The H-Factor

Fine Tuning Your 3D Performance in AutoCAD

Thanks to a long time customer, I now know about the AutoCAD command for tuning up your 3D performance. It is 3DCONFIG.

This brings up the 'Advanced Degradation and Performance Tuning' tool (sounds futuristic, eh?). From here you can tweak this or that to speed up 3D, but some of the highlights are as follows:

1. Check for Updates: This will check for updates to your display driver

2. View Tune Log: This will tell you if your card is certified by Autodesk. It will also list which features are available or not available for your card and will tell you what driver version you are currently using.

3. Manual Tune: This feature lets you turn on features that are not turned on by default for your particular situation, such as Hardware Acceleration. This is one I am going to turn on myself, to see what happens. If I don't ever post again, my machine crashed an I lost access to this blog and you will never hear from me again.

Autodesk has published a white paper on this topic, and it includes a number of handy tips. View it HERE.

Finding Your AutoCAD Serial Number

This is an annual question - it comes up every time AutoCAD releases a new version. The fact that so many people ask us what their serial number is speaks to serious flaws in Autodesk's system for notifying users, but I can't do anything about that. What I can do is tell you a number of places to look for that serial number.

Option 1. The first is an email that Autodesk sends out every time a new version is released. The email is sent to the Subscription Coordinator in your company. This email states the serial number and product key clearly. Here is what our looks like (minus the blur):

Oftimes the Subscription Coordinator is accounting person or somebody who pays the bills, when it really should be the design manager or computer person in your company. Whomever it is can add you as a contact also, from inside the Subscription Center. PS - My email was flagged as spam, so who knows if your even got through.

Option 2. From inside the Subscription Center, you can pick Contract Administration from the left list of choices. Then pick Coverage Report. This will list your serial numbers and products:

Option 3. From the Subscription Center, you can request help from the links on the right. You can ask for your serial number there.

Creating Pressure Loss Curves in HydraCALC

Say you want to add a loss curve for a new device. Here's what you do:

1. Open HydraCALC
2. Pick the Utility pulldown menu and then pick Alter Pipe/Fittings
3. Go to the bottom of the table and you will see other curves here (all are defined as a Z fitting)
4. In the first open line, pick Z from the first column, then pick Curve from the second
5. In the third column put in a three letter short name. The first needs to be upper case and the next two lower case
6. In the fourth column type in a description of this device (make, model)

7. On the right half of the table you will see columns with diameters from 1/2" to 24". Locate the one corresponding to the size you need and click in it

8. You can now 'draw' the curve by either picking and dragging the six points on the existing straight line or you can type in six values for Pressure (P1, etc) and Flow (Q1, etc). You can also adjust the scale of the curve by changing the flow and pressure increments. Notice the default is in PSI, click this to change it to bar or kPa. Pick the Save button.

This will place an X in the diameter column you were in. Continue for any other sizes you might need. To remove a curve, arrow over to the X you no longer want and pick the Delete button at the top of the screen.

Searching File Contents in Windows 7 Explorer/My Computer

Sometimes, it seems like things take a big step back. This is a good example: try to search for text inside a file in Windows Explorer using Windows 7. It can't be done by default.

There are two ways, from Wikihow:

1. In Windows Explorer, Press Alt button --> go to Tools --> Folder options --> Search tab --> Here select, "Always search file names and content (this might take several minutes)".

2. Another way. Type "contents:" in the Windows Explorer search box followed by the word, searches text files. This is a search filter which seems to be undocumented (of course)

But it doesn't end there. Windows will not search within all files by default, just the ones it 'understands'. So, if it's not a .txt or .doc or .rtf or other Microsoft file, you will have to change things.

Here is my own problem. I need to search within a bunch of files (AutoCAD LISP files - .lsp) to find which ones contain a series of text letters. But by default, My Computer/Explorer does not look within .lsp files during a search.

Remember from above that to search for text within a file, you need to add the string 'contents:' followed by the word(s) you are searching for to the upper right edit field in Computer/Explorer. See the image below. In it I am searching for all files (or so I thought) containing the text '2011'.

The thing is that Windows 7 Explorer does not search within all file types by default. And .lsp files are one of those types. What needs to be done? You need to edit the Indexing for that file type so it is searched.

1.Go into Control Panel and Pick Indexing Options

2. Pick the Advanced button

3. Pick the File Types tab

4. Scan down to the file extension in question. In my case it is lsp. Select it and pick the Index Properties and File Contents option. Pick OK. It should work now.

Note - Notice that the initial dialog in Indexing Options shows a list of folders that are currently Indexed. This list is built as you use search. Windows may occasionally notify you that searches will go faster if you choose to Index a given folder. You can add folders by picking the Modify option and selecting them from the tree that appears.

Speeding up Large 3D Jobs

Are your drawing getting really, really big and slowing down the raising up of your drawing and the AutoCalc and AutoList processes? Are you carrying around huge background drawings?

XREFing in the background drawings doesn't help. But there is something that does:

Plot the background drawings to a DWF and then XREF the DWF in. This can reduce the elevation time up to 80%. In fact, you can plot each series of layers to a DWF (ie Steel layers, Wall layers, etc) to individual XREFS and then use the XREF Manager to Unload and Reload as you want to see or not see certain things.

Another thing - If you have many floors in a single drawing, you should be using System Boundaries to isolate those parts of the building you are currently calcing or listing. If the drawing is still slow, consider reducing the number of floors per sheet. It may seem easy to keep everything on one drawing but every time you do anything - even a move or copy - you are paying a price.