VW 10 uses all my CPU; is it OK?

[Hugo]

I have just upgraded to VW 10 and everything has been OK, except sometimes the program slows down in a notorious way. I'm running Mac OS X 10.2.2 on a 400 mhz iMac with 768 mb of ram.

I've trying to guess what happens and I have discovered that when VW is the front application, it uses almost all my CPU, so in the terminal, top shows my CPU 0,0% idle. It doesn't matter if I'm drawing or not, VW always uses about 60 - 70% of the CPU while Window Manager uses the rest. If I put the terminal in the front, inmediatly VW resources go down to 0 - 0,9% of the CPU.

Why does VW 10 use so much CPU even if I leave it doing nothing for several minutes?

Why does the fact of putting another app in the front make VW use so less CPU?

Does the program do something very CPU intensive when in the front?

[broesler]

The high CPU usage when VW is the active app has been noted by others. So far, no one has offered an explanation as to why VW apparently behaves this way. If just sitting there doing nothing uses 50%+ of the CPU cycles, what's left for doing real work? Half, or less, of our CPU power? Anybody have any info?

As to why your CPU usage drops to near Zero when another window is brought to the front: the CPU usage drops because activating another applications' window makes that the active app, not VW. And then, all is right with the world again.

[MikeB]

I asked this a long time ago, because I saw the same behavior on my PC. VW would peg the processor every time it was active. Here was the answer

"As for your question, you have no worries. Your processor is constantly being cycled and used by Windows and active programs. I.e., let's say that "A" program uses 30% of your processor, 70% is being cycled by Windows. VectorWorks comes from a Mac environment where the program cycles rather than the O/S, therefore when VectorWorks is in the background Windows is cycling, when it is active VectorWorks will utilize all unused processor usage. When another program becomes active, VectorWorks turns the processor handling back to Windows to manage. Again, this is just a remnant of the Mac history of VectorWorks. There is nothing that VectorWorks can do that will damage your processor. Even when your computer is idle the processor is being used."

Here is the link to the response.

http://techboard.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000563

[Dan Kessler]

I'm kind of worried about this. I use VW on a PowerBook 800, usually for 6+ hours at a time. As noted, VW 10 consumes almost all of my processor even when sitting idle. The fan is constantly running on high mode.

VectorWorks is going to melt my computer!!!

[PeterT]

Hugo,

I have also posted the exact same question previously, but did not get any response from NNA.

Maybe they are not understanding the problem, or more hopefully, still searching for the answer.

Here is the link to my post:

NNA Tech Board

Regards,

PeterT

[Guest]

VW generates alot of File I/O work when working in files, or even when a file is simply open.

There are various text files in your VW folder which VW is constantly getting information from or writing too.

You will notice an increased processor usage when PIO's and symbols have the "On Schedule" checkmark box enabled.

Also when using Notes and Keynotes, VW is reading from the text files containing the database and keynotes/notes themselves.

There are a number of other things that require the same sort of reference to text files which can consume a larger portion of the processor time.

The short answer for why you are seeing a high level of processor use is becuase of File I/O required for VW to run.

[PeterT]

Katie,

Thank you for the info.

But my biggest question is still why Vectorworks would be using so much processor when there is not even a document open.

Are these file reads and references going on even without a file being open?

And why does the processor usage go up when I plot a file using the Mac Print Center, but does not go back down long after the plot is finished. We have to quit and restart VectorWorks to drop the processor usage back down.

After plotting, our machines slow down so much that we have dubbed the event as " the rubber band cursor". You can click the mouse around the drawing four times rapidly and then sit and watch the cursor move from point to point with three seconds between each move.

We have to restart VectorWorks each time we plot a sheet, and we are plotting sheets all day long.

We are plotting from VW 9.5.3 in OS 10.2.3 now. We never had this issue with VW 9.5.3 in OS 9.2.2, but of course there we were plotting with MicroSpot's raster driver.

There is something strange going on here that cannot be attributed to normal processor activity.

Any help on this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

PeterT

[Guest]

Peter,

Are you using Gimp Print to print now ?

[rmiller]

I've also noticed a significact slow down while using VW 10. I'm using a G4 400 Mhz with 1 G memory OS 10.2.3 and I've been getting a lot of the "rubber band effect" Peter mentioned. Which is more to blame: VW or OS X?

Does anyone have any suggestions for speeding things up in VW.

[Guest]

Rmiller,

are you noticing the problem of slowness after printing or before printing?

What type of computer do you have? G3 or G4 or a power book?

[Dan Kessler]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with Peter. There's "something strange going on here". I think I can understand what Katie is describing, but I'm not buying it. With a blank document, or even without any document open, VW is causing my CPU meter to be on full tilt.

So is Nemetchek going to replace my PowerBook when VectorWorks melts it?

[Guest]

I am looking into the processor usage while no document is open.

Per my post, I explained why processor usage is high while a file is open in VW.

When I find something out, I'll be sure to post it here.

I don't know how soon I'll have that information as I have a trillion things on my plate right now. I'll try to get it as soon as possible.

[rmiller]

Katie

I'm just talking about VW being slow in general, nothing to do with printing. Is there anything that can be done about it or is this something that's being looked into?

I have a G4 Power Mac (I wish I had a power book though...if you could help me out there that would be great too)

[Guest]

Those of you guys having the ruberband effect --

Do you have other programs running?

Can you open another file and draw stuff in it and it is really slow in the new file also?

Does restarting fix the "slow" or un-reponsive mouse clicks?

I'm pretty surprised to hear this information as everyone I've talked to using OS 10.2.3 has had pretty impressive speed improvements compared to 10.2.2 and earlier.

[Guest]

rmiller -

Are you working with clean documents created in VW 10 or are you working with files converted to VW 10 from vw 9 or a previous version?

How many other programs do you have running while VW is running?

what version of the OS are you using?

[rmiller]

I'm using OS 10.2.3

but you know what...I was just thinking: "yeah things did seem a little better with 10.2.3". And VW was acting a little slow when I happened to read these posts this afternoon while working on a particular drawing. I played around in some of my other drawings and everything was pretty good, so I think I'm looking at a file specific problem as far as the slow cursor goes...But as for CPU usage...yes like the others VW is topping my meter, even with no drawing open. No other significant apps running

[Guest]

OKay the CPU thing I'm working on. If I get two seconds to get away from my desk, I'll get on it...

If you are only having the problem with a specific file, you may want to copy bits and pieces of the file to a new, blank document at a time and see if there is a specific object causing the problem.

it's usually associated to a group or a specific symbol that is corrupt.

Last week I worked about 8 or 9 hours on a customer's file. Of course it was the last item I cut/copied to the new document. Turns out it was a group of objects that was causing the problem. Once I ungrouped those objects, I also found a symbol thruought the drawing that was corrupted. cuting and pasting that into a new symbol worked like a charm. The file was back to normal speed.

When I first got the file, it took about 1.5-2 seconds to click from one line to another line. It was painful.

[Guest]

Processor usage -

While VW does not have a file open, or you are not currently working in a file, you may notice the processor usage to stay at a significant usage

level. VectorWorks is using the processor's idle time to perform internal checks and synchronizations, and these operations are happening more frequently than is really necessary.This is a known issue. Our engineering team is working on addressing this issue for a future release.

[skoorbb]

Katie (from 2 posts back - related to drawing lag time)

What is a "corrupt" symbol?

How are symbols corrupted? groups?

By grouping items? "nested" symbols in groups? nested groups in groups in symbols? etc....

We are experiencing this problem with a large number of our VW files; e.g., 2 files about 700kb each, with 1 as a wgr.

If the corrupt symbol idea is the cause for slowdowns, we've got a lot of corrupt symbols in a lot of files. How did this happen? We do not have time to go through each file clipping and pasting to find a corrupt symbol.

Can a tool or script be developed to isolate groups and symbols, or whatever, to locate a corrupt symbol? Or will this be addressed with future vw releases?

[mike46]

Just for the record on pc with xp vwa rw active with file open but but no activity on my part cpu usage is 4-6% same situation but in bacground vw uses 2%

I have been a suer since mc7 always on pcs and have never seen this problem

Mike

[Guest]

Bruce,

Rarely do you have a corrupt object in a drawing.

There's a number of things that can cause this. None of which the user does intensionally.

If you want me to take a look at the file you are having to see if I can duplicate the slowness here, you can. I have to let you know I might not get to it until tomorrow afternoon. I have about 12 files I am looking into for other various questions at the moment.

[P Retondo]

In my experience on the windows platform VW 8 will use 100% of the CPU whenever it is the active window. This problem is corrected in version 10, and if I recall correctly was corrected with VW 9. You can confirm this using Task Monitor, minimized to the little icon on the task bar. Open version 10 and version 8 at the same time, switch back and forth between the two (allow a few seconds lag time), and watch the little icon go from black to solid green and back.

There have been posts in the past on this. If it was solved for Windows, it can probably be solved for the Mac . . . ?

Win2K

P4 2.0Gh

[Hugo]

I see my initial post has became a hot topic in the last days...

Katie, after upgrading to 10.2.3 I can see a speed improvement and VW runs quite good on my iMac (400 mhz, 768 MB of ram).

Anyway, VW 10.0.1 still uses most of my CPU resources when working or when idle.

Can this cause a damage to my computer as time passes? I use VW almost daily, all the day.

[PeterT]

Katie,

I am responding to your question to me. Sorry, too busy to respond sooner.

No, we are not using Gimp Print now. We are using the HP DesignJet 800 PS3 PPD directly by the Print Center.

I have downloaded and installed Gimp Print however, but I do not select it in the print dialog yet. I am trying to figure one thing out at a time, but I will be trying Gimp print soon, and I will let you know how it goes.

We are currently having the ?Rubber Band? effect on all our machines after plotting, G4 467 MHz, G4 800 MHz, and G4 Dual 867 MHz. We have the problem on OS 10.2.2 and onOS 10.2.3 and it happens on any file.

The Plotting issue is bad, but the general sluggishness and high processor usage issue (whether plotting or not) seems less noticable on the G4 dual 867 MHz than the G4 467 MHz, and was intollerable on the G3 267 MHz machines which are now in the CPU graveyard.

I understand the concept that high processor usage issues will be less noticable on faster processors, but it does not seem that we should all have to buy the absolute most recent computer series just to work efficiently.

Anyway, thanks for any effort you are putting into resolving any of this, and let?s hope Apple Computer is doing their part too.

Regards,

Peter

[Guest]

Like I said earlier, the processor is using idle time and should not affect your computer. Computers are designed to handle these types of things. Computers run all day long using 100% processor time and do so for years on end.