plot dialog in 2005 is TOO SLOW!!!

We have ADT 2005 installed on three brand new 3gHz machines running Wndows XP with 1 GB memory. I want to put all of my plotting information on our network (running SBS 2003, T10/100 switch), but the plot dialog box hangs forEVER! and when a change is made in the plot dialog box it takes upwards of 10 seconds for EACH CHANGE. I have read through the discussions and there doesn't seem to be a good solution out there. I have moved my print support paths and plot styles off of the network, and the speed is a little better, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having a network if I have to copy plot styles to everyone's machines (and then copy again if something changes). The speed is still noticeably slower than what we had with ADT 3.3 when all of the plot information was on the server. What is going on? The plot dialog even hangs when all of the files ARE stored locally! Please HELP!!

 

One thing we have found (though it does not always work).. is make sure
that you have all your plotters (that are on the server and anywere
else) installed on your computer.. and ensure that your page setups are
not trying to use a printer/plotter that does not exist. that has
slowed ours down alot..(in the 30sec range).

 

I have similar problems. I looked thru the ACAD 2004/5 discussions and did not see anything there that had relavence. Seems like any change on the dialogue takes forever while ACAD recalculates everything.

If anyone has a real fix, please let us know!

 

I'm investigating reports of slow plotting in AutoCAD 2005 and would like to
hear from users who can help me to find reproducable problem cases.

If any of you are still experiencing unusually slow plot or plot dialog
performance, please contact me directly by email at:
with specifics that might help me to reproduce and investigate the problem.

Thank you.

XP with 1 GB memory. I want to put all of my plotting information on our
network (running SBS 2003, T10/100 switch), but the plot dialog box hangs
forEVER! and when a change is made in the plot dialog box it takes upwards
of 10 seconds for EACH CHANGE. I have read through the discussions and
there doesn't seem to be a good solution out there. I have moved my print
support paths and plot styles off of the network, and the speed is a little
better, but it kinda defeats the purpose of having a network if I have to
copy plot styles to everyone's machines (and then copy again if something
changes). The speed is still noticeably slower than what we had with ADT
3.3 when all of the plot information was on the server. What is going on?
The plot dialog even hangs when all of the files ARE stored locally! Please
HELP!!

 

I've tracked down the problem to a defect which causes AutoCAD to rescan for
plot style tables on every dialog operation. The workaround I suggest is to
divide up your plot style tables into separate directories by project and
use profiles to switch the seach path for plot style tables from one
directory to another. If you keep the total number of plot style tables on
the search path small, you won't see the slowdown.

 

I've noticed problems with AutoCAD communicating properly with the network. For instance, if I connect my machine to printers through a network printer server, AutoCAD's behavior and performance become very unpredictable. I think this may have something to do with our AutoCAD license server being located on a Windows server, and our drawing database being on a Unix server. There's other problems that are occurring, also.

So, I connected my computer directly to the printers (I still am using the network, just not connecting to the print server) and plotting is much faster.

Cheers!

 

Yes, we have also found plotting extreamly slow within 2005. We have a large number of plot configuration files which are all stored on the central server. Copying all these files onto individual PC's does increase the speed but makes administration a major task. Surely if it worked in 2000 and 2004 it should work in 2005. We consider that the suggestion we change our method of working is not a satisfactory solution. As a company we have now reverted back to 2004. We await a response from Autodesk.

 

Tim
THis is not going to be an acceptable solution for me, and I am going to have to put 2005 deployment on holding pending resloution of this issue. I have to maintain a long list of consultant CTBs, CTBs for older projects, CTBs for special projects, etc. Managing this list is a chore, and I am no0t willing to further complicate it by trying to change the way 150 users work by forcing them to learn to switch profiles every time they switch projects.

Please post back when a fix is available.

Charles Prettyman
Robert AM Stern Architects, LLP

 

I have the same problem with 2004 if my virus checker is checking outgoing info. If I disable it it speeds up to normal.

 

Yeah, I am having slow plotting also...

I thought it was that 2k5 was scanning each line & viewport like accurender used to when it was rendering a page (bad example but it's all i could think of.)

The plot dialogue pops up slow, on both large and small sheets. The plotting progress dialogue seems to hang for about 30 seconds or more depending on the file sizes.

2k4 with same sheets, works fine.

I am on winXP w/sp1 + hotfixes
SAV 2004 corp.
acad 2k4 (office) & 2k5 (in development)
1024mb ram
3ghz P4
256mb video, dual head

hope sp1 for acad 2k5 comes out quickly! We are not going to deploy it across our 16 australian offices until these bugs are fixed.

 

I have the same problem. I have coped by removing all plot styles I don't need urgently, but this is a big hassle as I have to move plot styles in and out of plot styles directory. This problem seems to be similar to the layers hassle of having to remove all layer filters generated using AutoCAD 2000 through 2002 which cause delays of up to 1 minute when invoking the layers property manager. I really hope Autodesk corrects these problems soon.

 

Ooh, hadn't noticed that one. That's bad - and a second reason to delay deployment. Management is not going to be happy. Well, Microstations management might be...

 

Wow, another dissatisfied Microstation user. Learn to cope with the way AutoCAD uses plot styles instead of trying to fight, and things go a lot easier. So what if everyone has plot styles on their desktop. Using the correct plot style should be left up to the CAD Operator. After all, I believe that's in a CAD Op's job description. Or, do you just want anyone that can come in off of the street to use CAD? If that's the case, everyone should just take a big pay cut.

 

I'm not a dis-satisfied Microstation User - I am an unhappy AutoCAD Cad Manager for a fairly large firm, where I need to maintain large numbers of ctb files in a network location. I do NOT want them stored locally, and storing them in a common location is a widely employed practice, which I think AutoDesk should be aware of. It disappoints me that this made it through beta testing, but having participated in various beta programs myself, I know it is hard sometimes to think of issues like this to test. What I am looking for is a hotfix from Autodesk, sooner, ratehr than later. Becaue right now, 2005 has an issue that prevents me from deploying it.

 

Huh?!?

cc

 

Is there going to be a fix for this? Seriously, this hampers performance to the point that ADT 2005 is essentially unusable for us.

 

I'm guessing that it's not going to be a quick fix. The problem with large
companies is that nothing can be resolved and released quickly. I would
have thought that after they identified the problem that an unsupported fix
should have been released right away at the very least due to the severity
of the problem. You can probably get around the bug by placing the plot
styles in the folder with the drawings and having a reactor set the plot
style path to the drawing location when you switch drawings. But then you
would have to have another program to allow the user to pick which plot
styles to use and copy them from the network drive to the drawing folder.
But it's actually not a bad idea because then the plot styles used in a
specific project will be archieved with the drawings for long term use.

Don't feel bad. They also changed the VB programming call that returns the
available Plot Styles for a drawing. It used to just return the ones you
could use, now it returns both ctb and stb files all of the time. Not that
we can't work around it but why would they even touch something like that
that has worked fine since Acad 2000.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

to the point that ADT 2005 is essentially unusable for us.

 

What's the word on this? Does AutoDesk realize that this sort of behaviour is somethign that needs to be fixed, or do I get Phil Bernstein on the Phone, and tell him why I am taking my company over to another product?

 

Over the last few releases of AutoCAD, I've been forced to the following conclusions:

1) Autodesk engineers are either completely insulated or completely unaware of workflow environment realities of their customers.
2) Autodesk, facing real competition now, is rushing new releases. For acad 2k4 and 2k5, we have essentially gotten "software" that could really be called a beta release.
3) Autodesk is not interested in fixing these things. Don't expect "updates" "service packs" etc., these are things that other companies do. At autodesk, we just wait to hand our money over again for the next release, hoping that the biggest problems will be fixed.
4) Autodesk software engineers are either all intern level, or simply never use the product themselves. If they did, they would realize that the product's performance hinders efficiency.
5) Autocad is a quirky, unpredictable, counter-intuitive application. Think of the millions of users daily, up against deadlines and all manner of pressures, trying to COERCE autocad into doing what they want it to do.
6) When looking at the ratio of cost to quality of product, Autodesk has got to be the bottom feeder of software makers.

My acad 2005 issues began where most users' do: installation. Express tools: launching from the CD welcome screen launches the express tools uninstaller. After several attempts to make it INSTALL, I went through with the uninstall, then was able to install after visiting these discussion groups. Should I have to do that? The settings and profiles importer? Didn't work. Didn't expect it to. No disappointment, just autodesk. The live updater thing? Doesn't work. Didn't expect it to.

With 2k4, I was astounded at the 3-4 second program lock-up that occurs every time objects are de-selected with the properties window open. Autodesk's solution? Buy the new version, of course. So now we have the new version. The lockup with properties window open has been reduced to under a second, so I can actually leave the properties window open now and still get my work done. But of course, that little repair has been replaced by the catastrophic screw-up of the plot utility.

~~~~~~~~~
The workaround I suggest is to
divide up your plot style tables into separate directories by project and
use profiles to switch the seach path...
~~~~~~~~~

classic autodesk response, Tim. Sure--the millions of autocad users will just have to change the way we work right? oh, and change our network setups and deployment as well. hell, that's fair; as long as I can get my money back on your beta software and bill autodesk for all the time my people spend troubleshooting it.

And the layers dialog--don't get me started! Are you honestly pimping this stuff as release-ready software? Am I paying you to be your beta tester? Seems like it.

~~~~~~~~~
or do I get Phil Bernstein on the Phone, and tell him why I am taking my company over to another product?
~~~~~~~~~

well said c prettyman. When I run into problems with autocad, I now typically open the drawing in microstation and take care of things. Maybe autodesk should try and lure away some bentley engineers.

So what'll it be autodesk? Will we need to wait for the next release and dump more cash on you before these things are fixed? If that turns out to be the case, I ASSURE you I will advocate as strongly as possible for total migration to Microstation at my firm.

Is this post a little on the harsh side? Try paying $3000 per seat, plus upgrade and subscription costs, for beta software that looks like it's been developed by engineering interns. That's harsh too.

~Robert

 

This is from a lot of plot styles being referenced, correct? Can you tell
tell me how many?

--


Rick Moore
Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
www.bgkarchitects.com