Faster then autogad with xrefs? I'm a mouse cowboy.

[3dway]

I posted a problem we've been experiencing where, using the zoom commnad, you get a "bad pick" if you do it too fast in a drawing with xrefs.

I just experienced a similar problem with the erase command. I type my alias for erase, enter the commnad, pick a window around a short line drawn in model space, right click to finish the command, look back at the selection and it says "0 found". If I grip the line by window selection it grips. If I do erase the same way as above but very very slowly with nearly a full second beween click, it finds the line and erases it. If I unload the xrefs, everthing works normally.

We xref large plans into modelspace and then draw over them. An example would be a several storey apartment buildging with the concrete structure plan on one drawing ref'd in, the walls and partitions on another plan ref'd in, then draw a detail on the correct locaiton in plan in the drawing where the others are ref'd.

We bring the references in as overlays.

We're using 2010. We have new dual core machines with decent specs.

Anyone else have a similar experience? or know a solution?

[jaberwok]

Quikpik may (or may not) help because it registers button-down actions instead of the standard button-up.
.

[3dway]

I'll look into that, thanks.

If it helps to elaborate the issue, I get the same performance just gripping. Grip by window. If I do it too fast, it doesn't find the object.

What about the xrefs is slowing down the input from the mouse, or how fast the computer responds to the mouse?

Are there options, or "new features" that I can shut off and improve performance?

Is there anything about the way you bring in an xref (overlay etc) that slows things down?

[3dway]

When you switch to classic workspace, does all of the context sensitive stuff still update in the background?

This seemed to me like something that would be happening constantly before every command, that would likely slow things down.

And, if you xref, does autocad somehow have to go look at the xref'd file to decide which context menu options to make available?

Speculating wildly, of course.

[3dway]

This performance issue seems to get worse with the number of viewports created. Conversely it gets better as you freeze layers in those viewports.

I found, in order to use the sheetset feilds to create automatically updating sheet view references, you need individual viewports; so managing visible layers in those viewports seems to be essential.

[3dway]

Actually, vpfreezing layers doesn't seem to have actually helped. I thought it was better immediately after I did that, but now back to previous problem.

Not sure if it's network speed, or how much I have zoomed in the last regen, or too big an xref....

Hasn't anyone else had these problems with xrefs?

[3dway]

I think that I've narrowed the problem down to:

If the mouse is moving at the same time as you click, you get "a bad click". As in it starts the window selection somewhere other than where the crosshairs are at the time of the click. If you take the time to actively ensure that the mouse is not moving, it will pick the point correctly.

This problem is either present or not as xrefs are respectively loaded or unloaded.

[jaberwok]

Did you try Quikpik?

[3dway]

Yes,

QuikPik actually exasperates the problem.
It picks faster, so it's like nothing exists. You have to hold the mouse still while clicking to make sure it picks the point.

[3dway]

I can't say definately, but it seems like the problem is least terrible, when I do whatever I can think of to cut down on memory use. I don't really even know if the things I'm turning off actualy create a memory use problem. Well, I really don't know what memory use is.

I freeze everything I can in viewports, I close all the palattes I can, I unload as many xrefs as I can.

Then just when I think it's helping... it's not.

I'm currently blaming network speed.