Poor Performance in Layout


kn8hansen
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I'm at my wits-end trying to figure out what I need to do to get things to work smoothly in Layout.  I just picked up a decent workstation thinking that 2 processors, 8 cores, and 16 threads along with a Quadro 4000 2GB video card would solve all of my problems.  I was wrong.  Can someone open the attached Layout file on their computer and tell me if it's sluggish for you when trying to zoom/pan around the layout (not the plan - that works fine)?  It was much worse when I had 3 different kitchen layouts and 3 different master bath layouts but after getting the plan down to an as-built and a remodel, it's still sluggish when zooming/panning around the layout.

 

Maybe I'm approaching the whole remodel strategy wrong?  How does everyone handle indecisive homeowners that want 3,4,5 even 6 different options for floor plans?  I just marquee select the entire level and drag a copy to the side and start working on the next floor plan.  It's easier for me to keep things organized this way rather than do a "Save as" and link 6 different .plan files to Layout.

 

Thanks to anyone who has the time to help me out!

 

Nate

1314 West Minnehaha Pkwy.layout

1314 West Minnehaha Pkwy.plan

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Not sure, but I think it's the quadro card that is the problem. Chief has always said that a good gaming card is preferred. I'll download your plans and test it with my gaming card.

Edit, not slow on my system, and I am very weak in the CPU department as compared to you.. Do you have an NVidia card handy to try it?

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Thanks Perry!  So you're able to zoom and pan on the Layout page without any stuttering or sluggishness?  

 

This particular Layout file was slow on my laptop with an ATI card and now is still slow on my new workstation with the Quadro card.  Maybe I'll try to find a different Nvidia card and try that.  The 780GTX from your signature looks like it's around $400 on Amazon which is more than half of what I paid for the workstation!  If it works, though, it's totally worth it!

 

Thanks again!

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Your layout pages are dogs for me too. I sent your plan to layout and duplicated similar to your layout pages and I have no problem. See image for my send to layout settings. I would just delete your layout boxes and try again as something went wrong. Did you do any scaling of the layout box? Rotate the layout boxes?post-170-0-90755700-1443395991_thumb.jpg

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Thanks for all of the input!  I've been messing with it all afternoon and haven't gotten anywhere.

 

Here's what I've done to diagnose this:

 

1. Created new blank .plan file

2. Copy/pasted the problem floor plan into the new .plan file (lining up the floors to stack properly)

3. Created new blank .layout file (no title block - blank page)

4. Sent To Layout verifying the settings that match Alan's suggested settings

5. After the first Send To Layout box it started slowing down.  After the 6th one, we're back to sluggish.

 

I'm guessing there's something about the .plan file that's bogging down Layout.  I'm wondering if there might be a problem with the way I've drawn the plan?  I've gone through about 8 different versions of this floor plan with the client (using my copy/paste-in-place method mentioned above).  Maybe something gets left over when I do my copy/paste and then delete it later?  After I delete a version I always turn on the "All on" layer set to make sure there's no artifacts left over but who knows?  

 

I've drawn some much larger plans with Chief Architect and never have any problems with those (I don't usually have to copy/paste on the new construction ones).  Layout only seems to bog down when I do these Remodels with multiple versions of the floor plan drawn in the .plan file. 

 

Since others with nicer graphics cards have also said that it's sluggish, i think that rules out the video card.  I'm assuming that 2-quad core processors is enough.  That would rule out CPU.  My system resources are all free (ie. <2% CPU, 80% avail RAM, <2% disk usage...).  I'm running an SSD hard drive so that should be OK.

 

Anyway, sorry for the long-winded response but it sounds like I might just have to live with it.  Thanks again for all of the responses!

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Jon-

 

Not sure where you're going wrong here?  There's only ever been 2 files for this particular project - the .plan file and the .layout file.  I essentially have two houses drawn in one .plan file - the existing and the remodel.  Once the existing is drawn, I just copy/paste-in-place and drag the existing floor plan to the right and start the remodel on that floor plan.  When I send to layout, I just crop one or the other out and label the layout boxes based on what's shown.

 

Thanks for trying, though!

 

Nate

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I opened the file in my old computer and it wasn't too bad - no redraw zooming and fairly smooth and instant page change. It was a 6-core intel 3930k with an Radeon 5870 HD.

My new system was ultra-smooth - 5820k and Titan Nvidia.

Is your system 8 cores a piece or 4x2? Multi-core machines, combined with multi-core motherboards is the largest performance boost i've seen in any 3D modeling. We have 4-core systems that are supposedly fast but nothing compared to our 6+ core systems.

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Johnny,

 

I think you may be right.  I checked out the PassMark scores for my dual processor setup and it falls short of both of your single processors!

 

10,632 ==> Dual W5590 Xeon processors (4 cores each)

12,089 ==> Single Intel 3930K (6 core)

12,993 ==> Single Intel 5820K (6 core)

 

I guess I fooled myself when I thought that 2 processors was better than one!  I may just have to sell the workstation and steal the specs from your new rig and build one myself!  Thanks for taking the time to help me out!

 

I opened a support ticket with Tech Support so we'll see what they say about it.

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The typical way of drawing a remodel, for me, is to draw the existing first, then save as new remodel. I keep them as separate plans and send each to the layout. Never have any problems doing that. Funny thing though, I didn't extensively test the layout and I didn't see any problems, but my setup is different than most.  Could be a setting.

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 I took the Riverstone sample plan (88mb) and layout (15mb) zoom and pan are fluid and fine. Add one plan view from the Minnehaha file and that is jerky in both. Not sure this is hardware.

Fixing the balcony, changing the grid snap size, moved model to origin, all did nothing. Also checked for duplicates (my assistant gets those a lot using copy and paste in place), none.

 

I do remodels the way Perry except recently started to also save a copy of the as built as a template. Find it easier send multiple versions to the layout that way without having one already sent change it's reference if both are open when doing a save as.

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It does appear to be the room label text is causing the lag.

 

By just editing the room labels:

I notice improved  speed by un-checking CAD Style Font sizing.

Also improved speed by unchecking auto width and auto height.

Dan,

 

That's not nice.

 

I'm sure that a lot of users have those items checked since those are the OOB defaults for Rich Text.  It also answers the question of why 6" Rich Text appears to be 9" tall, etc.  When I uncheck those my 6" Rich Text becomes 6".

 

I'm going to need to make a lot of changes to my Plans to eliminate those settings - but I will have to increase the size of all Rich Text by about 50% - or just live with text that's smaller than I want. 

 

IAE, the performance hit in Layout is not something I want to live with, so I will just have to bite the bullet and do a lot of editing of Templates and Current Plans unless CA can come up with a tool to convert all Rich Text in a Plan to "uncheck" those and edit the specified sizes.

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Thank you very much Michael and Dan!  That was indeed the problem!  I had no idea that it took so much effort for the software to recalculate the room label macros.  In the future, I'll just create static labels and turn the macro labels layer on if I need to re-check dimensions and square footage.  Not the most elegant solution but definitely worth being able to navigate around layout without the jerkiness and sluggishness!

I will also update my support ticket with Tech Support so they're in the know.  Thanks again to all that contributed!

 

Nate

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Thank you very much Michael and Dan!  That was indeed the problem!  I had no idea that it took so much effort for the software to recalculate the room label macros.  In the future, I'll just create static labels and turn the macro labels layer on if I need to re-check dimensions and square footage.  Not the most elegant solution but definitely worth being able to navigate around layout without the jerkiness and sluggishness!

I will also update my support ticket with Tech Support so they're in the know.  Thanks again to all that contributed!

 

Nate

 

To be clear, it was me that suggested it might have something to do with macros.  According to Dan, its not the macros, its other text settings.  Anyway, just wanted to clarify so you didn't abandon your macros too quickly...it looks like those might not be the main issue with your labels.  It may just be the other settings Dan mentioned.

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Dan,

 

That's not nice.

 

I'm sure that a lot of users have those items checked since those are the OOB defaults for Rich Text.  It also answers the question of why 6" Rich Text appears to be 9" tall, etc.  When I uncheck those my 6" Rich Text becomes 6".

 

I'm going to need to make a lot of changes to my Plans to eliminate those settings - but I will have to increase the size of all Rich Text by about 50% - or just live with text that's smaller than I want. 

 

IAE, the performance hit in Layout is not something I want to live with, so I will just have to bite the bullet and do a lot of editing of Templates and Current Plans unless CA can come up with a tool to convert all Rich Text in a Plan to "uncheck" those and edit the specified size.

I will need to do this also as my templates also.  Not fun.  At least though we know and it can be fixed.  Wonder why it was checked as an OOB setting?  Even though it is bitter sweet...thanks Dan for finding that out.

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