Designer V2 Mac - PDF export is not working

[bigmike]

In Designer V2, when I try to export as PDF, it is taking WAY too long. I let it sit for about 20 minutes but don't have the time to do extensive testing. It can't even generate a preview! Illustrator can export a PDF like this in about 30 seconds – I build these files for my work and do it all the time. I'd think a fresh app like Designer V2 could crank it out in no time. It makes it unusable for me, which is very disappointing as I was hoping I could use this instead of Illustrator...

I have a new MacBook M1 Max 64GB (Ventura 13.1), so there's plenty of power. I have also tried this on my old 2012 MacBook Retina but exact same thing happens.

The file is a ”standard” file – not a lot going on. There's the usual vector shapes, one small jpeg used as a pattern (crowd), and one small jpeg used as background (sky).

I've tried all kinds of settings but it doesn't seem to help either way. I've narrowed it down to the most basci settings I could, without extra processing (that I know of). 

Main export settings:
– Rasterize; Nothing
– No downsampling, no jpeg compression
– Color Space; As document
– Profile; Use document profile
– Convert image color spaces; OFF
– Include layers; OFF
– Embed fonts; Text as curves

File attached.

TEST.afdesign

[bigmike]

Oh, and I even tried deleting the jpegs, so there are only vectors, but it still wouldn't do anything.

[Paul Mudditt]

8 hours ago, bigmike said:

Oh, and I even tried deleting the jpegs, so there are only vectors, but it still wouldn't do anything.

Did you try making groups out of all your "MAIN" layers to find out which part of you design the PDF convertor does not like, i.e. make 10 groups and turn them all off and it exports then turn the on one at a time until it fails. Then repeat on a group that fails, break it down further to try an isolate the layer(s) that cause the problem. - I started doing this but have to play taxi driver to my daughter-in-law.

[Paul Mudditt]

10 hours ago, bigmike said:

In Designer V2, when I try to export as PDF, it is taking WAY too long. I let it sit for about 20 minutes but don't have the time to do extensive testing. It can't even generate a preview! Illustrator can export a PDF like this in about 30 seconds – I build these files for my work and do it all the time. I'd think a fresh app like Designer V2 could crank it out in no time. It makes it unusable for me, which is very disappointing as I was hoping I could use this instead of Illustrator...

I have a new MacBook M1 Max 64GB (Ventura 13.1), so there's plenty of power. I have also tried this on my old 2012 MacBook Retina but exact same thing happens.

The file is a ”standard” file – not a lot going on. There's the usual vector shapes, one small jpeg used as a pattern (crowd), and one small jpeg used as background (sky).

I've tried all kinds of settings but it doesn't seem to help either way. I've narrowed it down to the most basci settings I could, without extra processing (that I know of). 

Main export settings:
– Rasterize; Nothing
– No downsampling, no jpeg compression
– Color Space; As document
– Profile; Use document profile
– Convert image color spaces; OFF
– Include layers; OFF
– Embed fonts; Text as curves

File attached.

TEST.afdesign 9.8 MB · 2 downloads

The problem may be the rectangles you are using with a bitmap fill, did you try rasterising those layers instead. ?

EDIT: Seems to be your stairs are each filled with a gradient, so could be a run out of rendering RAM or similar. Try rasterising each set of stairs or simplifying. 

 

EDIT2: Ok grouped and named all identifiable objects and confirmed stairs are your problem  So grouped them and duplicated and rasterised the group to prove it. I dIsabled the vector stairs with gradients on each stair  That needs investigating next  Anyway PDF successfully working again. Whether that meets your requirements I don’t know. Hopefully a QA will take a look and explain why the gradient steps are such a problem.

 

 

 

TEST-2_NAMING GROUPS.afdesign TEST-2_NAMING GROUPS.pdf

[Paul Mudditt]

Actually did some further testing and your original design does generate a preview in just over 5 minutes and saves to disk as PDF in just over 5 minutes as well so just over 10 minutes before the PDF appears.

So, copying your staircases alone into a new document took nearly 2 minutes to render an incomplete preview and about 2 minutes to render to pdf

A single staircase takes over 4 seconds to render, multiplying by 24 staircase is over 100 seconds so something starts to happen to make the time increase non-linear.

@Devs/QA Why do gradients take so long to render, has the debug code been left in???

only stairs.pdf only stairs.afdesign

only stairs = 1.pdf

[bigmike]

Hey Paul, thanks for looking at this.

I've been messing around (for hours now) and have come across something interesting. What I found out is that it's a layers and/or group thing.

First I targeted the jpegs in there, and tried many different settings (none, compression, etc etc) but nothing seemed to make a difference as far as jpegs. I also deleted them and that didn't make a difference. And I did try rasterizing the bitmap pattern in the boxes but that made no difference either. So I ruled out anything with jpegs...

I really didn't have anything else in the document but simple vector shapes and just a few gradients as you can see.

So then I started turning off any groups I had, one by one, to try to target any specific group. That did not make a difference either. I really thought it was weird and made no sense.

After that, I realized I had a lot of little bits on their own layers. A LOT – several hundreds I think (the layer panel would scroll forever). So I began to group them and after cleaning up a bazillion layers into more organized groups, then it started speeding up a bit for PDF export. I got it down to about 6 to 10 seconds which is more like it. Finally getting somewhere!

I never would've thought this would be an issue but it seems it's definitely the number of layers in the document and/or the groupings. I think Affinity needs to address this – maybe code it where, before export for PDF (or whatever else that is similar), it checks for if there are too many layers that could slow down the process and, if so, would bring up a window telling the user to make groups.

I will keep my eye on this layer and group thing and post if there are any differences I come across. But Affinity needs to address this – I'd think one solution to help is to do what I mentioned above?

NOTES (DEVELOPER):
– I noticed the preview takes about the same time to generate as the final output. So if the preview is taking too long, then you know the export will take too long.
– The preview does not show the entire document for me. It only shows the grey and white square pattern as if nothing is there. Sometimes, it will show a glimpse of the very left portion of the document, then quickly disappear. This seems to happen only for vector formats (PDF, SVG, EPS, etc). All bitmap exports (PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, etc) seem fine on preview.
– I can't zoom in or out on the preview (I tried trackpad, mouse, keys, the jedi force, etc) which is odd. This also seems to happen only for vector formats (PDF, SVG, EPS, etc). All bitmap exports (PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, etc) seem fine on preview.

 

[Paul Mudditt]

1 hour ago, bigmike said:

Hey Paul, thanks for looking at this.

I've been messing around (for hours now) and have come across something interesting. What I found out is that it's a layers and/or group thing.

First I targeted the jpegs in there, and tried many different settings (none, compression, etc etc) but nothing seemed to make a difference as far as jpegs. I also deleted them and that didn't make a difference. And I did try rasterizing the bitmap pattern in the boxes but that made no difference either. So I ruled out anything with jpegs...

I really didn't have anything else in the document but simple vector shapes and just a few gradients as you can see.

So then I started turning off any groups I had, one by one, to try to target any specific group. That did not make a difference either. I really thought it was weird and made no sense.

After that, I realized I had a lot of little bits on their own layers. A LOT – several hundreds I think (the layer panel would scroll forever). So I began to group them and after cleaning up a bazillion layers into more organized groups, then it started speeding up a bit for PDF export. I got it down to about 6 to 10 seconds which is more like it. Finally getting somewhere!

I never would've thought this would be an issue but it seems it's definitely the number of layers in the document and/or the groupings. I think Affinity needs to address this – maybe code it where, before export for PDF (or whatever else that is similar), it checks for if there are too many layers that could slow down the process and, if so, would bring up a window telling the user to make groups.

I will keep my eye on this layer and group thing and post if there are any differences I come across. But Affinity needs to address this – I'd think one solution to help is to do what I mentioned above?

NOTES (DEVELOPER):
– I noticed the preview takes about the same time to generate as the final output. So if the preview is taking too long, then you know the export will take too long.
– The preview does not show the entire document for me. It only shows the grey and white square pattern as if nothing is there. Sometimes, it will show a glimpse of the very left portion of the document, then quickly disappear. This seems to happen only for vector formats (PDF, SVG, EPS, etc). All bitmap exports (PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, etc) seem fine on preview.
– I can't zoom in or out on the preview (I tried trackpad, mouse, keys, the jedi force, etc) which is odd. This also seems to happen only for vector formats (PDF, SVG, EPS, etc). All bitmap exports (PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, etc) seem fine on preview.

 

 

Yes, if you look to my version where I actually named your objects like floodlights, stairs, etc I noticed the performance improvements plus allowed me to turn off and on various combinations to narrow the major problem down to the stair/step gradients which I guess are mathematically intensive operations. Still think it is taking too long to render though, but plenty opportunities for speed ups. Anyhow hope it helped a little.

[Paul Mudditt]

Look how quick it renders even on my M1 iPad Pro with the the staircases turned off.

[bigmike]

Pretty fast. And neat seeing it o the iPad.

I'll have to do more testing on the staircases when I have some more time. I think they might have some gradient-to-transparent fills which might be slowing things down, though it's very basic and I don't think should slow things down in the first place.