FMP12 Layout Mode Lag with complex layouts, Beach Ball, Coffee Cup, et al.

[Codeus]

I am finding FM12 extremely frustrating as a development platform.

While in layout mode some simple tasks are much, much slower than in FMP11, particularly on layouts with lots of objects.

Even when working locally on a DB using a fast PC or Mac, when working on a layout with a large number of objects (e.g. Multiple tab objects, buttons, fields etc) simply moving a field by a couple of pixels, then going back to browse mode can take 5 seconds of beach ball time.

Dragging objects can also take 2 or 3 seconds between clicking and dragging and the object actually moving to the pointers location. This is particularly annoying as you can easily drag objects unintentionally without noticing due to the lag.

Via LAN this problem becomes worse and when working via WAN (particularly over ADSL), development becomes a hellish experience when you may as well go make a coffee while you wait for your layout changes to be committed.

I did some tests on the same DB, same layout, with FM11 and FM12 both tests were done with the databases running on the local machine and over WAN with the databases running on identical spec servers with similar latency and bandwidth.

Select all objects on layout

FM11 - < 1 Sec

FM12 - ~7 Secs

Enter Layout Mode

FM11 - Near Instant

FM12 - Near Instant

Move a layout object by 1 pixel

FM11 - Near Instant

FM12 - ~3 Secs

Enter Browse Mode after a minor layout change (LAN)

FM11 - Instant

FM12 - ~5 Secs

Enter Browse Mode after a minor layout change (WAN - 100mb)

FM11 - ~2 secs

FM12 - ~9 Secs

Enter Browse Mode after a minor layout change (WAN - 8mb ADSL)

FM11 - ~12 secs

FM12 - ~35 Secs

I appreciate in solutions with less objects on a layout and in LAN environments this problem becomes less of an issue, but in some circumstances, I am finding FM12 to be a real slow coach from a development point of view.

[Sydney Shackelford]

Just type in a calculation for a field can be frustrating. (Even in FM 12v2) What doesn't make sense is that you can cut and paste and even select functions with speed. However typing is a painful experience. There is a 3-5 second delay in typing. Everything else is fast, just plain typing is slow as molasses. Typing in actual data is incredibly quick as expected.

[Caromsoft]

I am not finding these kind of speed issues in general. I am finding other issues, but it doesn't take seconds to move an object 1 pixel. Making changes over the Internet is sometimes excruciating! I am running 12 on a mid 2011 iMac i7 with 8 GB Ram.

[RodSierra]

Not using 12, but do you have show sample data enabled, this can sometimes slow things down.

[Codeus]

If you aren't using 12, you probably aren't seeing the same issues. I would re-iterate that this really only becomes an annoyance when there are a high number of objects on a layout, and more-so when you are connecting over WAN.

In my case I have a database where each tab has sub-tabs, and some of those have further subtabs; All with additional fields, buttons etc.

Under 11 this was all ok and seemed to be what Filemaker wanted us to do (remember when we made fake tabs to go to different layouts?). But with 12, layout mode takes a long time to process the information for each object (perhaps because each object can have multiple states).

Maybe FM want me to go back to fake-tab land with more layouts or suffer developer rage waiting for everything to eventually catch up with the developers' client.