Decrease File Size and Improve Performance by Using “No Display” Styles for Civil 3D Surfaces and Other Large Objects

Dec 04, 2009

Challenge:

You are using Civil 3D for a large project and are running into performance issues as you do your design and annotation.

Solution:

There are both AutoCAD and Civil 3D commands to reduce file size and increase performance when working with large data sets. The simplest method is to freeze the layers that some of the objects are on, such as surfaces. This will reduce a file’s size and memory footprint resulting in enhanced performance.

A second means of accomplishing this is to use styles that specifically don’t display the associated objects. These are typically referred to as “No Display” styles. Many objects already have a “No Display” style available in the templates that ship with Civil 3D. You can always make a “No Display” style easily by going to the Display tab of any object style, and turning all the light bulbs off in the Visibility column.

What the “No Display” style accomplishes over the standard Freeze layer command is to make the objects essentially invisible to Civil 3D, so that none of the data needs to be calculated. The immediate result is design tasks can now be performed more efficiently. Additionally, the file size is reduced when such styles are employed, enabling the file to be transmitted with greater ease.

Finally, applying “No Display” styles to large or unneeded objects makes saving and opening files faster, so add this to your workflow as part of your saving process.

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