I have two laptops - one Dell Latitude D820, one Dell Inspiron E1705.Inspiron runs AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2006, Latitude runs AutoCAD 2006.  Both computers can successfully plot and publish, but the Inspiron completes the task three times faster than the Latitude, and they have very similar settings in AutoCAD!  (For my speed test, I used the same AutoCAD file on both computers).The funny thing is, the Latitude has 3.25 GB of ram, and a faster processor (it's a newer computer).  The Inspiron has 2 GB of ram, and is older.Does anyone know of settings or system variables in AutoCAD that could affect the speed at which plotting/publishing is completed?the other option, I suppose, is that Architectural Desktop is just better at plotting/publishing...Thanks!

Same OSes?Same DWG?Defrag both, plus use ccleaner to clean things up...Check the CPU usage of both and memory usage..Thinking about it, it might be the HDD in them or the graphics card/setting that makes a difference..  Check the HDDs (ideally spin rate and cache size), then check the graphics cards in both.  If they're built-in, maybe check the BIOS to give extra RAM to the graphics cards, for memory...What's the difference in speed are we talking one second, a few, or a lot longer?  Are the drawing files the same ones, or comparable in size?

Yes, Same OSes, Same DWG.For a relatively large AutoCAD file, the Inspiron takes maybe 10-15 seconds to plot a drawing completely.  The Latitude takes more like 1 minute per drawing.I had not thought of it being a Hard Drive or graphics card issue, I will look at that - so, you don't believe there's any particular setting or system variable in AutoCAD that might control the speed of plotting?For instance - it doesn't seem to matter whether I'm background plotting/publishing or not.  Both computers use the exact same RGB file to plot the drawing, same size output, DPI, etc.