Designer unbearable slow after update to 1.9

[Kai S.]

After updating to Version 1.9, Designer ist unbearable slow while moving objects with the mouse.

(MacBook Pro 13, Late 2016, 16 GB, 1 TB)

Also the overall speed of the software seems to be very slow.

I downgraded to 1.8.6 via time machine backup and everything is working fine again.

Please fix this. It is really annoying and makes the software unusable.

cu, Kai

[Sean P]

Hi Kai S,

Unfortunately if you don't have1.9 installed we cannot help investigate this issue with you. With that said, however did you have the Paragraph Panel visible at all? We're aware of an issue that can cause slowdown if this Panel was visible on screen.

[Kai S.]

Yes, this is one of the panels I´m using frequently.

But how does this affect moving objects? If I drag an object with the mouse I get the beachball turning for seconds

and then again some seconds after releasing the mouse button, the object is shown at a dragged position.

 

[taumi]

I had this problem after the installation as well. 
Then I "played" with the Performance settings, and the problem is gone. To be specific, I increased  RAM usage limit and Disk usage and turned on/off some other preferences (not sure which ones). 
P.S. I didn't use Paragraph Panel.
This is my current settings:

[Kai S.]

Thanks for your reply taumi.

Before I downgraded to 1.8.6, I saved the 1.9 App-Version on my Desktop. I now have renamed the 1.8.6 Version in the Software-Folder just to keep it in there and copied back the 1.9 Version in the Software-Folder. When I now start the 1.9 Version, everything works at "normal" speed. So I´ll give it a try. Draw and see 🙂. Hope the slow response time was a one time failure.

 

[VectorVonDoom]

I'm working on a complicated drawing, 1000's of objects, and haven't noticed any noticeable difference in performance vs 1.8 with default settings other than I always turn off trackpad rotate as I don't want it. I have the minimum of panels open although even with the default ones it seemed fine. I'm not saying that in your situation it's not true but it's not something I've seen so far. The obvious difference is that I'm on a 15" 2019 i9 macbook pro, so I assume it's using the discreet GPU whereas the 13" only has the integrated GPU.

[taumi]

Yesterday I decreased RAM usage limit to 16GB, just for a test, and the issue has appeared again.

It happens on a brand new document which has only 1 layer, and a few objects and strokes on it, so it is nothing to do with the numbers of objects/layers.

I've forgotten to mention my system:
macOS Catalina
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015), 16 GB, 1 TB Flash Storage

[Kai S.]

In the meantime I was able to narrow the laggy and slow behavior to the snap settings.

If I enable the checkbox "An Objektbegrenzungen ausrichten" (in english it should be named something like "snap to objekt boundaries", I just use the german UI), Affinity Designer gets unbearable slow when dragging objects in complex drawings with many seconds of beachball time. This is comprehensible because there are many objects in the drawings, but in Version 1.8.6 this problem didn´t occur.

 

[Guest]

I'm also seeing performance issues with the text editing and drawing tools that feels like it might be related. Even moving objects around the screen (macOS 11.2.1, 2020 MBP i7, 32GB RAM) it feels as though Designer (I'm primarily working in Designer at the moment) is struggling to keep up, with everything having a slight lag. One of the things I loved about the Affinity apps was how buttery smooth everything was compared to other legacy apps, but this is definitely not my experience with the 1.9 release.

[Sean P]

14 hours ago, Kai S. said:

In the meantime I was able to narrow the laggy and slow behavior to the snap settings.

If I enable the checkbox "An Objektbegrenzungen ausrichten" (in english it should be named something like "snap to objekt boundaries", I just use the german UI), Affinity Designer gets unbearable slow when dragging objects in complex drawings with many seconds of beachball time. This is comprehensible because there are many objects in the drawings, but in Version 1.8.6 this problem didn´t occur.

 

Do you have a copy of the file that is causing slowdown please that you can attach please, so we can try this out? Ideally a copy of it not saved in 1.9 would be useful to compare with 1.8.6.

[Kai S.]

This file is a 1.8.6 File. The crosshatched block down in the middle of the page shows minor lags in 1.8.6 but a much longer lag in 1.9 when dragging it to another position.

When I unselect the mentioned checkbox everything is fluently.

Zeichenvorlage.afdesign

[Sean P]

1 hour ago, Kai S. said:

This file is a 1.8.6 File. The crosshatched block down in the middle of the page shows minor lags in 1.8.6 but a much longer lag in 1.9 when dragging it to another position.

When I unselect the mentioned checkbox everything is fluently.

Zeichenvorlage.afdesign

Thanks for the file - I've reproduced the issue and it is actually the same as 1.8.6 (see attached) - its likely that you didn't have the same snapping settings than you're currently using in 1.9

It's actually dependant on two particular settings:
The first is Kandidaten: Alle Ebenen (Candidates: All Layers)

When this is set every single object on your page will become a candidate for snapping, when this is used inconjuction with the other setting below it creates an incredibly slow response on documents with lots of objects. For example each single line in your document is being considered and the software is trying to calculate based on all of these objects. Ideally you should get a message saying Snapping Timed out, but this doesn't appear to be happening - this is something we do have logged with development.

It is also for this reason why we do offer different Candidate options such as Kandidatenliste ('Candidate List') this lets you limit your snappable objects to the last 6 selected. If you're in the middle of a drag you can hover your mouse over an object you wish to snap to and you should see a purple highlight flash to indicate its now a snapping candidate. The 'Show Snapping Candidates' option also allows you to see these objects by a purple highlight.

The second is: 'An Lücken und Größen ausrichten' (Snap to gaps and sizes)
This will attempt to snap your object to matched gaps and sizes in your document. As it is a sub option An Objektbegrenzungen ausrichten (Snap to object bounding boxes) that is why turning that off worked for you.

Depending on your need changing to Candidate List (you can up the default from 6 to a bit higher if needed) or just disabling Snap to Gaps and Sizes should sort you out. Infact if all of your hatching is kept as child layers of the bounding box then using 'Unmittelbare Ebenen' (Immediate Layers) might also allow you snap to all objects without seeing the performance hit you are getting.

[Kai S.]

Thanks for your quick answer, Sean. Both options seem to indeed solve the problem. I will have to figure out, which one is best for my workflow.