Slow Menus

[Ben W]

Some of our computers in our office and having problems with the drop down menus taking minutes to load - These computers are new and where runing v11 fine. Is there anyway to fix this?

Also v12 seems to be a little slugish, is there a reason for this.

[Guest]

Have you checked for video driver updates?

[Bill]

Katie,

It is astounding how Vectorworks lets me use the flyover tool while rendered in Open GL. There are a ton of calculations that take place for every single thing in the drawing. And all of this happens fast, for me with a 2.0 Ghz, 1 mb PC. The code that nmakes that happen is probably written in C or some other compiled language.

Maybe starting with V10, I too noticed some things that are comparatively much simpler than the flyover tool, yet taking more time that I thot necessary. In Ben's case, something like a drop down menu should almost finish before it starts. I'm guessing that some things in Vectorworks are not implemented in C, but use VectorScript. VectorScript isn't compiled, it is interpreted/translated, like having someone translate from English to French. The time to communicate increases.

Is it possible that some things are being implemented in VectorScript?

[Guest]

Bill,

Can you give an example of a tool that is running slower for you?

Are you up to date with your video driver?

You would be surprised at how much a difference an older video driver would make...

[Bill]

Katie,

I'm still using v11, and they are not menus, so this may not be valid.

Joists

In a brand new file I can insert a Joist using the Joist tool in the Objects palette. With nothing select, if I then click on the new joist, it takes a little over 3 seconds with my 2 ghz, 1 meg of memory, Windoze 2000 PC, for the Object Info Palette (OIP) to show the info for the joist.

If I create two or more joists, it takes that 3 seconds for OIP to show the info for the first joist that I click on. If I then click on another joist, the OIP is updated instantaneously.

Maybe what is happening here is that the Joist plug-in is loaded from disk and translated to some "excutable code" and that is causing the time lag. But when you click on something other than a Joist, VW throws the translated version of the plug-in away, only having to "re-translate" it the next time you click on a joist.

Classes

I have one drawing with about 180 classes. When I try to view that list via Organize, Classes, it takes about three seconds for the the window to be displayed. This is something that is super simple to do, just showing data that is sitting somewhere in memory.

But, Organize, Classes Visibilities, is instantaneous and so is its sorting. Sorting is more complicated than just displaying a list of classes, as in the nornmal old classes, list that I mentioned above, where you can edit a class.

And now having said that, I think that it is redundant to have both of those "Classes" choices in the Organize menu. The sorting capabilities in the "Classes Visibilities" list should be part of the normal "Classes" window, and likewise for Layers.

[Guest]

Bill,

You are correct in that the first time a PIO is run it will take a little longer than when you run it again during that session. That would explain the joists issue.

The Visibilities dialog box is combined with all kinds of other dialog boxes in VW 12, saving ALOT of time. The screen display, organizational functions, ability to resize the dialog AND columns, combine classes, multi-select items to make changes, and so many more advancements in VW 12 make this situation a non-issue.