Topic: Empty drawing slow to open, purge, insert blocks

[Matt__W]

Rather than re-write everything, here's a link to my original post on the Autodesk Civil 3D forums. Trying to figure out why DWGs are only affected in Civil 3D. Slowness opening, inserting blocks from a network drive, purging.
This one is really bugging me. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc. are appreciated.

[cadtag]

to be certain you're stating with a clean template, set FILEDIA to 0, then type .NEW, and at the template prompt enter a period (.)

same problems?  (oh, and remember to reset FILEDIA back to 1)

[Matt__W]

Yup. Same problems.

[mjfarrell]

are you getting the updating old drawing message along with this general slowness?

[Matt__W]

Nope.

[mjfarrell]

how slow is it for ME to open one of those empty files?

[Matt__W]

The attached drawing takes me 32 seconds to open. From the moment I click the OPEN button to the time I get the crosshairs.

[rkmcswain]

In my heavily customized 2014 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a plain jane 2016 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a moderately customized 2017 environment, it takes ±20 seconds to open.

[Matt__W]

In my heavily customized 2014 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a plain jane 2016 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a moderately customized 2017 environment, it takes ±20 seconds to open.

Really? There's nothing in it! I don't get why it would take that long. Seems a bit much.


Side note... Still waiting to get access to ProcMon. 

[Matt__W]

In my heavily customized 2014 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a plain jane 2016 environment, it takes ±45 seconds to open.
In a moderately customized 2017 environment, it takes ±20 seconds to open.

It took a guy in our office using AutoCAD MEP 2015 +/- 3 seconds to open it. Windows 7, SSD, 32GB.

[Jeff H]

Could load autocad's mgdbg or if one specifically for Civil(Jeff M would know), and turn on printing events to command line to see if notice anything to help narrow it down.

[Mark]

53 seconds! Win7 C3D 2016. Weird.

[mjfarrell]

I  got around 42 seconds with your posted drawing,

Then I purged and removed four &(*&%(^%*& named blocks and did a save as.

Now opens in around 16 seconds.

[Mark]

Then I purged and removed four &(*&%(^%*& named blocks and did a save as.

That is what i'm currently doing. Even running the PURGE command takes 40 seconds.

[Matt__W]

Then I purged and removed four &(*&%(^%*& named blocks and did a save as.

That is what i'm currently doing. Even running the PURGE command takes 40 seconds.

I'm glad to see you're experiencing what I'm dealing with over here. It just doesn't make any sense why everything is running so slow!

What about inserting a block? Does it take a while the first time you insert a block into that drawing?

[Mark]

There are a lot of blocks that cannot be purged. Why?

[Mark]

What about inserting a block? Does it take a while the first time you insert a block into that drawing?

Nope!

[mjfarrell]

There are a lot of blocks that cannot be purged. Why?

probably used by c3d styles...and thus not purgable

[mjfarrell]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

[mjfarrell]

I just wblocked it all out to a new file...opens in 4+/- seconds

upon closing and reopening

I now see this at command line:

Command: ** Undefined shape 65
** Undefined shape 97
** Undefined shape 66
** Undefined shape 98
** Undefined shape 67
** Undefined shape 99
** Undefined shape 68

and the load time has creeped back up

[Jeff H]

If you want to clean all the stuff out just use
-EXPORTTOAUTOCAD command

[mjfarrell]

So you have reached the same conclusion I did:


The file is NOT EMPTY at all.

[Jeff H]

So you have reached the same conclusion I did:


The file is NOT EMPTY at all.

When I saw attachment was 1504kB, I thought that was empty for a Civil 3D drawing.
I knew MEP drawing cleaned out was still about twice as big a vanilla  empty drawing.

[Mark]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

Even after purging i can't get that.

[Mark]

If you want to clean all the stuff out just use
-EXPORTTOAUTOCAD command

That speeds it up!

[mjfarrell]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

Even after purging i can't get that.

Try my file posted above...

[Mark]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

Even after purging i can't get that.

Try my file posted above...

Opens right up. After a save though it takes much longer.

[Matt__W]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

Even after purging i can't get that.

Try my file posted above...

Opens right up. After a save though it takes much longer.

If you're saving in Civil 3D, it's automatically adding some default C3D styles to the drawing.

[Mark]

at the 16 second point I have now with it, I wouldn't consider that a problem

Even after purging i can't get that.

Try my file posted above...

Opens right up. After a save though it takes much longer.

If you're saving in Civil 3D, it's automatically adding some default C3D styles to the drawing.

But still, none of my other C3D files take that long to open.

[rkmcswain]

It opens in BricsCAD in less than 2 seconds.
Then I ran an AUDIT, Purged it, and exported to DWG (I'm presuming this is like an AutoCAD Wblock *) and the resulting file is 11k


(Doing the Audit + Purge and then simply saving in BricsCAD does not kill the file size. It's still ±1421k)

[rkmcswain]

...and then opening the 11k drawing in C3D 2017 and immediately saving it, results in a 430k DWG file.

[Matt__W]

Just wanted to post an update/resolution to our particular problem. Link to Autodesk Civil 3D forum

[mjfarrell]

to quote you from the link 

AeccNetwork.dbx files

where or how did you replace this file or files?


Was yours corrupted, or superseded by a service patch?

[Matt__W]

to quote you from the link 

AeccNetwork.dbx files

where or how did you replace this file or files?


Was yours corrupted, or superseded by a service patch?

Simply had our IT geeks overwrite the existing files.

Not entirely sure.