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Thread: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

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  1. #1
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    Default Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    I am CONSTANTLY getting complaints about AutoCAD performance at our office. I get users working on files over the LAN complaining that AutoCAD is RANDOMLY performing poorly, there is hesitation modifying objects with grips, hesitation when entering commands, the cursor skips all over the screen, etc... I am hoping to get some experienced input...

    Our firm consists of 8 offices. We communicate over the WAN through riverbed steelheads. I do not think the WAN has anything to do with our problem. We have about 60 AutoCAD/AutoCAD MEP/Civil 3D users, 30 Revit users, and 30 MicroStation users. The majority of our project files are stored on a server in our main office. In addition to the AutoCAD, Revit, and MicroStation project files, the server is also used as a dumping ground for user and department files (of all sorts). Each of our offices has it's own server, which some regionally specific projects get stored. I would say ~80% of our project files get stored on the main office server. We have another server at the main office which we house our license managers. Another server at the main office houses the support files for the CAD programs.

    I've spent weeks searching online for AutoCAD performance, I've tried everything I can that I've found, nothing makes a sure difference.

    I was talking to a network guy (at another company) the other day, and he said there may just be too much traffic for one server to handle. Could this be the case? If so how do other firms break up where/how their project files are stored?

    Even though we've had performance issues with AutoCAD 2008 products, AutoCAD 2011 products seem to be worse off.

    Are my users just expecting too much from AutoCAD???

    Thanks.

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    I have had problems like the ones you are describing in the past and it turned out that if I turned off all of the snaps that required a calculation to be made by the program things started moving again....try running autocad with just Endpoint, Midpoint, Center and Quadrant snaps on. The users can type the snaps in that aren't selected.

    Another thing that I have noticed is that having too many saved layer states can cause problems, there are tools to delete layer states if you search the forum.

    Lastly, if you have support files that reference the network then localize them, including automatic save paths.

    I'm sure there are other things to try but those are what pop to mind.

    Good luck,
    Jason

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Quote Originally Posted by dwahl View Post
    I am CONSTANTLY getting complaints about AutoCAD performance at our office. I get users working on files over the LAN complaining that AutoCAD is RANDOMLY performing poorly, there is hesitation modifying objects with grips, hesitation when entering commands, the cursor skips all over the screen, etc... I am hoping to get some experienced input...

    Our firm consists of 8 offices. We communicate over the WAN through riverbed steelheads. I do not think the WAN has anything to do with our problem. We have about 60 AutoCAD/AutoCAD MEP/Civil 3D users, 30 Revit users, and 30 MicroStation users. The majority of our project files are stored on a server in our main office. In addition to the AutoCAD, Revit, and MicroStation project files, the server is also used as a dumping ground for user and department files (of all sorts). Each of our offices has it's own server, which some regionally specific projects get stored. I would say ~80% of our project files get stored on the main office server. We have another server at the main office which we house our license managers. Another server at the main office houses the support files for the CAD programs.

    I've spent weeks searching online for AutoCAD performance, I've tried everything I can that I've found, nothing makes a sure difference.

    I was talking to a network guy (at another company) the other day, and he said there may just be too much traffic for one server to handle. Could this be the case? If so how do other firms break up where/how their project files are stored?

    Even though we've had performance issues with AutoCAD 2008 products, AutoCAD 2011 products seem to be worse off.

    Are my users just expecting too much from AutoCAD???
    I take it you store all the licences on one server? If so why don’t you spread them about across the offices we had a few problems where I work. Previously people were having a few problems being able to gain a licence due to the network timing out; we overcome this by spreading the licences cross the offices.

    Have you tried the Performance Monitor tool you can get from Autodesk Labs, see attached link?
    http://labs.autodesk.com/utilities/acad_perf_mon/.

    What sort of specification are the machines you’re running? We are running AutoCAD 2010 and Revit Structure 2010 and seams to run ok on most machines.

    I have found that when your running AutoCAD, don’t have the layer manager open all the time I slows CAD down. If you do switch off the status column that slows it down again. Even simply closing AutoCAD down and restarting it every now and then helps.

    Gareth

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Thank you for your responses Jason and Gareth.

    To give you an idea of things I've tried from searching this issue online, I've tried the following:

    - Updated graphics driver, set graphics acceleration to hardware graphics
    - disabled SNAPS (not OSNAP)
    - set SORTENTS=0
    - set SELECTIONCYCLING=0
    - set TOOLTIPS=0
    - set HYPERLINKOPTIONS=No
    - set ROLLOVERTIPS=0
    - set HPQUICKPREVIEW=0
    - set QPMODE=0
    - set SHOWLAYERUSAGE=0
    - set NAVVCUBEDISPLAY=1
    - set TRANSPARENCYDISPLAY=0
    - set ISAVEPERCENT=50
    - set LAYERDLGMODE=0
    - set LIMCHECK=0
    - In Vista, I have disabled the Aero display by setting the display to Vista Basic
    - In Vista, I have disabled auto tuning
    - Turned off Digital Signatures

    Our machines are Dell Precision Workstations with 64-bit Vista SP2, Xeon dual core processors with at least 2.5 GHz, 6GB of RAM, and NVIDIA Quadro FX video cards.

    I had not tried that performance monitor, I will take a look at that and put it on a few user's machines

    We at one point had redundant license servers for our Autodesk products, but that turned out to be a NIGHTMARE, so we changed it back to have all our licenses back on one server again.

    We do have our support files on the network. I will try to make a local copy for one of my users to try, but I don't think that is going to help. One of my users was copying his working file localy for a few days, when he did this, he had NO problems, when he went back to work on the files stored on the network, he ran into issues again.

    We have recently tried excluding .dwg, .dwl, and .dwl2 extensions from our workstation virus scans, but this has not appeared to make a difference either.

    It feels as if the problem is with the working files on the network...

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    The machines you’re currently running a good spec, so I would say it’s not the machines that’s causing the problem.

    Do you delete all the .bak files every day? I know we had a few problems here as they fill up the servers as the file size is the same as the drawing.

    I know it’s probably a long short but why don’t you try and search on “YouTube” , I know Autodesk have a put loads of videos on there. I have seen something related to network licences.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyqjlttjDLg

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Thanks again Gareth! Could network license connection cause poor performance when already in and working in AutoCAD??

    Theoretically is I have one of my users borrow a license, that should eliminate any license manager interaction, right? I may give that a quick try...

    I'll take a look into the licensing a bit further. I don't know if the link you provided was suppose to go somewhere specifically in youtube, but it did not appear to work, I just got a blank page. I'll dig around on Youtube though and see what i can find.

    Thanks again for your time and suggestions.

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Quote Originally Posted by dwahl View Post
    Could network license connection cause poor performance when already in and working in AutoCAD??
    AutoCAD checks for a licence every few seconds so, yes.

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Dwahl, sounds like your Steelhead devices are not doing their job. My firm uses these devices and sometimes their buffer is exceeded and they stop optimizing network traffic and fail over to bypass mode. The problems you describe is exactly what happens on my systems when a Steelhead has a fault. Remember, you have to have a Steelhead at both ends of your connection and both devices must be working properly. Also be sure to disable digital signatures, this Autodesk feature kills WAN response times and defeats the Steelhead solution.

    You may want to visit the Riverbed web site and search for AutoCAD or DWG performance issues. Good luck.

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Don't forget "Hardware Accelerator" ON. Makes a big difference.

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    Default Re: Network causing AutoCAD performance issues?

    Maybe this could help?

    http://www.networknet.nl/apps/wp/archives/647

    Bob


    Edit: Oops. Just read mike.stokes reply.

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