Why is X6 so slow?


SteveT
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This is related to my previous post about the Mac version.

 

To review:

 

1. I had been using the Home verison for many years, and have recently upgraded to Chief to be compatable with my contractor, to get the goodies in the Pro version I've always wanted to play with, and to run on my Mac so I can finally unplug my PC forever.

 

2. I started running X6 on my iMac. It's about 2 years old and has 16GB of RAM. (3.4Ghz i7). It was a little buggy in the UI department (annoyances) but mostly it was just painfully slow to use.

 

3. I loaded X6 on my PC (thank you CA for your flexibile licensing!). It works faster on there (2.3 Ghz Q8200, 4GB RAM, 32 bit), but it's still annoyingly slow doing normal operations such as pulling up items in the library, or clicking on an object. The entire UI is "gummy" for the most part. I feel like I move around, then need to tap my fingers for 30 seconds, then move around some more, etc. This is way way slower than the same exact plan ran in HD 9.0, where I had no such problems. It's a little faster than on my Mac (!), but still really annoying.

 

So my questions are:

 

1. Is this normal? Is the pro version just a ton slower than the home version?

 

2. Is X6 in particular a lot slower than previous versions?

 

3. Is there better hardware I can buy to make things fast enough to stop the annoying delays? Would a Mac Pro help a lot? (Helping a "little" isn't exactly worth $5k).

 

4. Is there a software update in our future which will make the program fast again?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

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In my opinion the PC you described is painfully lacking.  I think you'll find anything less than what you see in my signature line will be relatively slow, and the upgrade from the home version brought with it a lot more features which are bound to slow the program down.  Plus, I'm assuming the new software is designed to run optimally with a newer system, and older systems won't run the new program as well as they did the older one.  I would also look at your video card on that PC. 

 

Bottom line, I think your system is outdated and could use a substantial upgrade.

 

I can't give any answer regarding the Mac as I have zero experience on that subject and even the good folks at Chief are relatively new to the territory.

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Steve,  I run an IMAC,  I think it is fast.  If I can run your plan on my computer and it is fast,  then it might be your machine  (it appears to be a fast IMAC).  If you  would like,  you can send me your plan that you think is slow,  let me try on my computer,  if it is slow on my computer,  then I think the plan is bad.  If it is fast on my computer,  maybe it is your computer that is slow.

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Steve, on further review, I realized your PC processor is actually below the minimum 2.4 GHz required by Chief, and that much further below what is recommended.

 

I figured, but that doesn't explain why my new iMac is slow, or why the cheaper home version ran the exact same plan on the  exact same hardware way faster :-(.

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I figured, but that doesn't explain why my new iMac is slow, or why the cheaper home version ran the exact same plan on the  exact same hardware way faster :-(.

No...but my previous post may have.  You have that much more of a program and a newer version.  The home designer product you were using was likely built on an older software platform optimized for older systems and likely wasn't near as taxing on the video card as X6.  Add to that all the extra features and graphics options (which can be heavily taxing dending on your settings) and you get slowness.  You may want to go through and double check some of your settings depending on what exactly you mean by "slow". 

 

To start with, is it slow in plan view, slow in 3D, or slow in both??

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Steve,  I tested it out.  By and large I think it was pretty quick.  Big file,  34 mb.  Editing the roof in 3d and deleting windows and doors in 3d was very slow.  Editing in plan without 3d open was pretty quick.  I did a vid so you could visually see how fast or slow you think it is on my machine.  

 

The vid will be on the youtube channel  "ds hall"  when done uploading.

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Steve,  I tested it out.  By and large I think it was pretty quick.  Big file,  34 mb.  Editing the roof in 3d and deleting windows and doors in 3d was very slow.  Editing in plan without 3d open was pretty quick.  I did a vid so you could visually see how fast or slow you think it is on my machine.  

 

The vid will be on the youtube channel  "ds hall"  when done uploading.

 

Thanks for taking a look.

 

Yes, I guess I use 3D mode a lot to do editing, so perhaps that's part of my "problem". Again, the Home version of the software running on a pretty old PC is way, way faster and perfectly usable doing this, so this is disappointing to say the least.

 

However, my problem is not just 3D mode. It seems like everything is "gummy" and the UI hangs up all of the time without telling you what is happening--the mouse just disappears.

 

Based on the responses here, I have a bad feeling that you all are used to this :-(.

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Based on the responses here, I have a bad feeling that you all are used to this :-(.

 

Steve,

 

I think that you have made the wrong assumption.

I have older hardware and I don't experience what you do and I believe that most users don't experience your slowness.

If everything was gummy, the UI hung all the time and the mouse disappears, I think that most users would be howling to get things fixed.

 

The only slowness I see is when editing a roof in 3D and I believe that this is being fixed.

 

There are reasons why you are experiencing the slowness - I don't know what they are.

It will probably take a bit of farting around to find out what the problem is.

 

It could be something as simple as a corrupt or complicated symbol.

It could be your hardware.....

 

Post the plan or send it to me and I will have a play.

Or, send the plan to support and see if they can find anything.

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Based on the responses here, I have a bad feeling that you all are used to this :-(.

I think you may be missing the point. Most of us aren't having your problems because our systems are newer and/or faster. Upgrade your PC and you'll likely fix the problem. I haven't seen any of the Chiefers here post specs as low as yours in a long time if ever. It's just not what you should be using if you want optimal performance.

And it can be any number of other things. Either in your plan as Glenn suggested or in one of your settings or in your GPU, etc. Post a plan or give more details if you really want to get to the root of the problem.

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I switched back to my iMac. I'm certainly not interested in upgrading a system I'd love to throw away as soon as I can get this one last piece of software off of it :-).

 

I'll work through the issues on my iMac. I don't see much difference in performance between the two right now.

 

 

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Hi Steve,

What model number is your iMac and what version of OS X are you running?

 

Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner and select about this Mac.  This will show the OS version.

Then click on the More Info... button to get to the model number.

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Recently upgraded from x5 to x6 (x6 really slow, x5 was fast)

 

PC info:

Intel i7 Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 GHz

RAM: 12.0 GB

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Windows 8.1 PRO

 

Anyone else had this experience?

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Do you have any of those oval bathroom sinks in your plan. There is one that slows us all down.

I have had this same problem; actually tech support helped me find it.  It is the 'oval vanity sink' that is in the MEP configuration tool bar.  Not sure about any of the other vanity sinks, but this one will slow the software down with only a couple instances on the plan.  Four or five can start to make it crawl.

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I have been using X6 on a new generation Mac Pro and it feels quite slow. 3D views seem to take longer to generate, and the UI is much less responsive than what I can remember from trying previous versions on Windows. 

 

There are also relatively frequent crashes..

 

Hopefully these things will be ironed out soon.

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Recently upgraded from x5 to x6 (x6 really slow, x5 was fast)

 

PC info:

Intel i7 Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67 GHz

RAM: 12.0 GB

64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Windows 8.1 PRO

 

Anyone else had this experience?

 

Yes... , especially when the plan file grows the slowness seems to multiply exponentially.... Turning off 'Undo' in preferences seems to help.

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I haven't seen a speed difference between X5 and X6. But I can assure you that hardware makes a huge difference. I often run the same plans on my office PC and laptop, both which are fairly new. The difference between the two is frustrating.

 

Office PC: i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz with 16GB RAM, Windows 7-64. Windows Experience Index: 7.6

Laptop PC:  i7-3630QM CPU @ 2.40GHz with 8GB RAM, Windows 7-64. Windows Experience Index: 5.9

 

Needless to say, I much prefer working in the office! These figures can be found by right-clicking Start>Computer>Properties. It rates five aspects for speed.

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I've certainly noticed that X6 takes much longer to start-up on both my laptop and my desktop compared to X5.  I also find that panning around the plan takes longer.  There's no doubt in my mind that X6 is slower than X5.

 

Alan

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