11.5 slowness issue

[HenryS]

Alan

Thanks for your post. I had a look at the memory / CPU usage early during the problem but couldn't see any real difficulties. I had another look after your post but still can't see any problems. Neither CPU nor memory load seem excessive and resetting the preferences (which solves the problem, at least temporarily) doesn't significantly affect memory or CPU usage.

We have applied the patch but from what I understand that was purely to fix a crashing problem a lot of users were experiencing in vectorworks.

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Henry

WindowsXP ProSP2

Dell Precision 470

P4 3.00GHz

1GB RAM

ATI FireGL V3100

[Nick_Reid]

Henry,

Do you have any google apps installed on your machines other than the search toolbar in Internet Explorer? Prefs reset only worked tmporarily but I noticed a marked slowdown after I installed Google Earth and Google Desktop Search. They made my whole machine run at a snail's pace even though the spec is not too dissimilar to yours. Removing them and then restoring to its pre-install condition seems to have solved the problem. I still have stabilty problems associated with Vectorworks and Outlook running at the same time even though I've applied the 11.5.0 patch. I've now reverted to 11.0.1 to fix this.

Nick

[IanH]

I am runnng Win2000 SP4 and whilst I have not seen any specific slowing down, I have had slowness when opening some menu's. I jumped straight to 11.5 so have no concept of the speed of earlier versions.

My slowing down appears to be directly relating to my Antivirus software - Mcafee. For some unknown reason, it can suddenly bring the machine to a standstill whilst it goes through the whole font library virus scanning each font file. This is easily visable for me my opening my Mcafee system scan status.

Possibly a red herring but it may help.

[woodboat]

Slow here too but not exactly like others above. Brand new VW user here and suggestions would be very appreciated.

My machine is 1.8 Athlon (Barton)/WinXP SP1, 1 gig PC3200, on a new m-board. Nvidia 256 mb card. Everything else runs fine (Cinema4D, ACAD, Photoshop, Turbocad 11, Rhino 3) never any problems so far.

When I import an ACAD (2002) file (about 5 mb) the zoom takes 10 to 15 sec to respond if viewing extents. I know it is a big ACAD file, but I did expect better from VW. If zooming from up close, VW responds much better. Seems related to the sheer number of points on screen to consider. Otherwise, seems to work OK so far, but I haven't really pushed it as I am a rank beginner with the software. Really looking forward to working with VW if it will behave OK with ACAD.

Is there a post elsewhere I might read about this?

Many thanks, Lloyd

[HenryS]

Thank you all for helping with this.

Nick

We do not generally have any google apps or other web browser / desktop search plugins, but I certainly do not have any on my machine, which is experiencing problems. We upgraded straight from VW9.5 to VW11.5 so never saw whether VW11 was less prone to problems, so I am considering contacting our vendor for a copy of VW11, to see if that will run more smoothly.

Ian

We also run a McAfee application here, so I wonder if that is causing some sort of problem. We are using McAfee Total Virus Defense Suite version 4.5.1 (Vshield in the system tray). If I watch the system scan status dialog I do notice some of the core components of Vectorworks being scanned, but not the font files in particular and not in a way that suggests that it is causing the immediate problems. I just tried exiting McAfee and disabling all the McAfee related processes but that does not seem to solve the problem.

Lloyd

I have to admit I find the transition from AutoCAD to Vectorworks to be generally quite frustrating. I am afraid I have not seen your problem before and do not really have any suggestions. If I come across a solution I will post it here, otherwise I hope you find the solution elsewhere.

---------------------------

Henry

WindowsXP ProSP2

Dell Precision 470

P4 3.00GHz

1GB RAM

ATI FireGL V3100

[Nick_Reid]

Henry

I've also had a recurring stability issue with VW11.5 which has been substantially improved by reinstalling Quicktime 6.5.1. I seem to have originally had 6.5.2. Try this link if you need to reinstall: http://download2.nemetschek.net/nnapub/win/QuickTime651/QuickTimeFullInstaller.exe

This also seems to have improved the speed of 11.5, which I now consider to be faster than 11 for drawings with large numbers of points. The decision on whether to use Hardware Accelerated 2D Navigation in the display prefs seems to be very drawing dependent. My experience has been that it works very well on smaller drawings whether bitmap, vector or combination but once the point count rises (as can happen with Acad imports) then hardware acceleration is best turned off. As a general point it's my view that autocad hatches have always had a seriously detrimental affect on VW performance. 11.5 is no different in my experience.

Nick

[Viper x]

Memory leaks have been a major problem for me for ages, everything suggested I have tried with little use, the same leakage now happens in VW11.5

http://techboard.nemetschek.net/cgi/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=004174

[ 07-12-2005, 06:20 PM: Message edited by: Viper x ]

[alanmac]

Hi viper

Whilst i don't think this will cure your ills I'm afraid, I notice that you are running with 512 of ram. In my opinion this is about the bare minimum required for a working PC these days, and I think you'd be doing yourself no harm by upgrading this.

I'd be wanting to increase that to 1 gb or more if I was you. Only a suggestion to help speed things up a bit.

Alan

[Diamond]

I am having the same problem as Travis.

"4) Finally, it seems sometimes that VW takes over the whole computer's resources and grinds a little slower by the minute. I've only had this happen after several hours (more than 4 or 5) of continuous use. Some types of rendering refuse to even try, text changes become excersizes in slow molasses, etc. A general, overal slowing (unlike what you describe). Quitting and re-launching VW doesn't help. Only a system restart fixes this."

This has been really annoying me. Is there anything else we can do? Is this a permission problem, or a memory leak problem. I have also had problems when I have gone to export the drawing to VW 10 or on saving it. (where I am contracting only use VW 10.5 so I have to save as VW 11 and export back to 10) Extremely frustrating as the 'Save' / 'Export' commands can sometimes take minutes to come up.

[rdrines]

I found a noticable speed increase in how quickly VW loads after upgrading to version 11.51 from 11.50.

[HenryS]

Just upgraded to VW11.5.1 with fingers crossed but it made no difference.

As an update on the problem we are having here, it turns out only to occur when dealing with files residing on the server but not when the files are on the workstation.

Which made me wonder if this was related to another problem we have been having where workstations running Windows2000 are unable to double-click to open vectorworks (and only vectorworks) files. This does not affect other filetypes no matter the size, nor does it affect WindowsXP workstations, nor files that are on the workstation. Puzzling.

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Henry

WindowsXP ProSP2

Dell Precision 470

P4 3.00GHz

1GB RAM

ATI FireGL V3100

[HenryS]

Ages ago now, but we managed to get a copy of VW11.0 from our vendor (we upgraded straight from 9.5 to 11.5 so had not used a copy of 11.0 before). Somewhat unsurprisingly this does not have the command problem I have been whining about for the last couple of months.

I would rather be using the version we paid for, which has a few handy features which I am missing, but the problems with the slow commands were making it unworkable.

Ho hum. Hope that helps somebody.

---------------------------

Henry

WindowsXP ProSP2

Dell Precision 470

P4 3.00GHz

1GB RAM

ATI FireGL V3100

[alanmac]

Hi Henry

It appears, and I've not tried this with other programs, that if I open a VW file that is saved on a CD then Vectorworks always comes up with the dialog that sayes this file is read only etc. obviously because this is a CD and unless it went through the burning process each time VW can't save back, so it opens a copy.

My assumution then is that, as we know VW writes or reads back to the file, and checks this functionality upon file opening.

Because its opening a file on your server it can write back to it, hence no message.

But the speed at which it writes back is determind by the network, settings, traffic etc. So it makes sense the file on the workstation is out of the network loop and read/writes quicker.

When you open the file from the server, it's still on the server, not on your machine and hence the slow down.

Maybe other programs operate a different way and actually create a temp file whilst you work on it only accessing the original when save is envoked, were as Vectorworks using its function of reverting back so many undo's etc.in preferences always needs to access the file original.

So save to machine then back to server on finishing to get the speed up and any other issues. Not ideal but a workround.

Just a thought.

Alan

[ 08-12-2005, 06:55 AM: Message edited by: alanmac ]

[islandmon]

My 2 cents says that it's not at all about VW. It's about Win2000 and the way it handles .temp files and .ds_store directories.

Alanmac is on target with his read of this situation.

Also keep in mind that Win2000 looks for the invisible 'alias' and then uses it to open the most recent saved version on the server.

Try using Win2000 to do a simple FAT file search. It takes for friggin ever ... the same search on OSX is virtually instantaneous !

This looks to be to be a filepath OS issue... not a VW problem.

[HenryS]

Thanks for your thoughts.

The only things I would add to this are that:

-it only affects Vectorworks files, not images, Photoshop files, MSOffice documents etc. So unless like Alan says it is tied up with the way Vectorworks saves files I cannot see that it is an OS problem.

-it only occurs in Vectorworks11.5 not Vectorworks11.0 or 9.5 (the only two versions we have used recently) which reinforces my suspicion that it is a Vectorworks problem.

I would much rather not have people here working saving the drawings to their desktops (even if it is only temporary). There is a certain amount of group work that would be awkward if the files were not kept up to date at all times on the server.

Thanks for your thoughts though. Gunther at Nemetschek has contacted me to say he is looking into the problem so hopefully we will have some good news soon.

---------------------------

Henry

WindowsXP ProSP2

Dell Precision 470

P4 3.00GHz

1GB RAM

ATI FireGL V3100

[Flip]

Hi Henry

I've had the same problem and indeed this is not an OS Issue. As you said VectorWorks 9.5 worked smoothly and other programs don't have any performance issues.

I was dissapointed to find out that the 11.5.1 update did not fix this issue.

Please someone at Nemetschek fix this problem.

Philip

[ErichR]

There is definitly a slowness issue.

Imported an 8 MB ACAD topo file. About 60 acres. Lots of contours. Looks great, prints great, but can take 10 seconds to recognize and execute a simple tool command.

XP and OSX10.3.9. 11.5.1 both machines.

[ 08-23-2005, 09:34 PM: Message edited by: ErichR ]

[APE Design Ctr]

With 11.01, rendering was pretty good as far as speed. With 11.51, my batch viewport rendering on the same project is at least twice as long time wise.

[ErichR]

You gotta wonder why there's been no official input here. Let's keep this active and at the forefront so somebody notices!

[ErichR]

Maybe this is too simple, but I noticed on the Vectorworks Preferences dialog box a Reset button. I did, and the slowness seems to have stopped. It may be a miracle.

[AndyM]

I have found that when I selct a dimension it flashes for 2 or 3 seconds before allowing me to do anything to it. Grouping, ungrouping, duplicating and moving symbols is much slower than V10. I am on 11.5.1

[ 08-26-2005, 06:35 PM: Message edited by: AndyM ]

[HenryS]

Erich - I noticed that resetting Vectorworks preferences temporarily removes the problem BUT the slowness seems to occur when opening drawings.

I.e. if you open three drawings then close two of them then it still runs slow. If you open three drawings then reset it runs fine.

In addition the problem only seems to occur if the files are located on the network, but if the drawings are located on your workstation then there seems to be no problem.

Is this the same for you?

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Henry

Windows 2000 SP4

Dell Precision 340

P4 2.00GHz

526MB RAM

NVidia Quadro2

[APE Design Ctr]

No matter what I do, VW 11.51 is still dog-slow.

I have a Top-Fuel dragster for a machine, and it works great for every other application, but it seems as VW is like putting water in the tank. Unbelieveable.

[ErichR]

Working on a particular 15MB, not that big, file, has been difficult and slow. First I tried the above, resetting the preferences. Finally, I discovered that the culprit was confined to a couple of layers that had simple, curved polyline, extrusions, used in 3d modeling. With these layers invisible, everything is fine.

So, problem solved? Not really. These are essential extrusions, and making any modifications to them is anguishing because of slowness. I don't know if this is a bug, the inability of the app to perform, or some type of corruption.

[Amante.D]

HI All,

i'm having simillar issues that I have read thru these discussion, but mime just occured recently when I updated my operating system from OS 10.3 to 10.4 and it got worst when updated to 10.4.2 security upgrade from apple.

I have been doing Repair permission and reinstall VW11.5.1 somewhat improved but still coming back. I think these issues related to latest OS and VW is not up to par with Apple.

My slow problem is regenerating the drawing when panning and opening sheet layers containing details with many PIO and hatches. I have also notice that the working with viewports is very slow ( I use this because i like the the idea not having to draw same details twice in different scales) and tiring to edit annotation especially trying to snap dimension on other viewport showing and having to go each viewport to change it.

BTW, this slowness happens on 2d drawings, 3d rendering seem to be fine so far.