INFRASTRUCTURE UNIVERSE presents THIRD,

DRAWING/COMPUTER PERFORMANCE
GUARDIANS’ GUIDE IMPROVE CIVIL 3D PERFORMANCE
to WARP SPEED AUTOCAD and Whoever at Autodesk figured this out should be given a
HUGE bonus and a lifetime achievement award!!! If your
CIVIL 3D PERFORMANCE drawings are taking forever to open, print, or being just plain
slow, Autodesk has a patch to go from minutes to seconds!
Tips for Improving Your Computer/Drawing Speed, THIS IS NOT A JOKE! Learn more: http://autode.sk/2reFbm2.
Performance, Drawing Maintenance, and Cleanup
WBLOCK COMMAND
CREATED BY James Lord
WITH CONTRIBUTIONS BY Brian Smith, Conrad Fehlau, Use the WBLOCK command to write (copy) AutoCAD objects
KaDe King, Aaron Powell, and Ron Couillard to a new drawing that strips out drawing variables and other
bad practices. If this doesn’t work, ask for the ultimate fix for
cleaning drawings.

SET THE LAYERS BOX BACK TO OLD SCHOOL

FIRST,
SPEC RECOMMENDATIONS
Here are some of the main things to consider when buying a
computer for AutoCAD.
• i7 or Xeon processor (around a 3.0, dual if possible)
• Minimum of 16 GB of RAM (higher if possible)
• SSD drive (largest possible)
• Graphics card with at least 2 GB of onboard RAM
• Fast network card (and hopefully a fast network to attach
it to)
Check the Autodesk Recommended Specs for Civil 3D.
They are pretty low and doubling them is a good idea. Go
to http://autode.sk/2sMltA8.
SECOND,
DRAWING CLEANUP
1. Open drawing with RECOVERALL (if it has Xrefs) or
RECOVER (No Xrefs).
2. Run OVERKILL to clean up overlapping objects:
http://autode.sk/2rVidCw
3. Try running MAPCLEAN: http://bit.ly/2rasYDY
4. Do a registry purge.
-PURGE
R (for Regapp)
* (for all)
N (for no)
5. Do a standard purge as well.
6. PURGE Orphaned DGN linestyle data deleted.
7. -pu (Purge) Zero Length and Empty Text as well.
8. Save the file.
Download this registry app cleaner for multiple files. Go to
http://autode.sk/2sctkd2.
Autodesk also has an excellent document on cleaning
drawings. Go to http://autode.sk/2raSrNw.
JOIN THE INFRASTRUCTURE UNIVERSE!
Connecting you to the latest civil infrastructure news.
Visit www.uscad.com/resources/infrastructure-universe
to sign up for the free monthly mailing list.
Want more details or best practices for data shortcuts,
corridors, etc.? Contact the Infrastructure Guardians at
info@uscad.com! We’ve got you covered!
Set your Layers dialog box to LAYERDLGMODE set to “0”.
CLOSE ALL PALETTES
It take a few seconds to generate the info inside palettes like
Properties and Layers when you click on something. If they
are closed, you will save the processing time.
LAYOUT TABS
Autodesk recommends no more than seven layout tabs per
drawing. I recommend no more than two. Technically, you can
add 256; most people on the forums say between 5-10
layouts are the max they will use. One user said, “By the time
you notice that you're having a problem, it will be too late.
Experience has taught me to do one drawing file per sheet
with plan and profiles.” Read more: http://autode.sk/2scIsay.
TEXT
The more text that is in a drawing, the slower it will run. Don’t
believe me? Watch this video where you’ll see that the only
thing I add is text objects. Video: http://autode.sk/2mfBY6R.
CIVIL 3D LABELS
Use data shortcuts and label live in the sheet files. Try not to
label a really long profile, corridor, or large surface that spans
multiple sheets. This can really slow down the performance
because AutoCAD and Civil 3D will process/cache every
object whether you are viewing it or not. Also, use XCLIPS.
STARTUP SWITCH
Set “Startup” to 2 and add the “/nologo” switch to the icon
target. By setting the “Startup” variable to 2, users won’t
have to close the “drawing1.dwg” each time. We are
talking seconds saved, but time is money.
TURN OFF THESE SETTINGS
Hardware Acceleration: http://autode.sk/2raUPDK
Smooth Line: http://autode.sk/2rf4LY5
HPQUICKPREVIEW
TURN OFF THESE,
TOO (See Image)
Right-click on the
wrench icon on the
command line.
CADNOTES
How to Speed Up AutoCAD
Optimize Your Computer: http://bit.ly/2rVGQ1N
Configuring AutoCAD: http://bit.ly/2scGU08