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Drawings really slow

dan_engererdan_engerer Member Posts: 63 PRO
edited April 2018 in Product Feedback
Hi, just some honest feedback. Drawings load very slowly in general despite having great internet speed and a godlike PC. This is our general impression across multiple platforms, within different countries, different browsers and computers, etc. and this has been the case for the entirety of our time with Onshape. So no, this time Onshape's performance issue is not the user's fault-  it's not a matter of some super technical and obscure browser setting that only an IT PhD would know, like the other issues generally are.  

Sometimes very simple drawings even take several minutes to load. Nevermind trying to work on drawings when a collaborator is in your document at all- things will nearly grind to a halt.  Super frustrating. 
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Comments

  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,141 PRO
    Yes, drawing are always slow for me to despite anything I try to do to speed it up. It can be very frustrating when trying to quickly get a simple drawing up. Even on versions they still seem to be very slow, to me drawing on a version should be the same speed as loading a pdf out google drive at the moment there is no comparison.   
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,475 PRO
    edited April 2018
    Can you post screenshot of what you consider as simple drawing, I don't do that many drawings but all I have done load in roughly same time as opening part studio of that part.

    Many of my drawings have multiple parts (5-10) with single view of each - this was serious performance hit for Alibre and to be honest I've been very happy with Onshape drawings performance and stability (after the update last year where they got noticeable improvement on performance) 

    This took 15sec from hitting F5 to fully load (when visiting other tabs and coming back it's ready immediately), 2 sheets in total - no collaborators online.

    //rami
  • chrisjh777chrisjh777 Member Posts: 207 ✭✭✭✭
    Drawings are always slow for me.  I have learned to make a cup of coffee :) when I work with drawings (often).  Like Dan, I have high speed fibre optic internet connection and a high end work station.
  • RyanAveryRyanAvery Member Posts: 93 EDU
    I've run into some slow sketch times but I've noticed I'm using some slow feature scripts 


  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    As Rami suggests - drawings should open in a 'reasonable' length of time.
    Having time to get a cup of coffee is not 'reasonable'!

     I would suggest that Pro users open a feedback ticket and share their document with support.
    Free users, please post a public link here in the forums.
    In each case, we will look at the document and determine the root cause.

    Many thanks - Philip.


    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    IN THE MEANTIME - want a quick, awesome, speed increase? :)

    Drawings are typically made from released parts.
    Even if the part/assembly isnt released yet, chances are there are versions that exist (or can be easily added with a single click)

    • RMB over the drawing tab.
    • Select 'Change to version' (brings up the familiar dialog)
    • Select a version (or release)
    • Drawing now does everything a lot faster.
    • When you want to jump to a newer version, RMB over the tab again and select 'Update Linked Document' (and select newer version/revision).

    BOOOOOM! :)


    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,141 PRO
    edited April 2018
    @phil_thomas I'd be very happy if I could get load times like that, but linking drawings back to my older visions is not going to help me get my drawings done.

    @3d see below what I'd call a simple drawing and various load times on my average internet.

    42 second to load in the workspace.
    3 second when switching back once loaded in the workspace.
    48 second to rebuild
    15sec in the main workspace linked back a version
    59 seconds on the last version (@Phil_thomasshouldn't a version be as quick as referencing back to the version from the workspace)
    shared link opened in a new browser session 1min 47sec 
    shared link of the same drawing in pdf format and saved to google drive 7 sec's


    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @brucebartlett - please open a ticket - we need to get to the bottom of this.
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • 3dcad3dcad Member, OS Professional, Mentor Posts: 2,475 PRO
    @brucebartlett
    wow, no wonder you say it is sloooow. 
    //rami
  • Josh_LarsenJosh_Larsen Member Posts: 2 ✭✭
    I have previously not done many drawings, but I started to try to do some today and I am ready to scream!  I have been lucky to get any drawings to load at all....  
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @Josh_Larsen - please open a ticket and share the document with support so that we can diagnose/fix for you! 
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • chrisjh777chrisjh777 Member Posts: 207 ✭✭✭✭
    @brucebartlett

    Hi Bruce,

    Did you raise a ticket?
  • brucebartlettbrucebartlett Member, OS Professional, Mentor, User Group Leader Posts: 2,141 PRO
    No @chrisjh777 I haven't yet, I'm waiting till I am really frustrated with a speed issue then I will. I haven't been working on many drawings lately.
    Engineer ı Product Designer ı Onshape Consulting Partner
    Twitter: @onshapetricks  & @babart1977   
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    It doesn't have to be 'super slow' - you can say 'this opens slower than in SolidWorks' (please give the time to open in Solidworks from cold - ie none of the parts in RAM). We may not be able to give you a magic bullet, but we are very interested in knowing anything that we are doing that might be 'less than optimal'. 

    Just off the top of my head, here are some things that cause a drawing to be 'sluggish' (but NOT necessarily slower than SolidWorks).

    A bazillion parts.
    Parts with threads (or anything with large numbers of silhouette edges (eg heat exchangers))
    Drawings of assemblies that reference multiple documents
    Drawings of parts that contain multiple derives

    There are probably many more and desktop systems have analogs for all of these - these are NOT specific to Onshape.

    Show us what you think is slow (as a reminder, we cannot see what pro users are making unless you specifically share something with us).

    Thank you.

    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,936 PRO
    Sorry Philip I have to agree with the majority here, and I have submitted tickets and gotten some very useful feedback.
    But drawings have always seemed to be a neglected thing in my opinion. 

    They have gotten a few small speed boosts since release but not quite there yet.
    Small details are fine for me, but as soon as you show hidden lines you get (not exaggerating) at least a 200% decrease in performance, or more.

    Like I've said support has helped me find some work arounds, but I was under the impression those were temporary until onshape fixed the issues.
    Eventually OS will need to really spend some resources to focus on this portion with a real passion. There are many of us that cannot convince our customers that they really don't need the drawings they are paying for.

    Assemblies are where I see the most trouble. Lou and Pete have been the two who answer the call most of the time for me, and could surely fill you in.
    I don't consider these assemblies to be that complicated, but it really puts the breaks on when it comes time to detail.

    And the trick you showed for versions may be fine for viewing, but that doesn't help us when creating/editing the drawings.

    Here is a video showing what I mean about the hidden line performance. You can see when I hover over an object then pull the mouse away I have clicked and am waiting for drawings to acknowledge I have clicked something 3 seconds ago. Sometimes you see me attempt to click the object a few times before I even get a dimension line.
    https://youtu.be/3sghldOD8v4
  • philip_thomasphilip_thomas Member, Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 1,381
    @john_mcclary @dan_engerer - ok, i spoke to support. There appear to be some additional considerations with respect to your specific drawings and these were not called out on my list above.

    In the short term, detailing a version will be the fastest performing workflow (yes this requires a manual step with each version increment - updating the version).
    In the longer term, we are very much aware of your specific circumstances and we absolutely have on our development plan specific improvements to address this issue. My apologies for not being able to give specific timelines, as you all know by now, they change all the time ('agile')

    Everyone that submitted a feedback ticket will be on the list to be notified of progress on this front. :):):)
    Philip Thomas - Onshape
  • VierhoutVierhout Member Posts: 13 PRO
    I follow this thread. Are there any new developments concerning the performance of drawings? We still notice many slow issues in the drawings. Onshape has a lot to improve on this.
    www.vierhoutengineering.nl
    Mechanical Structural Engineering
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,936 PRO
    They have sped up a few things here and there, but I also still see the same lag when having hidden lines as before.
  • Joe_SpartoJoe_Sparto Member Posts: 16 ✭✭
    Has anyone heard of any new drawing updates that are coming? Assembly drawings are still slow and freezing. 
  • rodrigo_figueiredorodrigo_figueiredo Member Posts: 5
    drawing in part studio with more than 90 parts is really slow... i think need make all in one and when click it just open all conect to it or some part will load faster.
  • marcus_whitemarcus_white Member Posts: 6 PRO
    This is was an issue back in 2018 and it still is now in 2021. I have broken all my tabs out into separate documents with minimal changes in speed. 
  • marcus_whitemarcus_white Member Posts: 6 PRO
    edited September 2021
    This is was an issue back in 2018 and it still is now in 2021. I have broken all my tabs out into separate documents with minimal changes in speed. 
    Something we found out is that if you use section views within your drawing it drastically reduces your speed. Instead of smooth zooming and panning it will have a delay. 

    The fix for us for now is deleting the section views. If you cannot delete you section views we've also found using the shift z function within the drawing doesn't affect loading speeds. 
  • marcus_whitemarcus_white Member Posts: 6 PRO
    This is was an issue back in 2018 and it still is now in 2021. I have broken all my tabs out into separate documents with minimal changes in speed. 
    Something we found out is that if you use section views within your drawing it drastically reduces your speed. Instead of smooth zooming and panning it will have a delay. 

    The fix for us for now is deleting the section views. If you cannot delete you section views we've also found using the shift z function within the drawing doesn't affect loading speeds. 
    I'm going to recant my statement about deleting the section view to make the drawings faster. I may have been a fluke or just weird timing but with a bunch of sections views added to one of my drawings it was handling it perfectly fine one evening then it went back to being very slow. 

    We are currently trying to resolve this issue with onshape but at this moment no one knows the cause.  
  • amber_denaultamber_denault Member Posts: 4 EDU
    I have been waiting for my drawing to load for 20 minutes now and it is still trying. I wait my whole prep time to try and make a drawing and there is no way for me to have my students utilize this function if it takes their whole class time to open one. 
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,936 PRO
    it may have been stuck, that happens from to me on giant models.

    Next time it happens try refreshing the browser while clearing the cache, (ctrl+f5) on most browsers
  • chandra_harshachandra_harsha Member Posts: 15 ✭✭
    edited October 2021
    IN THE MEANTIME - want a quick, awesome, speed increase? :)

    Drawings are typically made from released parts.
    Even if the part/assembly isnt released yet, chances are there are versions that exist (or can be easily added with a single click)

    • RMB over the drawing tab.
    • Select 'Change to version' (brings up the familiar dialog)
    • Select a version (or release)
    • Drawing now does everything a lot faster.
    • When you want to jump to a newer version, RMB over the tab again and select 'Update Linked Document' (and select newer version/revision).

    BOOOOOM! :)


    First of all, Onshape has come a long way, in terms of improvements to drawings, which is very welcoming and increased usability of Onshape Drawings. However there are still much improvements needed in Drawings.

    @philip_thomas , your statement "Drawings are typically made from released parts" is not always true, and I hope Onshape doesn't emphasise on this when developing Onshape drawings.
    There are some instances in past, this was partly true like, when I worked in a big car company, parts released from R&D centre are revisioned, and we in production division use those designs to create machine parts. But still design of those machine parts is carried out with 3D-modelling and drawing hand in hand. But other than that, I never worked any project where part 3d-model is released and drawing is commenced. There are certain advantages drawing gives during design, and sometimes I realise few things need to be changed while drawing, so go back and update the 3D-model.  

    Generally, My Onshape drawings are not too slow. I have one client who also uses Onshape, a manufacturer of tankers (trucks), pressure vessel construction for trucks, etc., and those involve a large number of big welding assemblies. On some assemblies we have more than 50 parts. My performance didn't reduce much but I remember if a certain sheet has cut-section ("Section-cut geometry only" helps) on assembly, or assembly with hidden lines, that sheet performance makes me cry when I am in hurry to release drawings :| , but other sheets generally are fine.
    But I faced problems people mentioned in this thread, probably in assembly where we had to show entire truck. As client also uses Onshape, he sometimes tells me to screenshot the assembly, and just add image into drawing  :D , but we use this when position of certain part is indicative only, and technician has to suit assembly in real time during welding. So, in ideal world you wouldn't want this.

    So, another time, same client gave me certain tank that has already been modelled, has like 40-50parts, a small size, and they need production drawings. I need to make changes if necessary due to manufacturing constraints but these will be minor. So, for this I created a new document only for drawings. So versioned document containing 3d-model, and used those in creating drawings. I had to make several versions as I made changes. I didn't notice any significant performance boost this way. I had similar problems with assemblies that has 100s of parts, and no change (the sheet where I had to show tank position on the truck is very very slow). So, I am not sure if this fix helps a lot.

     
  • john_mcclaryjohn_mcclary Member, Developers Posts: 3,936 PRO
    Yea, I don't agree with the 'set drawing views to a version'
    because while laying out dimensions you always find mistakes or typos. so you want to go in, make a quick fix, and update just that drawing.

    but if you have every view set to a version, then you have to update the version of the entire document each micro update.
    Then in the end you have to create one more version and update all drawings after every edit hereafter.

    Worse than than, you cannot change your mind, you need to delete the view and re-dimension everything if you want to change to a version based view, or revert back to an active workspace view.

    Worse than that, you cannot just right click the view and switch to the part, instead it opens a new tab and brings you to that version. So the you can either switch to the main workspace from there,  or you can skip all that and just manually browse to the part studio, either way it just takes away from the simple work flow of opening the part through the drawing view.

    Also you end with with hundreds of versions cluttering up your version tree which contain minor updates like typos.

    It makes me throw up in my mouth just thinking about it.

    drawings already set their views to a micro-version which just checks for changes and makes the update button glow yellow, which is why we need to hit the update views button after each edit. So it SHOULD work just as quickly as a proper version. Am I Wrong?

    But Drawings have come a long way, It is very rare now that I have performance issues.
    When I do, I have other work arounds other than version hell.

    Like splitting up multi sheet assembly drawings into their own tabs when they get bogged down.
    or splitting the detailing of parts into tab groups (which also helps when multiple people are detailing the same project, can't wait till we have multi-user drawings)

    If the performance gets really slow, I will even create a display state which has all of the parts which are not visible in each view hidden.

    for example:
    the top view of this drawing is actually just the bottom layer of shelves.





    Here you can see I ended up splitting the install tab into 5 separate tabs, since every update would take over a half hour to make, Now they take a minute or two, and only the tabs that have changes need to be updated, which is mostly pg2 and pg3



    when I go to release drawings, I can export them all one at a time fairly quickly (since you can click export on each tab faster than they download anyway, you don't need to wait for each one)

    then I have to use Adobe Acrobat to combine them into a single PDF, which is a subscription fee that I wish could be canceled if Onshape would allow bulk export of drawing tabs into a single PDF (also bulk export into separate tabs as well), (also bulk export of parts into separate step files...) but I digress.

    I still think Onshape is making good progress, but Drawings still do need some attention. But they are very close to meeting all of my demands and I look forward to seeing where drawings ends up. 
  • shawn_crockershawn_crocker Member, OS Professional Posts: 866 PRO
    I have been waiting for my drawing to load for 20 minutes now and it is still trying. I wait my whole prep time to try and make a drawing and there is no way for me to have my students utilize this function if it takes their whole class time to open one. 

    I often find drawings can get stuck in a half loaded state.  90% of the time if my drawing starts to load and I don't see at least some graphics pop into view with in 20 seconds, I refresh the browser tab and usually it just loads right in.  Drawings are wildly slow though in general and I wish on shape would start expressing more public concern for this issue that no doubt everyone has.  Maybe I'm blind but I feel like there is a lot of official silence over this.  I have a feeling it is slow because of the way there system generates the geometry.  Its like the drawing gets completely converted into some line based format before it gets displayed in the view.  Hence why hiding parts and such right from the drawing view is not possible because the parts are not actually there.  I really think on shape needs to revamp how there drawings are generated and make them be more like the assembly environment.  Each view can be expanded and the individual parts and assemblies can be seen.  The drawing system right now, I feel, is a little too inflexible.  And everything I design are rather simple things.  Can't imagine working on really complex mechanical assembly drawings.  It must be just endlessly back to the assembly to update display state, back to drawing and rebuild, wait 5mins for rebuild.  Over and over and over.
  • marcus_whitemarcus_white Member Posts: 6 PRO
    I'm bumping this thread because the issue is still relevant.
  • S1monS1mon Member Posts: 2,994 PRO
    My sense as well is that the drawing module needs a major architectural overhaul. Part modeling and assemblies are pretty magical in comparison, but drawings seem woefully behind in power and speed. There are some things like inspection numbers which got added for free that Solidworks wants to charge an extra $3k for, but then there are things like symbols and flags in notes which are barely functional. Dragging a drawing view around is also comically bad in its limited laggy feedback.

    Clearly complex, precise 2D stuff can be done well in a browser. Just look at Figma. For many UI and vector graphic designers, it has replaced Illustrator, Photoshop, Sketch, Invision, etc. It runs in a browser and has collaborative editing. Its performance is beautiful. Can Onshape draw some inspiration from Figma?
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