Hi Tim!
Usually for something like this I try to see if I can find a way to narrow down what is causing it. Some things that come to mind that I would try one at a time to see if things speed up are;
- When importing, do you use the move to origin option? Sometimes this can help with wonky math if things are too far from absolute zero.
- After the DWG import, close and save the AEC file (and any other open files. Also wouldn't recommend having any other files open while doing DWG imports.
). Then run the File, Repair tool. Follow the prompts and if invalid entities are found, allow Datacad to remove them. Save and close the resulting file. Then import the resulting repaired AEC file into a new default AEC file. If everything looks good at this point, you should be good to go using this file as your starting point. Clay shared this with me years ago as a good first 1-2 punch to clean up issues, and it really does seem to help. I do it to all DWG files I import now.
- Try turning the display of things like linetypes or hatch one at a time and see if one helps speed up things. You can also toggle off the display of these things in the Repair Tool mentioned above.
- Check for things like special or odd characters in the file or layer names. Replace those characters as needed.
- Turn of all layers , then turn them on one at a time to see if one causes issues more than others. If you find one, note it, turn it back off and continue on looking for other layers with issues. Sometimes this is enough to figure out what entities or layers might be causing your issues and you can work on removing or replacing the troubled entities / layers right then. When I have my list of trouble layers, then I'll try a File, Purge of the file, unselecting the trouble layers, and Saving it to a new AEC file and see if that resulting file works good. If it does, I save it as a milestone file. Then stating with a single layer at a time, copying only the contents of the trouble layer I need to the clipboard and pasting it into a new temp file and see how the copied contents act. Often this copying of only the entities I really need closely around the main working area of the drawing will leave behind stray entities way outside the main drawing area. If things look good in my temp file once all the info is pasted into it. I save the temp file, close it and reopen it. If it's still looking good, then I will import that temp file into the milestone file created earlier.
So as you might be able to tell from the suggestions above, my main method of trying to get things working better is trying to eliminate possible troubled entities and leaving them behind thru different processes. It can take time with especially troubled files, but it's worth it usually to avoid issues down the road which can be bigger headaches later.
Good luck Tim!