Instrument Summary VERRYYY Slow

[Charlie Winter]

Instrument Summary tool continues to be lagging heavily still on v2022 SP3. 

 

It's not tenable to wait upwards of 1-2min for VW to stop beach balling..

 

Can anyone relate? I'm running right now on a 14" MBP M1 Pro.

[Scott C. Parker]

1. Are you placing the summary for the first time in the drawing you're working in?
2. Or has you already built the first one and now you're placing it again?
3. How many different symbols is it trying to include?

I get beach balls when I have a large number of items and the tool is trying to build the list of symbols to include on its own.

[DCLD]

I've found running the 'Purge' tool helps to speed up instrument summary.

[Charlie Winter]

On 3/20/2022 at 8:38 AM, Scott C. Parker said:

1. Are you placing the summary for the first time in the drawing you're working in?
2. Or has you already built the first one and now you're placing it again?
3. How many different symbols is it trying to include?

I get beach balls when I have a large number of items and the tool is trying to build the list of symbols to include on its own.

Scott.

 

My common workflow is to place one summary with all of the devices used in my drawing. Following that I will copy/paste additional summaries and use Filter to refine the information that is shown. It is here that things begin to slow down.

 

I would say I have around 15 symbols in total.

[TomWhiteLight]

Hi Charlie, can you post or DM the file please?

 

thanks.

[mkue]

Hi there, iam encountering the same problems and i have the exact same workflow as Charlie Winter. Is there any news on that already?

 

Thank you,

Michael

 

[Scott C. Parker]

If we could get copies of the files for testing, it would be very helpful. 

 

Thanks, Scott

[Scott C. Parker]

On 3/28/2022 at 2:27 PM, Charlie Winter said:

use Filter to refine the information that is shown. It is here that things begin to slow down.

So it sounds like it's something related to the filtering. What happens if you delete the unwanted items vs. filtering them out?

[Scott C. Parker]

@Charlie Winter Your symbol key is slow for me as well. We're looking at it.

[mkue]

purging did a lot for me already though the summary is still very inconsistent, i always have issues with being slow as well as not displaying the fixture names at publishing etc...in this regard it helps if i copy/delet/insert in place but this "workflow" does anoy me a lot since i never kow if my publishing task of 10 plus sheets goes well or not

 

however i will send you the file to have a look at it.

 

thanks

Michael

 

[Prubie]

Has there been any developments on this?  I get this slow performance consistently when choosing build list and moving items in and out of the component list.  I've tried the purge feature.

[TomWhiteLight]

Let's circle back on this when 2023 is out and let us know if you are still seeing the same issues.

[DBLD]

@mkueI noticed you mentioned the Instrument Summary not displaying fixture names. I have had that issue in the past and pulled my hair out for a very long time trying to figure out why it sometimes would disappear and but most of the time it would not. What I found was that on a published sheet where it appeared the fixture names weren't displayed I was able to zoom in a very long way and the text there but was miniature.

 

What I was doing was placing the Instrument Summary directly onto the Sheet Layer.

 

What I now do is create a Design Layer at 1:1 scale and place the Instrument Summary on that. It is the only thing on that Design Layer. I then create a viewport of the Instrument Summary Sheet Layer on the Design layer and can then scale it as needed to fit. I have never had the text disappear since.

 

I hope this fixes one of your issues.

[thijsdebock]

I would say this tpic has def not been improved so far in 2023. As soon as you have filters on the summary it takes forever. even just chaning the name of a header title costs already 3 minutes

[TomWhiteLight]

Is this from a file you created prior to 2023? Or are you using your own content/symbols created in an earlier version of Vectorworks? 

If this is a brand new file using Vectorworks Stock Symbols and you are getting this performance issue please can you email in the file or post here?

Have you tried the new graphic legends yet?

[Brendan Gray]

I'm still seeing this behavior in 2023 as well.  

 

The file started in versions prior to 2023, but that is not uncommon when working with venue-provided files, or repeating projects. Venue-provided files also may use non-stock symbols.  

 

I'm interested in the graphic legends  but don't have the time right now to lean and troubleshoot a new elements.

[pghtech]

This has been occurring with me for a while, but I seem to only notice it on old files (created before 2023 and upconverted).

Unfortunately, this is our main workflow, updating shows each year without starting from scratch - especially if the scenic hasn't changed.

 

Curious if there's any fix planned for this.

 

Knowing it's been an issue forever, I try to edit the Instrument Summary only once a day or at the end of the project before publishing, so I can go get some coffee and wait 10 minutes for the dialog to open.

[Sam Jones]

Try the attached plug-in by putting it in the Plug-Ins folder inside your VW user folder and then adding the menu command to your workspace.  It is an AutoPlot Plug-in, but it is fully functional for 2 months from the first time you try to use it.  It is faster than the Instrument Summary, and it reports the selected mode, but it is not a plug-in object, so you will have to re-run the command if you want to change the settings.  Let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Sam

sjones@autoplotvw.com

AP Instrument Summary.vsm

[TomWhiteLight]

If you update the Light Info Record to the latest version this will help.

 

You can also create a Graphic Legend, these are way quicker than the instrument summary tool and are available for free.

 

I enclose an example to get you going.

 

 

GL For Lights example.vwx

[Scott C. Parker]

Fyi, I can finally share...

The summary key has been completely rebuilt for 2024 and is performing much faster. It retains 90% of what was there, but adds the ability to add all entertainment objects into the key. Looking forward to seeing what people think.

We're working on that last 10% 🙂