Slow text edit

[Peter King]

Running VW 2019 SP2 on MacOS Mojave 10.14.1

Mac Pro (Late 2013) 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5, 2 * AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB, 64GB RAM

Experiencing a consistent problem when trying to edit text. After clicking on the text, moving the cursor about and editing is SO SLOW! Also editing text inside the Call Out tool is slow and artefacts are left behind by the cursor. These problems only started with the upgrade to Mojave. On my laptop, which is still running High Sierra and the same version of VW, the problems don't exist.

 

There are also still annoying incompatibility problems when importing and exporting DWG files, line thicknesses and arrow sizes especially seem to be a problem. Currently trialing Bricscad which flies along in comparison to VW and also seems to be more compatible with DWG drawings (which is unfortunately a requisite in my industry as I often need to exchange drawings with AutoCAD users).

 

If SP3, when it eventually comes out, doesn't solve the problems with Mojave then I think when my VW subscription runs out next autumn (fall) I shall have to move on to another CAD platform - suggestions welcome!

[Marissa Farrell]

Hi @Peter King

Could you provide me with more information and confirm that you are for certain using 2019 SP2?

Also, if possible, could you share a file where this slow text editing issue is occurring, if not here, possibly by direct message or email?

I'm more than happy to help look into this issue with you.

 

Marissa Farrell

Vectorworks Quality Assurance Specialist

[Peter King]

Hi Marissa - many thanks for your rapid reply.

 

I can indeed confirm that, as stated in my post, I am running VW 2019 SP2 on MacOS Mojave 10.14.1

Mac Pro (Late 2013) 3.5 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon E5, 2 * AMD FirePro D500 3072 MB, 64GB RAM)

 

The problem occurs on all files that I am working on, newly created ones as well as ones created on older versions of VW. As I say, running the same version of VW on my MacBook Pro, which I have not yet upgraded from High Sierra, it runs perfectly acceptably.

 

I have sent you one of the VW files that I am currently working on, but as I say,  the same VW files that I have problems with on the Mac Pro are absolutely fine on the PC and the MacBook, so I am sure it isn't a problem with any particular VW file. I have also sent you a screen grab of editing Callout text where you can see the artefacts caused by simply back-moving the cursor. I have just noticed that this doesn't seem to occur on the first line of text, only on subsequent lines. Strange!

 

The problem must be something to do with the Mac Pro's outdated technology and VW's coding. I have a trial version of VW 2019 SP2 running on my PC (Windows 7, which is also quite ancient) which does not have the problem and also a licensed version of VW 2019 SP2 running on my MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB running High Sierra 10.13.6) which does not have the problem.

 

The delay is quite slight, so it is not making the program unusable, just a little frustrating and annoying when you know it should just fly along like any other piece of software on high end (albeit dated) technology! 

Denmead.vwx

[Marissa Farrell]

Thank you, Peter!

If you haven't already, could you try renaming your 2019 user folder on the offending Mac? I'm not sure that it will resolve the issue, but there's always a chance that we may be able to eliminate this annoyance and get things working a little better for you.

 

One way to locate your user folder would be to go to Vectorworks Preferences in the 'User Folders' tab and click the button labeled 'Reveal in Finder' at the top. If you rename the '2019' folder (which will be the folder outside of the contents this reveals) to '2019_old' and restart Vectorworks, a new one will be created. (Renaming the folder allows you to put it back after to keep all of your preferences in case this attempt fails)

[The path to the user folder if you don't want to follow the above process is  HD > Users > (User's Home Folder) > Library > Application Support > Vectorworks > 2019, the easiest way to get to that Library folder would be to hold the alt/option key on your keyboard while selecting "Go" from the menu bar and choosing Library]

 

If this new user folder does solve your problem, I'll ask that you send me a zipped copy of your old folder by email later.

[Peter King]

Thank you for your suggestion Marissa. I did as you instructed but I'm afraid it didn't make any difference. Still the slow/hesitant text editing and the artefacts in the Callout editor. My gut feeling is that the problem lies at a low level in the graphics area, as strange things do happen from time to time. I won't go into great detail here as they are quite difficult to describe and too time consuming! A common thing is that artefacts sometimes get left on screen after move and erase operations (I can easily get rid of them) and also some operations when using split screen mode cause a number of 'ghost' images of the entire window at varying sizes to appear. When this happens I have to close and reopen the file I'm working on. These problems only occur on the Mac Pro & MacBook Pro (never on the PC) and only when using VW, never with other software, so I am certain there is nothing wrong with either machine. (As I said before though, the current text editing problem is only on the Mac Pro running Mojave, not on the MacBook Pro running High Sierra). None of the problems are critical, just a bit annoying!

[Marissa Farrell]

Good news, Peter!

It sounds like we've been able to reproduce this in-house, it's being looked at.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and trying out some potential troubleshooting fixes for me in the meantime.

[Peter King]

Thank you Marissa. Glad it is being looked into! Kind regards, Peter

[Peter King]

Hi Melissa. Another problem that I didn't mention before and that may be relevant is that when double-clicking on a title block (2019 SP2 Mac Pro) to update it takes an age for the 'Title Block Border Settings' box to come up. Literally about 2 seconds which is a real trip wire in your workflow!

[rsdcarch]

Hi there;

 

I am indeed having the same issue once I updated to Mojave on an older Mac Pro. Has there been any clarity on this?

 

Thank you.

[Marissa Farrell]

@rsdcarch

If you undock your OIP that should help to resolve the issue as it's worked on.

[rsdcarch]

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an OIP and how do I unlock it?!? 🙂

[Marissa Farrell]

The OIP is the Object Info Palette, it's the palette that displays information about the selected object and by default is the top, right palette. You can click and drag on the words "Object Info" to move it away from the righthand side of the screen and make it a floating palette.

[Peter King]

10 minutes ago, rsdcarch said:

Hi there;

 

I am indeed having the same issue once I updated to Mojave on an older Mac Pro. Has there been any clarity on this?

 

Thank you.

Hello there.

 

The problems I outlined above still exist without being resolved at all which is quite disappointing. Currently I'm just putting up with them but I live in hope that there will be a SP3 soon which will address some of the problems. As the problems don't seem to exist on the Windows version I can only assume that the VW software just hasn't been written to integrate properly with the Mojave graphics system. I'm currently trying out other CAD programs like Bricscad which seem to work perfectly well on the Mac, so I'll certainly be thinking very hard about renewing my VW subscription later this year if the problems persist as they are really slowing down my workflow.

[rsdcarch]

Thanks for your reply clarifying the state of affairs. Yes, it has to be dealt with. It is amazingly annoying, especially considering VW's easy handling of text has always been a plus. I've been using VW since it was MiniCad and the only viable Mac CAD option, so I can't imagine changing software (or platforms), but I do hope this gets fixed.

 

Thanks again.

[rsdcarch]

Also, Marissa, thank you for your suggestion, but I always work w/ the OIP undocked, so that does not seem like it's a viable workaround in my case. Thanks.

[Marissa Farrell]

I may be mistaking this issue with another similar issue - in either case, we are working on this internally as it has been reproduced by members of our team. Is this slowness occurring while using the arrow keys to move around in the text?

[Peter King]

Yes on the whole VW is an excellent program - I've used it for about 6 years on Macs now after about 20 years using AutoCAD on PCs and much prefer it but these current problems are quite a major issue I think.

[Peter King]

Hi Marissa. When editing text blocks on screen, moving the cursor with the arrow keys can be a bit erratic, yes. Editing text in a call out box is quite annoying as the cursor leaves artefacts - please see attached screen grab.

[Peter King]

Also still got the problem mentioned above: ... when double-clicking on a title block (2019 SP2 Mac Pro) to update it takes an age for the 'Title Block Border Settings' box to come up. Just measured that with my stopwatch and it takes on average about 2.4 seconds for the box to appear after double clicking on a title block.

[Marissa Farrell]

1 minute ago, Peter King said:

Also still got the problem mentioned above: ... when double-clicking on a title block (2019 SP2 Mac Pro) to update it takes an age for the 'Title Block Border Settings' box to come up. Just measured that with my stopwatch and it takes on average about 2.4 seconds for the box to appear after double clicking on a title block.

Does this happen with the OIP undocked?

[rsdcarch]

Marissa;

 

Moving text around is slow. There is a good 1 second delay if I delete a piece of text. Typing new text is ok, but there is an obvious delay while backspacing or editing a piece of text. Again, w/ the OIP undocked.

 

Many thanks.

[Peter King]

Does this happen with the OIP undocked?

 

Yes it does as I have the OIP undocked all the time.

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

11 hours ago, Peter King said:

Also still got the problem mentioned above: ... when double-clicking on a title block (2019 SP2 Mac Pro) to update it takes an age for the 'Title Block Border Settings' box to come up. Just measured that with my stopwatch and it takes on average about 2.4 seconds for the box to appear after double clicking on a title block.

Hello Peter,

 

The slow opening of the TBB Settings dialog is due to its big layout. There are some optimizations made, in order to speed up the opening, like the opening should be slow when the dialog is opened for the first time, but each time after that it should be faster. Also, we are still trying to find more solutions to this problem.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[Peter King]

Thank you Nikolay. I think it opens marginally faster after the first time as presumably the code/data is cached in RAM. I wonder if it could be split into two dialogue boxes somehow, so the larger, slower box deals with less frequently used aspects of the drawing such as Project Data, Document Options, Drawing Stamp etc and then a smaller, faster box deals with frequently used aspects like Sheet Data and Revision Data?

 

Kind regards,

Peter King

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

54 minutes ago, Peter King said:

Thank you Nikolay. I think it opens marginally faster after the first time as presumably the code/data is cached in RAM. I wonder if it could be split into two dialogue boxes somehow, so the larger, slower box deals with less frequently used aspects of the drawing such as Project Data, Document Options, Drawing Stamp etc and then a smaller, faster box deals with frequently used aspects like Sheet Data and Revision Data?

 

Kind regards,

Peter King

The problem here is that users want to have as few clicks as possible to make something happen and splitting the dialog will make the clicks twice as much. Also, the frequently used aspects might vary for the different users. Anyway, will will have this suggestion in mind. 🙂