AutoCAD MEP 2016 Purge Regapps

[jedaru]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I'm working on testing AutoCAD MEP 2016 for company-wide deployment. From what I've found, AutoCAD MEP 2016 does not handle the regapp purge like any recent version, specifically that it does not actually find nor remove all instances of unused registered applications.

To test this I used a file known to have several thousand purgable regapps (91,585) across AutoCAD MEP 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Results:

AutoCAD MEP 2014 found and removed all 91,585 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 3.0 MB.
AutoCAD MEP 2015 found and removed all 91,585 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 2.88 MB.
AutoCAD MEP 2016 found and removed 21,412 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 4.38 MB.

The biggest problem will these results is that after purging the regapps using 2016, I can open that same file in either 2014 or 2015 and they both still found an additional 91,584 regapps to purge.

Has anyone had similar results?

[Wanderer]

Apologies if this is in the wrong section.

I'm working on testing AutoCAD MEP 2016 for company-wide deployment. From what I've found, AutoCAD MEP 2016 does not handle the regapp purge like any recent version, specifically that it does not actually find nor remove all instances of unused registered applications.

To test this I used a file known to have several thousand purgable regapps (91,585) across AutoCAD MEP 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Results:

AutoCAD MEP 2014 found and removed all 91,585 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 3.0 MB.
AutoCAD MEP 2015 found and removed all 91,585 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 2.88 MB.
AutoCAD MEP 2016 found and removed 21,412 regapps and reduced file size from 10.5 to 4.38 MB.

The biggest problem will these results is that after purging the regapps using 2016, I can open that same file in either 2014 or 2015 and they both still found an additional 91,584 regapps to purge.

Has anyone had similar results?

Yes, I have, for the first part.
I get a lot of drawings from other people and who knows what else they may be working with.

I can't say I used multiple version of AMEP at once, just whatever I had newest at the time.

(I'll go ahead and move this over to the AMEP forum.)

[jasonp]

Regapps get created anytime AutoCAD needs to go outside it's shell to load a command or instruction. From what I've read about it, the JIT debugging has a 'scavenger' that checks used apps "occasionally" and will dump them if it finds them still unused. The problem is this doesn't happen at any specific timed interval, or in my experience sometimes at all. I built a custom purge routine for our company that purges regapps along with empty text, and a number of other object types that the regular "Purge" command won't dump. ("-Purge" at a command prompt is a LOT more powerful than the dialog driven "Purge" command, as there's a number of sub prompts available.)

I've also noticed each version of AutoCAD seems to get more 'bloated' than the previous, as they introduce a number of new system variables and "Add ons" to the core program of AutoCAD. I assume (but haven't verified) it's from additional data set fields being added to components that have been 'updated' to the new version.

We're working with a 25 year old program that much of the original code was written by people who have retired. I could only imagine being a system developer for AMEP, and the massive daunting task of figuring out where all the strings are tied together behind the scenes.

[BlackBox]

Registered Applications (REGAPPS) are also gathered through osmosis from external references - if your host drawing has one or more XREFs with said REGAPPS in them, then cleaning them from the host drawing is ineffective for anything more than current session (or until you close said drawing, and reopen again in same session, which just starts the process again).

To help with this task moving forward, and to keep your drawings 'clean' from unused REGAPPS as you work, this may be of use.

Cheers