Topic: 98 Megs slow to open

[craigr]

I recieved a dwg with 4 dwgs XRef'd into it. The Main dwg is around 2mb, the other all 5 dwgs total 98mb.

This main dwg takes quite a while to load and crashes my machine when I try to manipulate it.

My machine is no slouch but I wonder is this a BIG file in the Real CAD world?

We seldom have any of our dwgs over 1mb and have no XRef's in them. So this is a totally new world for me.

craigr

[mjfarrell]

I would start with Audit, and Recover run on each of those files.

Also clean up your Temp diriectory.

[M-dub]

Layer Filters?

[dgorsman]

Your AutoCAD version?  Your file version?

First impression: annotation scale overload.

[craigr]

CAD Version is 2008LT and the file was last saved by the same.

What is Anotation scale?

If I ever heard of it, I don't know what it is.

craigr

[Rob...]

I'd start with cleaning up/dumming down the XREFs but that might be difficult with LT. You could start by erasing anything that you don't need from each of the files. First make sure you have copies of the files saved in a safe place. I'm betting there is a bunch of 3d stuff which you probably don't need to have in 3d and I'm not sure if you can AECOBJEXPLODE in LT so that you can simplify and flatten the 3d stuff.

[craigr]

Unfortunately, this file is a conglomeration (SP?) of dwgs from different trades. The Main Contractor is insistant that everything be in ONE CAD Dwg.

Yes there are 3D items in the dwg. OURS it 2D, but I cannot flatten anything. Basically, I am simply XRef'ing ours into the Master dwg, so I really can do too much.

The purpose of my original question was to rule out errors.

I have done the purge / Audit dwg things and found no errors.

The size is soooo large I guess I assumed something is wrong with it. Again, I have never seen nor heard of a dwg this large!

Do any of you folks work with dwgs this large?

craigr

[MP]

contractor is a moron

guessing he's using architectural desktop or something similar

bloat probably due to bogus / errant dictionary entries and / or appid cancer

post the zipped dwg(s) or it didn't happen

[Rob...]

Size alone might not be the problem. Since you are XREFing you file into a master, it won't matter if you create separate files for you to XREF into your drawing and then remove those XREFs and XREF you file into the master when you need to submit your file to the client. In the XREF files, check to see if they are XREFing each other. Poor XREF management can create circular references. Detach any XREFs in those files and then XREF them separately into your file and see if that gets you any faster.

[craigr]

I thought you got it with the Circular XRef's - It just makes sense why it would make the dwg 'screwy'.

But, each XRef dwg is clean.

[Rob...]

Then it could any number of things. Some of which LT is not going to help you with. If you could find a way to post them, it would be great help for us to narrow down the problem(s).

The first step would be to check for stuff that MP suggested. I would also strongly suggest simplifying the 3d stuff. If it is still slow after that, there is a long list of stuff to check. I've had one lowly unassociated attribute cause frequent crashes.

[craigr]

Unfortunately, this is a Top Secret Job, so I cannot distribute. (Too secret even if I remove Title Block).

Thanks for the offer to help further and for all of the suggestions I have recieved.

craigr

[MP]

If your primary drawing file is vanilla AutoCAD LT (i.e not entity handle dependent/sensitive) perform the wblock star trick a couple times on a copy and see if that remedies some of the bloat.

[Rob...]

If LT has any export options, try exporting to DXF to simplify the geometry or try using Drawing True View to save convert them to an early version of AutoCAD.

[Matt__W]

I recently came across some drawings that were slow to open and it (partially) had to do with layers being evaluated.... click the SETTINGS button on the layer manager (see attached image).