Do fields greatly increase the save time?

[jkipfer]

I'm having a big problem with drawing save time and I keep coming back to the fields as the problem.

I have created titleblocks with fields (from our old tblocks using ttf and attributes), and section markers etc. (ttf and attributes from our old blocks).
Everyone here is used to working with multi layout tabs but I estimate that for each layout tab (with our new tblock) adds 2 seconds to the save time. Also, using our section marker blocks compared to our old ones adds 15 seconds to the save time on a test drawing.

I was very careful in making these blocks and titleblocks, they are audited, purged, at 0,0, limits set, correct layers etc. They are also considerably smaller in file size than the old blocks. The only difference is they now have fields.

The problem is not so bad when you only have one layout per drawing (as Autodesk suggests), but people here don't want to have to change how they work all the time.
I don't believe that true type fonts are only to blame either, as we've been using them with little trouble for years.

Has anyone experienced similar problems?

Thanks,

Jason

[jkipfer]

I played around a little more and feel certain that fields in the titleblock are the culprit.
I have 24 custom fields that I've used in my title block. When I remove the fields and save my .dwt. everything is fine. Instant save no matter how many tblock/layouts in a drawing.

Is there a limit to how many fields you should use in a drawing? I've never read anything about this. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

[Glenn Pope]

I use several fields in my drawings. Most in the titleblock. I haven't noticed any difference in the time taken to save a file.

[jkipfer]

How many fields do you have? Did you create them from text, mtext or attributes?

Thanks,

Jason

[Glenn Pope]

For the titleblocks there around 10. Depends on the titleblock used some have more. They all use attributes for the fields. The callouts use attributes. Everything else are usually in mtext.

[jkipfer]

I just recreated the title block, making the fields from mtext instead of attributes. I copied the titleblock so that I have 12 layout tabs in my drawing. It saved in about 4 seconds compared to almost 40 with my attribute-field t-blocks.

One more question, are you using a single layout tab per drawing or do you have several?

thanks,

Jason

[Glenn Pope]

There can be several. Rarely over 6 or 7.

[jkipfer]

Ooops, I made a mistake. The reason my drawing saved so fast when I created the fields from the mtext was because I forgot to then import my 12 layouts to a sheet set. That is where the problem comes in. Mtext and Attribute created fields take the same time to save. The only way to reduce the save time is to reduce the number of fields. At least that's what I've found (and I've been trying for hours). I too suggest around 6 layouts as a practicle number, as I found the save time increased/decreased directly with the number of layouts (due to the added number of fields in the file). 12 layouts took 30 seconds, 6 layouts took 15 seconds. By reducing the fields to half, 6 layouts took only 6 seconds to save.

That's my summary.

I hope.

Thanks,

Jason

[kathy71046]

I use 6 fields in my Title block, and can easily have over 50 layouts in a drawing, and yes, it does take longer to save when updating the fileds.

I get around this by setting my field updates to not update, and then set it to update on plot or save when I need the whole drawing updated. (generally when I am ready to issue the drawing)

I also have a custom button set up with this command: ^C^C_updatefield
This will update all fields in an individual Titleblock as you need it.

Hope that helps you.

Kath

[jkipfer]

That helps! I didn't realize that fields took so long to save. I changed FIELDEVAL to 29 and greatly reduced the save time.

Thanks,

Jason

[Chuckyd67]

I just ran into the problem you are having today. I created a new drawing with the AEC Sheet template. This method does include all the tabs and all the fields associated with those tabs. My guess is that all those fields are searching for data that has not been pathed, and that causes the lag time.

I have created sheet files via the Project Navigator, which opens only one tab. It also fills in all the fields. Because the sheet file is created with project navigator, all the fields are automatically pathed to the correct location. Sheet files created in this manner do not experience the long save times.

[bcowper]

Reading this thread with interest, I haven't as yet created templates/title blocks with fields yet, but I intend to in the future.

CGraham you refer to
Project Navigator , I assume this is not a vanilla AutoCAD 2005 feature as I can find no mention of it in the help files, can you enlighten me where this can be found?