Autocad - How to improve performance in drawings containing hatches

Issue

You want to know how to improve performance in large, complex drawings containing hatches.

Solution

Here are a couple of the most common performance issues relating to hatches.

Performance Issues when Previewing

AutoCAD 2011 (and AutoCAD-based vertical products) default to showing a preview of hatches as you move the crosshairs over an enclosed area:

The automatic preview of hatches can cause performance issues in large, complex drawings.  You can disable this feature by setting the HPQUICKPREVIEW system variable to OFF.