties dialog box, I use the quick properties 95% of the tie when editing. These are the major things I look at for better performance specially for 100 acre development projects. 

As you see from everyone's comments, everyone has their own personal preferences for dealing with performance. When I'm doing performance testing I will always time how long it takes C3D to perform a certain task. For example, my home laptop takes 17 seconds to open C3D, while my work gaming station takes 12 seconds to open most of the time. If I clean out the temp folder in Windows, it takes 1 minutes for its first initial opening. 

• Have a good video card
• Limit number of dialog boxes open
• Limit the number of data references
• Limit the number of Xref attachments
• Limit the number of drawing tabs and viewports
• Turn off graphic hardware acceleration 

[acarterX68TW]

Hey everyone!

I'm new to working in the industry, and I'm just wrapping my head around Civil 3D and it's quirks. I'm an Inventor guy myself, but it seems fun.

I'm having some serious issues with the software being terribly slow on my work laptop. It's running Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9850H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz. They recently got me a MSI Optix MAG341CQ monitor which I love. The combo works well for emails etc.

Any suggestions to speed up my learning and software?

[m_kingdon]

Hard to say without more information. Can you define "terribly slow"? What GPU are you using? How big is the drawing you are working in? What tasks are you trying to perform? Are you working via a VPN or network drive?

I currently use Civil 3D 2022 on an i7-7700HQ (which is an older and slower core) and it is very useable.

[acarterX68TW]

Well, yesterday it was being super slow responding in the morning. I would click a point on a tinn surface and it would take a few seconds to apply the click. Then, in the afternoon it started jumping my pan and zoom to ridiculous amounts, despite the zoom factor not being changed. If I flashed the workspace it sometimes went away, but not always.

The file I was working on is only 2.35mb, and it only contains survey figures and a surface. I was simply trying to adjust Description Keys yesterday which shouldn't take much.

My NVIDIA control panel says my PhysX Configuration is a Quadro T200 and the Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 on Auto-select.

[acarterX68TW]

SO, I figured it out. By downloading 2021 it works significantly better. Seems to have solved all my issues with 2022 C3D, and it works well. Thanks for the quick responses!

[rgrainer]

Are you familiar with "LAYERDLGMODE" ? (I think I got that right, cause i don't use that setting except once after installation)
This gives you Classic layer manager, with an OK button to close it. I think with a performance boost as well.

[Beka_Tchigladze]

1- Selection Cycling off

when it is on, software tries to snap everything under the cursor and if you have xfers' or other overlays, software become crazy.

2-Dynamic UCS off

If dynamic ucs is on and you have TIN surface in your model(you always have in civil) even it is NO Display style software tries to align UCS during command to the surface and draw line or other object to that face where cursor is.

maintain this two turned off when you don't need them and you will be happy. 😄

[claimed4all]

One of the greatest changes we made to our ACADDOC.lsp file was adding this line of code.

(command "-layer" "Filter" "Set" "All non-Xref Layers" ""\\)

Whenever you open a file, this sets the layer filter to All Non-xref layers.  This change was a night to day difference in performance, and requires zero user input.   Our template is something like 500 layers, couple that with 5-6 xrefs per project, add in the architects references for spatial awareness and I can easily hit 5k layers in a file.

[bpaulsenRX9ZN]

I know this thread has been quiet for over a year, but another great one to check is: WHIPTHREAD. Here's the breakdown:

a. Setting 0 is the default and uses only a single processor.

b. Setting 1 will distribute the processing of the drawing Regeneration across two processors.

c. Setting 2 will distribute the processing of the Redraw operations across two processors.

d. Setting 3 will distribute the processing of both the drawing Regeneration and Redraw operations across two processors.