Slow responsein Layout Mode

[Echo33029]

I've seen the slow response in FM7 layout mode mentioned a few times, but no one seems to have confirmed if this is only happening in the trial version or in the final purchased copies as well.

I just created a new file and tried to do some stuff in layout mode. Not only is the response when trying to move objects around the layout extremely slow, in some cases the objects would not move at all, not matter what I did. My monitor is only 1024 x 768 so I don't think that this is a high resolution issue as has been mentioned on some other forums.

Does anyone have an idea what's going on?

Echo

Version: Developer v6

Platform: Windows XP

[Ano Nimus]

Try playing around with the hardware acceleration of your graphics card, it improved things on my system quite a bit.

[Echo33029]

My system is at maximum acceleration now and the response is terrible.

While I like the new features in FM7, between this issue and the terrible fonts, I will not be purchasing FM7, nor upgrading any of my customers or applications until these are fixed. Hopefully someone at Filemaker is listening, since no one from the beta group seemed to have provided this feedback, or were ignored.

[geod]

Try increasing the amount of Memory Cache in the FileMaker 7 preferences dialog. I read this somewhere else, and did so as soon as I installed 7 and have had no problems, graham

Version: v7.x

Platform: Windows XP

[mscholtz]

I tried this (upped it to 50 MB from 8 MB), but no dice. Had no discernible positive effect - layout mode still crawls.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[Buggen]

I too am seeing a definite slow down compared with prior versions and not just in layout mode. I've had the update for a little over a week now (full, not trial) and running 6 and 7 side by side performing the same tasks on the same files it seems to be about 5 times slower on any function. Whether it's moving/placing items in layout mode, importing data, running scripts or just simply scrolling through a list of records it is excruciatingly slow.

For background I'm currently running it on a G4 Dual 450Mhz Gigabit tower with 700MB RAM and a Radion 8500 video card. I've verified the same issues on an 800Mhz eMac with 640MB RAM. Setting the cache in the Preferences makes no difference. I've upped it from the default 8MB to 100MB with no noticible improvement in response time.

While I'm thrilled by the new features and really want to take advantage of them I can't see replacing my existing solutions running on 6 with rebuilt 7 files if the performance is going to take such a hit. To me, FileMaker is all about making things more efficient, not slowing them down.

Has anyone actually spoken with FileMaker reps about this problem? I'd like to call but I hate to waste my one free support call on this and get a response along the lines of "We're not aware of a problem" or "It's most likely an issue with your computer". I'm a die hard FM user, but this is getting really frustrating.

[Singlequanta]

I'm having the exact same problem. I thought it was my machine Installed on a virgim machine with basic system alas the problem still exists.

[Echo33029]

As a follow up to the slow layout response problem, I have just noticed that the same problem also exists when trying to move the table occurences in the Define Database relationship display.

When I had only two or three tables in the display, everything worked fine with excellent response. When I started adding more table occurences, things started to slow down. Now with 10 relationships set up it is impossible to use the system as moving a table around is extremely difficult, as well as creating the links between the tables. Basically FM7 appears to have a problem with dragging graphical objects around the screen.

[BruceJ]

I was expereinceing this on my work machine (Windoze 2000, Pent4 1.5 with 200+ RAM), but my home machines (both Windows XP, Pent3) seem to work just fine.

I'm wondering if it's something to do with comptibility with graphics cards. My work machine has a run of the mill grphics card, my home machines have some sort of souped up graphics cards.

[Ted S]

I'm getting this same sticky and slow response when using the mouse to drag layout objects. I've tried adjusting all of the things mentioned above. Has anyone overcome this problem or has everybody just learned to live with it?

[Ted S]

Well gang, I installed the FMD 70v2 updater moments ago and still have this problem. Did the updater fix this for anyone or are we out-of-luck?

[rockman]

I found a screen redraw bug in v7.2 and XP. When the window is MAXIMIZED the screen redraw is pathetically slow. When the window is NOT MAXIMIZED the screen redraw is lightening fast. Try it out.

HTH,

Jeff

[Tamas]

I am having the same problem under Windows XP, tried everything, so far no improvement.

[Vaughan]

Have you installed the 7.0v3 update?

[Ted S]

The problem went away for me when I installed a higher quality video card.

[Ron F]

I would recomend Having at least 64Mb Video Card and 512 of RAM. FM7 is a Memory Hog, but works great with the upgraded Memory and better video card. Also if you set the Memory allocation too high in your preferences (at least in XP) your whole computer will slow to a crawl. For instance, if your Computer has 256 Mb of RAM keep you memory setting under 128, otherwise there isn't enough memory to run XP. Both XP and FM& take up massive amounts of RAM.