Earlier this month I got an email from the company IT department asking if I had any tips or things to look for to help speed up autocad start up speed, and overall performance.
Apparently a fellow cad user in another office was having slow start-up and choppy performance, he called our IT “helpdesk” they in turn asked me for my help in making a checklist to try to speed up AutoCAD startup.
I told them that without knowing any specific details it was tough to be very helpful but I made up a list of some common issues and sent it off. Now a few weeks later I was cleaning up my mail box and decided to post my quick check list for improving autoCAD performance. Let me know if you’ve had similar experiences or perhaps some tips or tricks you automatically try out.
The basics of my email are below:
Here are a few things I can think of right now:
Ensure the file paths in options – Files(tab) ing to the right folders
- Try installing Nvidias Autocad performance video drivers and see if that improves it
- Be sure any scripts or applications that run on start up are working and not missing/searching for any files
- Make sure any xref’d drawings are in the locations specified and Autocad is not searching for them at start-up.
- Try a purge on the drawing and or remove unneeded xref’d drawings
- Emptying your computers temp folder can help as Autocad can use this folder sometimes on start up
- Cleaning out unused plotter/printer drivers/and excessive styles since Autocad can search to find each one on start up
If nothing seems to help, I have had success running a process monitor on start up to try to pin point where AutoCAD is hanging up (usually searching for some missing file in my experiences).
So now that you’ve read my first thoughts, what are yours? Leave a comment Below.
Cheers,
Brandon
