Slow Plot....

[michaelk]

Here's a new one for me.

I'm working on a plot, and yesterday the instrument insertion tool started slowing down. The onset of symptoms was sudden.

After the 2nd click when inserting an instrument it takes 6 to 10 seconds for the Object Info Palette to change. The curser stays as a small cross (or more like a +) (no beach ball, no watch) and no other inputs are accepted until after the 6 to 10 second delay.

Accessories also cause a delay.

I opened a blank document and inserted instruments instantly and to my heart's great content.

The file in question is smaller than usual, only 14.5 MB.

Anybody got any ideas?

Michael

VW 12.5.2 Designer

OS 10.4.11

Powerbook G4

[michaelk]

Getting worse...

It now takes 1 to 10 minutes to insert an instrument or accessory.

Michael

VW 12.5.2

OS 10.4.11

Powerbook G4

[MrTemplate]

hi michael;

wow. sounds like it's time for a copy and paste into a new doc. or a workgroup reference. i have had SL slow down a bit after it gets loaded up, but that's going a bit too far.

on the side, that's a pretty hefty document. maybe it's straining your ram? do you have all the lights turned on? are there huge bitmaps lurking in hidden layers? maybe you need to create a "slimmed-down" version of the doc with only the relevant lighting info?

just a thought,

shelley

[michaelk]

It gets weirder.

The size of the file doesn't seem to be the problem. I went back and opened a couple of recent drawings that were 30-40MB and one that was 160MB and inserted new instruments into them in a very pleasing and instantaneous manner.

The problems seems to be with just this document.

hmmmmm.......

Michael

VW 12.5.2

OS 10.4.11

Powerbook G4

[michaelk]

Would you believe a corrupt accessory symbol?

It was changing itself from an accessory to a light.

Deleting the symbol and repairing the data inside it fixed everything.

I'd love to know how that happened.

Michael

[MrTemplate]

yikes. was that one of mine? which accessory symbol?

shelley

[michaelk]

no, no...

It was one of mine!

One that I've been using for years.

In the data the device type changed from accessory to blank. (And it only happened in this one drawing. I went back and checked the source in my symbol library. It was fine.)

I don't know why that would matter, but it seems to matter a lot. As soon as I deleted all instances of it, the speed went back to normal.

Then I edited the symbol and reinserted. Everybody was happy.

Took most of the day to figure that one out.

It must try to do something with the data in the record with each instrument every time you insert a new lighting symbol. (Inserting as a symbol didn't bother it.) Whatever it does with that data, having a lighting symbol with a corrupt device type already in the drawing made it want to change it to Light every time I inserted a new symbol.

And apparently that takes 10 minutes.

Thanks for checking, but you're off the hook.

Michael

[MrTemplate]

thanks micheal,

<*whew*>. so kevin, if a lighting device (or accessory) is inserted, but it has no data in the lighting type, does that then in turn slow down the drawing every time a subsequent lighting device is inserted?

tia,

shelley

[michaelk]

Kevin, I'm interested to know what's going on, too.

I tried inserting a bunch of dummy lighting instruments and symbols that had NO data, including no Device Type. Nothing bad happened.

What does VW do after a lighting instrument insertion that is different from a regular symbol insertion?

Michael