Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Please use this forum to post feedback and suggestions related to QCAD.

Moderator: andrew

pawel-kowalski
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:39 pm

Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by pawel-kowalski » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:48 pm

Opening a complex DWG file (or DXF, it doesn't make a difference) takes a very long period of time. For example, 7MB file is opening for 5 minutes now, and I'm still waiting... qcad-bin consumes 100% cpu (one core) and no more than 5% memory. When the file is finally opened, I can work on it, but each time I try to make print preview, add another layer, etc. I have to wait a fair bit of time.

I hope this will change in the future...

Best Regards,
Paweł Kowalski

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9019
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Post by andrew » Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:57 pm

Thanks for the feedback.

QCAD might not be suitable (in the near future) for your type of work. A 7MB DWG file is indeed considered to be huge for QCAD.

QCAD (unlike other CAD applications) does not work directly with the DWG format in memory. It has its own memory model which is independent of the DWG format. This is a good thing but requires conversion when loading DWG files which can be slow.

Performance will certainly improve in future releases but it is not a top priority.

pawel-kowalski
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:39 pm

Post by pawel-kowalski » Tue Mar 13, 2012 11:18 pm

Thanks for your reply.

It's not a good news for me. It seems that data structures implemented in QCAD are not optimal for big projects, at least for now. After converting from DWG to QCAD internal memory model, the program works too slow.

Loading DWG files doesn't have to be instant, but I hope that in the future it's possible to speed up work on big files, which are already opened.

Best Regards,
Paweł Kowalski

pawel-kowalski
Newbie Member
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 8:39 pm

Post by pawel-kowalski » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:27 am

Is it possible to make QCAD use more than 1 cpu core? While still not optimized for big files, this could speed up work up to 3 times on quad core cpus...

Best Regards,
Pawel Kowalski

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9019
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Post by andrew » Thu Mar 15, 2012 10:49 pm

Unfortunately, the math is not that simple. Multiple CPUs mostly make sense whenever there are multiple resources involved (e.g. multiple files to process, multiple web pages to render, multiple processes to run, etc.). If that is not the case (e.g. one big drawing to render on one screen / multiple entities to render but into one screen buffer) things look different. Every thread ultimately waits for that one resource to become available.

We will eventually look into performance issues, but stability issues are the top priority at the moment.

dvhooren
Registered Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:41 pm

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by dvhooren » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:48 pm

Hi,

I just bought 2 licences of QCAD last week. Nice looking CAD program and seems to do a lot.
Except performing. I read about a 7 Mb DWG, well we have 6,5 Mb. I tried with a DGN of 6.5 Mb last week but it hangs up QCAD. :cry:
In my GIS no problem.
I use a GIS besides QCAD and once converted from a 2013 DWG to a 2004 DWG it loads
in my GIS and the performance is great. However in QCAD the performance is very slow for such DWG or DGN of about 5 to 7 Mb.

I read your posts from 2012. We are almost in 2018. So do think this is the future you were talking about in 2012 and is
this now about the time you want to speed up the support of such files?

Would be great because as I said: nice program, many features except the performance.... :cry:

User avatar
andrew
Site Admin
Posts: 9019
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 6:07 am

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by andrew » Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:55 pm

dvhooren wrote:I read your posts from 2012. We are almost in 2018. So do think this is the future you were talking about in 2012 and is
this now about the time you want to speed up the support of such files?
Unfortunately, improving performance is not like fixing a bug; it's an endless process. And while performance has been improved in certain areas, if you are regularly working with files of that kind of complexity, I'm afraid you might be better off looking into alternatives (for example Autocad or one of the many clones). I'm happy to offer you a refund of course.

Rantanplan7
Senior Member
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:06 pm
Location: Germany - Heidelberg

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by Rantanplan7 » Wed May 30, 2018 10:39 am

Unfortunately I had a similar experience on a factory drawing which is 8 MB as a DWG file. By deleting unused elements and deleting useless things like trees I came down to 3.5 MB, but still the performance isn't great.
I understand that it is a difficult process to make the software quicker, but what can I do from my end?
I'm working mainly on a laptop with a SSD drive, 8MB RAM and an i5 2520M @ 2.5 GHz computer. Where is the bottleneck?
Anything on the software settings possible (I have given QCAD already a high priority in the task manager)?
Best Regards

Sven

QCAD 3.27.6.0 / Windows 11 Professional 64-bit / 16 GB RAM, i5 [email protected], SSD
(former Autosketch 10 user)

CVH
Premier Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:17 pm

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by CVH » Sat Jun 02, 2018 2:55 pm

Troubled:
Just opened a 56Mbyte file and a 11Mbyte I am working on in the same instance of QCAD.
Yes the 56Mbyte reacts slower but I can draw in both and copy the second to the firts.
I don't see any problems.

my 2 cents

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by Husky » Sat Jun 02, 2018 5:44 pm

CVH wrote:
Sat Jun 02, 2018 2:55 pm
Yes the 56Mbyte reacts slower but I can draw in both and copy the second to the firts.
I don't see any problems.
Well ... :shock:
Sure - it depends on your hardware but most user will have big problems with a 56 MB file! Very likely they are already unhappy with a 11 MB file ...

my 2 cents
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

CVH
Premier Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:17 pm

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by CVH » Sat Jun 02, 2018 9:15 pm

10 year old PC win7pro 32 bit 4GB 1e generation i7 2.6Ghz. HDD GeForce GT 520
Not that fancy at all.

UserBenchmarks: Game 12%, Desk 46%, Work 20%
CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K - 69%
GPU: Nvidia GeForce GT 520 - 2.2%
HDD: WD Blue 1TB (2010) - 60%
RAM: Corsair CMZ4GX3M2A1600C9 4GB - 47.8%
MBD: Asus P8H67-M LE

MikeMillerPE
Junior Member
Posts: 10
Joined: Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:59 pm
Location: Walnut Creek, CA

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by MikeMillerPE » Fri Jun 08, 2018 6:03 am

Hi,

I've been using QCAD only a short time, but I've tested the limits of its "performance" adequately, without ever loading a file over 1 MB. In fact, the attached zip file contains 10 files whose compressed size is only 1 MB, but a 300 KB dwg makes my computer drag.

It's not just size, it's how hard the rendering engine has to work. The attached files each contain between 2000 and 3000 objects. Most are on a single layer. The points display quickly and even the blocks are pretty good. But the text drags, and when many objects reside on multiple layers, some of which are turned off, things get even slower.

On another note, I use AutoCAD and Microstation professionally, and one way they get their performance is by drawing it only good enough. AutoCAD has a mathematical model that isn't recalcuclated when you zoom. The program will actually stop zooming at one point and force you to regenerate the underlying geometric model before you can zoom in our out further (note that this isn't observed by normal usage of the program. You have to be a Civil Engineer. :lol: Microstation's objects (text, for example) will look quite crude (often a simple triangular shape) if you zoom out.

I'm sure that there are many aspects to optimizing performance, but I commend Andrew and his team for their work.
Attachments
ExampleFiles.zip
(1.08 MiB) Downloaded 702 times
Mike Miller, P.E.

CVH
Premier Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:17 pm

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by CVH » Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:26 am

Never had 2400 text items on my screen.
My 55Mbyte file consist of 3200 items with about 600 polylines with up to 4000 segments and about 100 text items.

With all text of your example displayed, zoom level 100<1000, I have about 3 screen updates per second on my quite old system.
With zoom level 10<100 screen transitions are more acceptable.
Text becomes readable in the 5th stage of zoom level 10<100.

You should enter a suggestion or bug-report.
To render text when readable size otherwise render as placeholder. That would do the trick for texts.

User avatar
Husky
Moderator/Drawing Help/Testing
Posts: 4931
Joined: Wed May 11, 2011 9:25 am
Location: USA

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by Husky » Fri Jun 08, 2018 4:57 pm

CVH wrote:
Fri Jun 08, 2018 9:26 am
... zoom level 100<1000 ... zoom level 10<100 ... in the 5th stage of zoom level 10<100 ...
How do you gather this info?
Work smart, not hard: QCad Pro
Win10/64, QcadPro, QcadCam version: Current.
If a thread is considered as "solved" please change the title of the first post to "[solved] Title..."

CVH
Premier Member
Posts: 3365
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 4:17 pm

Re: Nice and powerful, but veeeeery slow on big files

Post by CVH » Fri Jun 08, 2018 5:10 pm

Zoom level Grid size.
Attachments
GridSize.png
GridSize.png (18.05 KiB) Viewed 22393 times

Post Reply

Return to “QCAD Suggestions and Feedback”