Turning Hardware Acceleration Off Permanently

[Anonymous]

I am running AutoCAD Civil 3D 2015 and was wondering if there is a way to permanently turn off the hardware acceleration option. Currently, I end up turning it off each time I open up AutoCAD by using the graphicsconfig command.

Thanks!

[michael_robertson]

You can edit your shortcut properties and add /nohardware to disable hardware acceleration.

[dgorsman]

OK, I'll bite: why would you want to do this?  Are you having issues with your graphics hardware?  Maybe someone can offer a better solution if more details are provided.

This is a very intensive program in both data and graphics, and turning off graphics hardware puts that load on your CPU and system RAM which are already getting squeezed.

[michael_robertson]

I wouldn't suggest doing it, he just asked how.

I have had to use it when I've tested custom plugins I've writen in a virtual machine, but never for production. It was a very specific Windows Version, Virtual Box version, and C3D version that would crash C3D without that /nohardware option.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response. When the hardware acceleration is turned on, the zooming, panning, object selecting, etc. is generally slower and not as smooth as when the acceleration is turned off. The majority of the work I do is in 2D with the exception of surfaces and pipe design.

The virtual device is set at Direct X11. I have tried Direct X9 and had the same results.

[thejac]

We tried setting the device to DirectX 9, and that is when we started having issues where every restart of Civil 3D would re-enable hardware acceleration.  Removing the system variable for DirectX 9 and restarting resolved the issue for us.

Jesse Cook

The Land Group, Inc.

www.thelandgroupinc.com

[Anonymous]

Thanks. Currently, under system variables, I have:
Variable - GS_Device
Value - Dx11
I edited the value when I went back to DirectX11 from DirectX9. Can I delete this system variable, since I created a new variable to test the DirectX9?

[dgorsman]

Ah, that.  You're probably sitting at an unfortunate confluence of events - DirectX version vs. hardware, auto-selecting video card vs. on-chip video hardware, AutoCAD interface vs. video card driver.  Even if you stamp out one problem (DirectX version) you may have to deal with another.  Switching it off isn't the best solution but is the quickest.  If your video card is a couple of generations out of date (things move *really* fast in the video hardware world), it might make sense to start looking for something a little newer.

[thejac · Accepted solution]

You don't need the variable there for DirectX 11.  So you need to remove the variable and reboot, then you should be back to DirectX 11 and if you turn off hardware accelleration, close, then re-open, it will stay off.

[Anonymous]

That solved it! Thanks so much.