Speeding up the Drawing Setup: Size Dialog

Question

When I perform a page setup for a new sheet size (File^? menu > Page Setup...) or change the sheet size in the Drawing Setup, Size Tab (Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Size) PowerCADD seems to be taking a long time to open the Drawing Setup Dialog box. Why does that happen and how can I improve performance?

Requirements

PowerCADD 6 or PowerCADD 7
PowerCADD 7 and Mac OS^? X Tiger or newer recommended

Background

PowerCADD version 6 and version 7 include a drawing preview feature when adjusting the Drawing Sheet size. The preview must be made before the dialog box can open and display its contents.

Depending on how complex the drawing is and what type of hardware you're using, the amount of time to build the preview will vary. That's why some drawings seem to exhibit the problem while others do not, and why the problem may not seem the same (or even be evident) on every computer.

The Drawing Setup: Size dialog is a drawing level (verses application level) preference setting. Therefore, you will see this condition every time you open the Drawing Setup: Size dialog or change printers and perform a Page Setup.

What To Do

The easiest way to increase performance is turn the preview feature off:

1. open a drawing
2. choose Layout menu > Drawing Setup > Size tab
3. Uncheck the Preview Drawing box
4. Press OK

(Note: these settings are remembered when the drawing is saved)

Now - each time you access the Drawing Setup: Size dialog (either directly or when it's forced open after changing printers and performing a Page Setup), the dialog will open faster because it does not have to build a preview.

The Preview Drawing settubg is dynamic so it can be turned on or of on-the-fly. For those rare times when you need to see the drawing preview, simply check the Preview Drawing box, make the desired setting changes, and uncheck the Preview Drawing box.

We hope that helps
caddpower.com

------
If you found this article or the website in general to be helpful, educational or a time and money saver you can show your support by buying us coffee, lunch, or dinner. Thank you ~ Brian (huc) Huculak