Reproducable bug with copy & paste into new document

[DarkClown]

Take the attached afdesign file, copy the "Golf Ball Structure" layer. Create a new document (1920x1200) and paste the layer into new document (CTRL+V) - Affinity gone (aka "program not responding").

It does not crash when you generate a new document from Clipboard.

Cheers, TImo

Golf Ball Structure.afdesign

[Dan C]

Hi @DarkClown,

Thanks for your report!

Using your file I'm able to replicate the behaviour reported, however Designer never technically crashes, and does eventually paste this group for me after 'not-responding'.

Although this took in the region of 20 minutes to complete, there are by my count 4200 symbols in this group, so I cannot say I am surprised that this caused some calculation time.

Having said this, I do note that using File > New From Clipboard is significantly faster, though I'm not 100% certain of the reasoning for this - so I will be logging this file with our developers for further investigation & to see if we can improve the 'paste' of this group, compared to the 'new from clipboard' action.

I hope this helps

[DarkClown]

3 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Using your file I'm able to replicate the behaviour reported, however Designer never technically crashes, and does eventually paste this group for me after 'not-responding'.

Thnks for you answer Dan.
What do you mean: AD technically never crashes? I assume you say that with regards to this special case. I'm well aware that there is a difference between "not responding" and "crashing" ... still, when "not responding" takes more than a couple of minutes from a users point of view this is comparable to "crashing" - it's hard to tell if the system will ever return to life or is in an infinit Loop (I'm still alive .... I'm not dead .... ensure you I'm still alive ....  it's just a neverending loop .... but still alive🙂 ). Reminds me of the old times:

10: Print "Still alive"
20: Goto 10

Still alive but never returning. Thanks for that smile 🙂

And yes, the layer has a bit more than 4000 instances of a symbol. If I understand symbols right we are not even talking about a copy of an element but just a reference (instance) - you can hardly get less data. That should be a no-brainer for AD. I remember a tutorial where you were presenting a new version dealing with half a million real objects (or even more) and showing how quick the system stil was performing. So let me put it this way: I am seriously surprised(!) that the system took 20 minutes to copy 4000 instances. And seeing that the system can handle the same amout of symbols in milliseconds when creating a new file from the clipboard with the same content (what I would have expected) I'm surprised that you are surprised 🙂

I'm convinced you'll find the bug and fix it since it will be hard to explain that copying one instance of a single circle(!) on an high end processors and a very quick graphic card takes roughly 0.3 seconds 🙂

Cheers, Timo

[Old Bruce]

33 minutes ago, DarkClown said:

If I understand symbols right we are not even talking about a copy of an element but just a reference (instance) - you can hardly get less data.

I think they are more like a linked copy. Linked in that changes made to one are made to the copies.

Perhaps the very odd long time for a paste operation is due to.... my brain cannot come up with anything that makes sense. When pasting do symbols get checked for detached status? Do they get checked for anything at all like size variations?

[DarkClown]

1 minute ago, Old Bruce said:

Perhaps the very odd long time for a paste operation is due to.... my brain cannot come up with anything that makes sense. When pasting do symbols get checked for detached status? Do they get checked for anything at all like size variations?

Point is - it works fine without any delay with a new file generated from clipboard content (I'd assume it's more or less the same operation).
Maybe when pasting the same content into an existing file there applies a rule that allows someone, somewhere to harvest bitcoin with my processor power for 20 minutes ... we need further investigation 🙂

[Old Bruce]

12 minutes ago, DarkClown said:

Maybe when pasting the same content into an existing file there applies a rule that allows someone, somewhere to harvest bitcoin with my processor power for 20 minutes ...

Mea Culpa. Or as the English say "its a fair cop". Sadly I cannot remember where I have stored them.

Further messing about shows that the time is exponentially growing, start with just one row in the Golf Ball Structure. Then double the rows you'll see the time doubles with each doubling, I would expect an arithmetic growth pattern.

Also just try copy moving a large number of the symbols, important first ungroup them so you have no groups. Select just a couple of rows and try to duplicate with a Option + Drag or Command + Drag. Takes for ever. Now try with just objects, not Symbols.

There is some sort of checking going on and when dealing with more than just one symbol it seems to be geometric or exponential.

[DarkClown]

12 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

There is some sort of checking going on and when dealing with more than just one symbol it seems to be geometric or exponential.

Unless they don't start calling it a "feature" I'm pretty sure the experts will figure it out 🙂
Btw: thanks for the "it's a fair cop" ... I had to look it up ... as the germans would say: "Again what learned"