Speed up Plotting

[MikeRobinson]

Is there any way of speeding up plotting. I really mean the time taken for AutoCAD to process the information before it gets to the plotter?
I have quite a few large 3D drawings which have upto 20 viewports with various iso views and sections.
I run AutoCAD with a Cadduct plugin. I have just installed a new printer - HPT790

The time taken to process the plot before it hite the printer is approx 5 minutes.
Time taken to actually plot (A0) is approximately 2mins - Which I am happy with.

Any suggestions?

[jaberwok]

Processor type and speed and amount of ram?

[cadtag]

turn off background plotting (and also background publishing), if on.

If you want to continue working, just open another session of Acad - realizing that it will slow down the processing of the plot by some amount....) alternatively, use a different PC for plotting. or simplify your drawings

[MikeRobinson]

turn off background plotting (and also background publishing), if on.

If you want to continue working, just open another session of Acad - realizing that it will slow down the processing of the plot by some amount....) alternatively, use a different PC for plotting. or simplify your drawings

This seems pretty ridiculous - Why compromise?
I was hoping for a speed-up technique - If there isn't one, so be it.

Use a different PC for plotting - That is mad.
How do you Simplyfy a 3D model - It is what it is.
I need 20+ viewports to show how the services lie in the building - The model is as basic as it can possibly be.

Your answer seems like a kop out.

[MikeRobinson]

Processor type and speed and amount of ram?

Processor Type : Intel Xenon E5320 Quad Core (Each Core 1.86Ghz)
RAM : 12GB
OS : Windows 7 64bit

Plotting Via HPGL

Would it make a difference Plotting Via Postscript?

[cadtag]

This seems pretty ridiculous - Why compromise?
I was hoping for a speed-up technique - If there isn't one, so be it.

Use a different PC for plotting - That is mad.
How do you Simplyfy a 3D model - It is what it is.
I need 20+ viewports to show how the services lie in the building - The model is as basic as it can possibly be.

Your answer seems like a kop out.

cop out? nope. just experience.

Background plotting & publishing ha never been all that reliable, and little if any work appears to have been done to improve it since its introduction. And probably never will -- since Acad is _only_ capable of using a single processor core on that quad core xeon, background plotting or publishing simply loads more activity on that single processor. Okay maybe for drawings of trivial complexity, but that's not what you have.

To verify, run TaskManager, and look at the performance tab, then start plotting in the background, Do the number of cores being heavily utilized ramp up? OpenResource Monitor from that tab, and see what it shows.

If you would want to try running a second session of Acad, on the same machine, for plotting, that might give you access to another core. Or try Trueview for plotting purposes. (In TaskManager, on the Process Tab, set Affinity to Processor 3 or 4)

Using a different machine for plotting is madness? well, seems pretty reasonable if you want faster plotting on highly complex drawings. It does sorta presume that you have a network license to spare, and running RDP or VNC means you don't even have to leave you desk to run the other machine. If you are running standalone licenses, yeah it would not be sensible. (Historical note: circa R11 and Acad 386 Dos, you could fire up a headless Acad for plotting that did not require or use a license. IIRC the argument for that was acad -p.)

The 3d model may be what it is, but that doesn't mean the paper drawing can't be simpler. possibly use more sheets, with fewer layouts on each? dunno -- i'm not working on that job - you are, so your call.

Postscript plotting -- I've never noticed any difference, it might slow down the plotter a smidgen as it converts the PS data though the on-board interpreter to the native rasterizer, but that's not where you are seeing slowness, so should not matter. It's doubful that Acad could process a dwg into PS faster than ir does HPGL2, but I've never timed it.

btw - when you suggest trying PS plotting, are you talking about using the windows Postscript driver for that plotter, or tha Autocad supplied Postscript Level 2 ADI driver?

[MikeRobinson]

I'm not plotting or publishing in the background.

The drawing sizes are approximately 15 to 20mb with minimum of 15 viewports.
I am modelling buildings full of building services (Pipework, ductwork etc) using Autocad for simple building models and Cadduct for the services - I only use one layout to keep the drawing as simple as possible.

Why would using a different machine speed things up?
I still have to plot the drawing with the same processing time - So I gain nothing and have the expense of having a "Plot PC"

I did a test run using HPGL and postscript - I found the time taken to plot using postscript was 1.5 miutes faster than HPGL. This is for a large file size drawing that is taking AutoCAD 5 minutes to process.
the postscript driver is from the HP T790 printer installed.

[MikeRobinson]

With regard to Kop out - I meant it's an AutoCAD Kop out - Nothing personal.
You may have similar experience, but utilising the methods you are using to speed-up plotting does not resolve the issue - AutoCAD in my opinion should process the drawings quicker, especially with the PC spec that I have.

[jaberwok]

Your acad is using a single core to generate raster images from complex 3d data and then overlaying 2d data and then converting all that data to a plotter-compatible format. At the same time, it's opening and closing files all over your machine and some on the server.
I think you will only see a speed improvement with a faster processor. 1.86Ghz is not fast considering the load.

[MikeRobinson]

Thanks Jaberwok.