12 Performance Settings for a Faster AutoCAD

To speed up AutoCAD, you can change some settings related to your operating system and hardware. But besides making these changes, there are also some system variables you can configure to noticeably boost AutoCAD’s performance. Configuring these system variables properly can be recommended for users looking for AutoCAD performance settings.

System Variables You Can Configure to Speed Up AutoCAD

You can type these system variable names directly into the AutoCAD command line to access them.

WHIPTHREAD

This variable determines how AutoCAD uses additional processors on the machine. If there’s only a single processor, this variable has no effect. The default value of the WHIPTHREAD system variable is 1, but you can change it to other values as well.

AutoCAD can use this extra processor to speed up operations like redraws or regens, such as zooming. If you set this variable to 3 to speed up AutoCAD, there will be a slight boost when working with large drawings.

However, you shouldn’t expect a serious performance improvement just from changing this system variable.

ROLLOVERTIPS

Among the settings for speeding up AutoCAD is also the ROLLOVERTIPS system variable. If this variable is set to 1, and you hover your cursor over an object in the drawing area, a tooltip appears showing a short list of the object’s properties. Set this variable to 0 to increase speed when working with large drawings.

When you set the variable to 0, the description above won’t appear.

TOOLTIPS

This variable defaults to 1, which shows tooltips when you hover the cursor over a tool. To boost performance, you can turn off these tooltips by changing the TOOLTIPS system variable value to 0. This type of AutoCAD performance setting can also be a partial solution for AutoCAD lag problems.

PEDITACCEPT

The default value of the PEDITACCEPT system variable is set to 0, which makes the Polyline Edit command give a prompt as shown in the image below.

If this system variable’s value is changed to 1, the default “Y” value is accepted and this prompt is suppressed. This way you can boost AutoCAD’s performance a bit.

LAYOUTREGENCTL

Changing this variable can help boost AutoCAD’s performance by changing how the drawing view is regenerated when switching views. The default value of the LAYOUTREGENCTL system variable is 2, but you can change it to 0 or 1 to boost performance.

0 – The drawing regenerates every time you switch tabs. (Maximum performance)

1 – For the Model tab and the last layout you worked on, the display list is stored in memory and regenerations are suppressed when switching between these two tabs. On all other layouts, regenerations still occur when you switch to those tabs.

2 – The drawing regenerates the first time you switch to each tab. For the rest of the drawing session, the display list is stored in memory and regenerations are suppressed when you switch to these tabs.

REGENMODE

When working with large drawings, it’s better to set the REGENMODE system variable to 0 to boost AutoCAD’s performance by avoiding unnecessary automatic regenerations. The default value is set to 1, which allows unnecessary regeneration in drawings, hurting performance.

DRAWORDERCTL

This system variable controls the display behavior of overlapping drawing objects when they’re modified. The default value of the DRAWORDERCTL system variable is 3, and it tends to slow down drawing edit operations because it displays the full draw order.

You can turn this off by changing the system variable to 0, boosting AutoCAD’s performance a bit.

ISAVEPERCENT

This is one of the more trivial system variables in AutoCAD. The ISAVEPERCENT system variable controls the amount of wasted space in the drawing when a save is performed.

The default value of this system variable is 50, but you can increase this value to speed up drawing save operations. A larger value for this system variable increases wasted space in the drawing, resulting in a larger drawing file.

You can also decrease this system variable’s value, or set it to 0 to reduce the amount of wasted space in the drawing, but this will also increase the time spent saving.

Lowering this system variable’s value also has benefits like improving DWG file compatibility with other DWG-compatible applications, reducing DWG file size due to less wasted space, and preventing data loss caused by some antivirus software.

PALETTEOPAQUE

This is another system variable you can adjust if you have an AutoCAD lag problem. This system variable controls the transparency of palettes. Keeping transparency off — you can set this system variable’s value to 1 to boost performance. The default value of this system variable is 0.

HPQUICKPREVIEW

When working with large drawings, automatic previewing of hatches can cause performance issues. You can turn off automatic hatch previewing by changing the HPQUICKPREVIEW system variable’s value to 0. The default value of this system variable is 1.

HIGHLIGHT

This system variable controls whether a selected object is highlighted. The default value of the HIGHLIGHT system variable is 1, which keeps objects highlighted when selected. You can change this system variable to 0 to stop highlighting objects when selected.

In the image above, the HIGHLIGHT system variable value is set to 1 in the first case and 0 in the second case. This performance setting can help you with the AutoCAD lag problem.

AutoCAD Light

There’s also a light version of AutoCAD. With this version, called AutoCAD LT, you can do your 2D work in full. The difference in this version is that it doesn’t load the modules needed for 3D drawing. So with AutoCAD LT, you can only draw 2D drawings.

If you don’t work with 3D drawings, this has a significant advantage. Since AutoCAD doesn’t carry most of the add-ons that weigh it down and cause it to run slowly, it opens faster. It uses less system memory, and stuttering and freezing are minimized or eliminated entirely.

Since many engineers and technical staff already prefer AutoCAD only for 2D drawings, anyone wanting a faster AutoCAD might want to consider this version.

You can review a comparison of AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT below, and see what each can do. You can also access trial versions.
AutoCAD vs. AutoCAD LT comparison

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