X6 And X7 Running Slow In Plan View

[Alaskan_Son]

I know there have been endless topics over the years on things running slowly but I can't seem to find a solution and was hoping someone could offer some insight. 

 

Ever since about the time I upgraded to X6 I've noticed a notable drop in speed when using my desktop.  My laptop runs super fast and smoothly, but not my desktop.  There is about a 2 or 3 second delay between every single action.  If I want to drag a wall for example...I click on the wall, drag it, and release, and then I have to wait 2 or 3 seconds to start my next action.  It hadn't bothered me much because I was doing the vast majority of my work onsite with my laptop, but I'm back in the office now and it seems those little delays are becoming a major problem. 

 

I don't know for a fact that the problem started with X6 but I'm relatively certain it started around that time.  I also don't believe I've made any notable changes to my computer during that time, and couldn't find any settings within Chief that would have any affect on 2D plan speed.

 

I'm wondering if the newer software is just running slower on my old machine simply due to programming changes.  I've used this same desktop since X3 and it didn't used to be anywhere near this slow.

 

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe_Carrick]

Michael,

 

Obviously your Laptop is more capable - but not to the extent that you should be seeing that kind of lag in 2D.  It sounds like some Process or Service is taking big time slices.  I had a WDMFC service that somehow got started on an older Windows7 system and was just bringing the machine to a crawl.

 

I stopped that service and bingo.  Then I found that every time I restarted the system, that service would be there again. 

 

If you can't find the problem - take it to a tech and have them run some diagnostics. 

[Alaskan_Son]

Thank you Joe, what is a WDMFC? I suspect it's one of the background processes that show up if I run Task Manager?

[Joe_Carrick]

Hi Michael,

 

That's correct.  I think that particular one was either Western Digital or something masquerading as such.  IAE, it was reported as being very big and using a lot of cpu.  Some Anti-Virus software can also cause problems by scanning too much.

[Kbird1]

The Laptop has a more capable videocard than the desktop and perhaps more Ram which helps too. Does the Laptop have an SSD vs a HD in the desktop ?

 

is Chief setup/been added to Nvidia Control Panel in 3D management on the Desktop? are the Render options on both the same? etc etc lots to look at .

 

the 3D framework has changed since X3 and started with X6 AFAIK ,so perhaps your GTX430 is no longer capable enough?

[Alaskan_Son]

The Laptop has a more capable videocard than the desktop and perhaps more Ram which helps too. Does the Laptop have an SSD vs a HD in the desktop ?

 

is Chief setup/been added to Nvidia Control Panel in 3D management on the Desktop? are the Render options on both the same? etc etc lots to look at .

 

the 3D framework has changed since X3 and started with X6 AFAIK ,so perhaps your GTX430 is no longer capable enough?

Thanks for the input, however what makes this current issue unique is that it seems to have nothing whatsoever to do with 3D and happens even in a brand new blank plan with only the plan view open. If I create a 3D view it seems to have little to no effect on the lag time between actions (or commands).

To answer one of your questions though...my laptop confuses me a bit. It acts like it has a SSD but according to the literature it doesn't. It apparently has a 5200 RPM HD but I never hear anything "spinning" and it starts up almost instantly (just a matter of seconds usually). The bigger point though is that it's a new issue...my desktop used to be MUCH faster and it appears to have nothing at all to do with 3D performance. I guess I'm assuming the video card doesn't have much to do with performace in plan view.

[Kbird1]

your videocards should easily handle the 2D ,for the 3D you could check your settings against Perry's recommndations to me last yr here :

https://chieftalk.chiefarchitect.com/index.php?/topic/321-nvidia-driver-settings/?hl=%2Bnvidia+%2Bsettings

 

When was the last time you checked you HD for errors or Ran the Defragmenting utility?

 

even on my desktop (with a GTX970) , since it is now 4-5 years old , I notice that X6 and X7 are a lot tougher on the hardware than X3/X4 were ,I went to an SSD a few yrs ago to try and make the "old girl" last me a while longer but got the GTX970 as a Xmas gift for myself as like you I was noticing considerable differences, especially now we have Multi-monitor.

 

M

[Doug_Park]

More than likely the delay you are seeing is due to recording information for undo. You can verify this by turning undo off temporarily. If that isn't the problem then the rest of this won't help you.

 

Undo settings are in Preferences>General.

 

Our current implementation of undo saves a copy of the file on disk. By default in the temporary files folder. This is normally pretty fast, except for very large plans.

 

However there are several things that can cause this to be slow.

 

1) There are an excessive number of files in your temporary files folder. I consider this a bug in Windows because on all other operating systems temporary files are truly temporary and will get cleaned up automatically. But in Windows you will need to do this manually. I suggest cleaning up your temporary files. This is best done right after a system reboot before you launch any other applications.

2) Disk fragmentation could be an issue. With modern versions of Windows this is supposed to be done automatically, but there are several things that could cause the defragmentation not to run so running it manually may be useful. If it is already defragmented then it should run fast.

3) Some sort of disk problem could be in play. So running chkdsk would make some sense.

 

Finally, if you have an SSD drive you could set the preferences in Chief to put the undo files on that drive.

 

Beyond that there are a couple of other options with undo.

 

1) Turn undo off. I don't recommend this.

2) Set up an undo timeout to something like 100 milliseconds. This will make it so that if  you are working very quickly the undo state won't get saved until you pause. This would have the effect of skipping multiple things you have done, but you can still undo.

[Alaskan_Son]

More than likely the delay you are seeing is due to recording information for undo. You can verify this by turning undo off temporarily. If that isn't the problem then the rest of this won't help you.

Undo settings are in Preferences>General.

Our current implementation of undo saves a copy of the file on disk. By default in the temporary files folder. This is normally pretty fast, except for very large plans.

However there are several things that can cause this to be slow.

1) There are an excessive number of files in your temporary files folder. I consider this a bug in Windows because on all other operating systems temporary files are truly temporary and will get cleaned up automatically. But in Windows you will need to do this manually. I suggest cleaning up your temporary files. This is best done right after a system reboot before you launch any other applications.

2) Disk fragmentation could be an issue. With modern versions of Windows this is supposed to be done automatically, but there are several things that could cause the defragmentation not to run so running it manually may be useful. If it is already defragmented then it should run fast.

3) Some sort of disk problem could be in play. So running chkdsk would make some sense.

Finally, if you have an SSD drive you could set the preferences in Chief to put the undo files on that drive.

Beyond that there are a couple of other options with undo.

1) Turn undo off. I don't recommend this.

2) Set up an undo timeout to something like 100 milliseconds. This will make it so that if you are working very quickly the undo state won't get saved until you pause. This would have the effect of skipping multiple things you have done, but you can still undo.

Thank you Doug. I ran a file cleaner and deleted all the unnecessary stuff. There appeared to be about about 30 or 40GB of temporary files. I also ran the defragmenting utility but that didn't seem to be the problem.

After doing all that, I opened up a plan and it appears to be back to its normal blindingly fast speed again :-) Thank you sir. And thanks to the rest of you for your input as well.

[Kbird1]

I did a bit of cleaning out too after reading Doug's post and added the attached .Bat file to my Startup Folder to auto delete the contents of the %temp% directory each time the Computer boots from now on.

 

This is the folder I put it in on Windows 7

 

C:\Users\YOUR_Name\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

 

cleantemp.zip

 

 

if you type %temp% into the Start Bar Search it will show you a link to the Temp folder if you want to Open it and check for undeleted files.

 

M.

[Doug_Park]

While this is safe with regard to files that Chief saves. This may create problems with other applications that may rely on temporary files not getting deleted. However, if an application is doing that I would regard that as a badly written application. So while I think what you are doing is likely safe be aware that it might create unexpected problems with other applications.

[DRAWZILLA]

I also did a lot of turning off startup's and cleaning, and no change for the lag. I think it's a Chief thing.

[Dan_Park]

While this is safe with regard to files that Chief saves. This may create problems with other applications that may rely on temporary files not getting deleted. However, if an application is doing that I would regard that as a badly written application. So while I think what you are doing is likely safe be aware that it might create unexpected problems with other applications.

 

In my experience deleting temporary files is safe. You can do this by going to the properties of the hard drive and clicking on disk cleanup and making sure the temporary files check is selected.

 

I would recommend closing any running applications and reboot the computer prior to deleting the files.

[Kbird1]

"I would recommend closing any running applications and reboot the computer prior to deleting the files"

 

Yes , that's why the above batch file is best run at startup , though you can go to the Start menu  item and run it at anytime from the Startup folder too.

 

Most programs  using the Temp folder will either not allow access to the file for deletion if they need  it or they immediately recreate the file after deletion if needed . At least no issue here since playing around with the above Batch File.

 

I am curious however what/why Chief has a temporary    qt-jl-icons    folder

[Greg_NY61]

It is Terry, I couldn't agree more with you. There is definitely a lag in the x7.

[Doug_Park]

The icons folder is for the recent files list on the task bar.