By selecting first you’re saying to AutoCAD® “Here are some entities that I am interested in – prepare them for me to use in any way”. This sends a clearer instruction to AutoCAD®, and it is dealt with more quickly than if we make the selection first. Make sure you select commands before you make a selection. There are ways of working that allow us to drastically reduce the frequency of AutoCAD® freezing when working with a large selection. The time that this takes is proportional with the amount of things selected, so you can see that simply selecting objects can be the cause of AutoCAD® freezing. So, if for example you have the properties window on your screen anywhere, even if it is docked with the auto-hide feature enabled, all the data in the properties window needs to be updated with correct information. When a selection is made, any on screen information that relates to your active selection needs to be updated otherwise you’ll be working from incorrect information. This can sometimes leave us gazing at an hourglass thinking “I didn’t ask you to do anything! Why are you freezing on me!?”. Odd as this may seem, there is a reason for it.
What can sometimes be unexpected is when AutoCAD® freezes when we have merely selected the objects without doing anything to them. The first and most obvious reason for AutoCAD® freezing is when we do things to a very large selection.
How many times have you been working in AutoCAD®, and then suddenly it freezes on you? Panic sets in, as you try to remember the last time you saved… You wait… and wait… and… thankfully AutoCAD® un-freezes, this time…īut what actually is the cause of AutoCAD® freezing? It depends – there are many potential reasons for AutoCAD® freezing, but some can be avoided completely with a little understanding of what’s actually happening.