Original LXSeries Forum

I have noticed that the current build I have installed (5729) seems to be running slower. In fact I think I have detected this over the last few builds but now it has become very irritating. I thought at first it might just be my MacBook Pro getting old but none of my other apps are showing the same delays.

I have a drawing in LxBeams that is a 2.3MB file. There are 4 layers - 3 are imported from Vectorworks: a theatre plan , a set plan and a repertoire rig, one is the lighting layer. About 450 instruments most of which have focus information. Most positions have mapping info and a bounce point. I am experiencing a delay of up to 1 second between clicking on an instrument and the actual selection appearing.The delay seems to accumulate at a higher rate then 1 per second when sequential selections are made.

Anyone else getting the same issue? Any suggestions from Admin about how to restore operational speed?

Actually, this may be a result of OS X 10.7 and its insistence on opening everything you had open before. If you have a few reports and a section window open, then every change goes through all the sorting/processing necessary for those views as well as the main plot window. The good news is that while the main plot will reopen according to the operating system, you don't have to have all the reports you left open come back as well. This is a preference in the general tab. Its clear that opening a plot that also restores reports and other auxiliary windows takes longer to open. (But, it takes less time than opening the plot and all those windows individually if you're going to do it anyway).

If it is in the file, the suspect is the VectorWorks files. If you turn off the layers displaying those files does the speed increase? How much RAM does your computer have? Part of 10.7's reopening behavior drives a need for more RAM. (People are telling me that 16gb is a baseline these days. Why current Mac models don't come with this, I don't know--except to keep the initial price point low.)

I would need the file to try determine exactly what the bottle-neck is.

I thought all the open files might be the issue so I had closed them and it makes no difference. However you are right about the VW files. Closing them and I am back up to speed again. Is there some way I can get the set layers as smaller files? I need the set layer so I can see where I am focussing a light and I need the theatre layer so I can see when I am about to hit the proscenium etc.

I'm going to guess that the VW files are PDFs. What I would do is to keep those on separate layers so that you can turn them on for final output. But, use preview to convert them to JPEG and place the JPEG copies on additional layers. That way you can turn on the lower resolution bitmap layer for faster interactivity and then have the higher quality PDF for printing.

MacLux Pro had an onscreen bitmap option that did this kind of thing to speed up screen redraw. It happened automatically when the option was enabled. Computers were much slower then... It hasn't seemed necessary with LXBeams. But I guess the complexity and size of drawings has also increased along with processor speed.

It may be possible to add a similar option to images in LXBeams in the future so you can just switch a check box and have the application convert your image to a bitmap when for you when it is rendered onscreen.

(This will have to wait until v2.0 is released which should be soon)

UPDATE:

The latest build 1.9.30 changes the caching behavior of images. This appears to speed up screen redraw of large imported PDF graphics.

The cost of the change is that more memory is used to keep the cached images available. But, so far, that does not seem to be a big issue.

Thanks. 1.9.30 is much faster. I realized in retrospect that as I had used more and more of the features of LxBeams the drawings had been getting bigger and bigger. I now use all sorts of images, pdfs of channel lists, multiple layers of set and theatre, section drawings etc and I find that my design process is now much clearer and better organized. Gone are the MacLux days when the app and a few drawings could fit on a low density floppy!

Thanks Claude for a really great application - we all owe you a great deal for making our working process more creative. Thanks also for your fantastic responses to all our questions.