VW2011 - Slow with old files?

[VincentCuclair]

Before writhing in despair you should open your project in 2011 and see if any strange behavior is visible.....on another computer with OSX 10.6 , or wait a couple of months until most bugs are sorted out.....like I said earlier VW usually is quite stable after SP3 (perhaps you'll have upgraded to Snow by then as well.....)

[scottfdavis]

Chris,

One thing I have done that has improved things a bit is to purge unused symbols out of all my documents before updating to the new version.

I was surprised to see how many traces of old symbols from other projects and things were hiding in the files.

The initial re-linking of references was slightly slower than normal but after that things seem to be running more smoothly.

The main fear is that things are smooth until a deadline comes at which point the evil spirits inevitably rear their ugly heads.

But maybe a little purging and clean-up ahead of time helps to resolve most of the conflicts.

Also--you should see in VW will give you a 2010 license to go along with a new 2011 license. This way you can run concurrently with both versions on the same OS. Our offices updated to 2010 a few months ago (from 12.5) and it was pretty seamless.

Scott

[Chris D]

you should open your project in 2011.....on another computer with OSX 10.6

Can Snow Leopard users report their experiences please. This is interesting, as we initially had problems with the couple of machines that have Snow Leopard and VW2008. Is it that VW2011 is optimised for 10.6?

[islandmon]

IMHO... issues & pathways to backwards compatibility = #1

for ALL professional applications.

Especially CAD ...

therefore, it behooves NNA to establish accessible proven-trustworthy, standards, procedures and protocols.

As reported, the current situation is absurdly shortsighted .. bordering on negligence.

[rDesign]

How does one run 2008 and 2011 simultaneously if 2008 doesn't run in OS 10.6 and 2011 doesn't run in OS 10.4?

I have 2008 SP3, 2010 and the evaluation version of 2011 all installed together under Mac OS X 10.6.4. I just fired up 2008 and it seemed to work fine - granted I didn't do much to test it out.

As long as 2008 keeps running, I plan to keep it installed on the chance that I have an older Vw file that might not open in the latest version of Vw (since I have files that go back to VW 8).

HTH,

Tim

[willofmaine]

I see that I can partition my disk and run both OS 10.4 and 10.6 at the same time; maybe I'll try that (on a temporary basis!). I assume files are only accessible to the version of the OS that's on their "side" of the partition.

[Ozzie]

I wonder now at the path NVW has gone down with yearly upgrades ? is it too short to allow for new releases to be tested / beta tested well enough?

I also wonder at the bells and whistles approach of new releases

As users are we that stupid to be sucked in like that ? really all we want to do is get our work done with VW as a tool we use

This is not a one time thing, it happens once every year!

Again I think NVW should forget about having the yearly (Beta) release (including all the irritating fake YouTube PR films) and release individual functions/ improvements/ additions as soon as they have been developed, this gives everyone the chance to Beta test and therefore gives NVW better and faster control over possible bugs. This must improve compatibility stability throughout (ie. no more need to talk about different versions it's all one file type adjusted to work in the same program regardless when it was bought.)

Stability and compatibility far outweigh a yearly PR coupe to increase VW popularity and sales!

Totally agree

But if the improved tools and functionality are there and VW is improving all the time the NVW marketing people can be promoting VW continually

Works both ways

And if islandmon says something like this

IMHO... issues & pathways to backwards compatibility = #1

for ALL professional applications.

Especially CAD ...

therefore, it behooves NNA to establish accessible proven-trustworthy, standards, procedures and protocols.

As reported, the current situation is absurdly shortsighted .. bordering on negligence.

I think NVW must pay some attention to this and sort it

He must be one of the most respected members of this board

[rDesign]

willofmaine-

Have you thought about upgrading to OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard NOT Snow Leopard)? That way you could avoid the problems that Snow Leopard introduced in Vw 2008, yet it can still run Vw 2011.

VwKB :: Vectorworks 2011 System Recommendations

VectorWorks and Mac OS X Leopard Compatibility Statement

Search eBay for "Apple Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 Install DVD MC094Z/A" and you can find a copy for sale. (I don't want to post a direct link)

HTH,

Tim

[willofmaine]

Thanks Tim, I hadn't thought of that. I do have OS 10.6 (long story) which I haven't installed because I'm still on VW 2008. But I'll keep your suggestion in mind as a possibility.

[Jim Smith]

StaticDos,

We keep two folders on the desktop, SOURCE & DESTINATION. If we need to open a file in an older version, a copy is put in the SOURCE folder then we BATCH CONVERT it.

ChrisD

I have a project started in 2004 that is under construction but we still need to reference the drawings (CO's, Si's etc.). On OS10.6.4 VW10 acts like this project acts as if it is full of glue, slow, crashes etc. The result is I work on this file on my old MacMini-works fine. I have Batch Converted the file, & imported some standard details from the 6 year old file & added them to a new Document on a MacBook (10.6.4) and the brand new file in VW11 seems to work fine. If we can, we always work in a file in the iteration of the software it was created in. If it is manageable, (ie design development) we'll WORK GROUP REFERENCE a BATCH CONVERTED file's info into a brand new template.

I have not yet installed the upgrade on all machines but we have started the upgrade. One of the things I noticed when we upgraded to VW09 was legacy WORKSPACES gave us real problems so as we upgrade we do not import legacy WORKSPACES nor do we copy WORKSPACES but build new ones on each machine.

We have tended to skip a release & upgrade every other year (..... VW10, VW12, VW2009, VW2011) I tend to think this avoids some of the problems as some upgrades work better with the OS changes. We also keep some boat anchors around to access some older files.

[Glyn Jones]

I have just upgraded to VW2011 and have found it so slow that I have reverted to 2010 until I can sort it out. I've ordered extra memory to see if that helps. I've also had problems importing old files (2010) and rendering viewports. Not recommended.

[Chris D]

I have just upgraded to VW2011 and have found it so slow that I have reverted to 2010 until I can sort it out. I've ordered extra memory to see if that helps. I've also had problems importing old files (2010) and rendering viewports. Not recommended.

For what it's worth, NemV have confirmed to me that they can replicate these slowdowns using a test VW2008 file of mine that I sent them. Now they have acknowledged it, let's see if they can sort it.

Of course, version 2011 was launched in September, and here we are in December with no fix on the horizon. This really does challenge the widsom of annual releases...unless that is, you follow one year behind the releases...

[Ozzie]

Normally when a new version of VW is released I upgrade

VW 2011 ? still have not as we probably should follow behind new releases a distance just to be safe

Let?s face it ? are the ?improvements? and hype in this new release really there yet?

As an example is data base connectivity working ok and it seems lots of other things?

SP2 ? was there really 500 plus fixes?

Boggles my mind and therefore what in fact is really going on?

I just want software that works in my day to day life rather than being out there on the bleeding edge

[Cornerstone Canada]

I've also been evaluating VW2011 on several Mac workstations in our office and no matter how I tweak the preferences and settings - have found the redraws too slow to recommend upgrading from VW2008. In addition, file sizes appear to have ballooned (ie: 37.3mb increasing to 62.3mb) which company-wide would add a significant burden to our file storage, backup and project archiving requirements.

Unfortunately, I can't recommend upgrading to VW2011. Sadly, we'll need to wait until 2012.

[jrhartley]

Unfortunately, I can't recommend upgrading to VW2011. Sadly, we'll need to wait until 2012.

Unfortunately our experiences echo the negative experiences set out here. We have spent our office IT budget upgrading to VW2011 and we are now collectively regretting it. I have now managed to get SP3 installed on my machine after some advice from NNA tech support, but the improvement on the refresh speed is marginal.

Consequently we have taken the decision not to start any new projects in VW2011 now and to revert to VW2008. Some architects in the office are even contemplating back-saving all their VW2011 projects to VW2008. I'm looking forward to giving Archicad 15 a try-out on the mac if I can get hold of a trial version.

[bcd]

This would be a good time for some reassuring words from NemV