I'd like to use LayOut, but why is it sooooooo slow?

Goggin · 22 Dec 2007, 18:25

I was hoping to use LayOut to do some professional looking presentations with my floor plans. I don't even need 3-D, just a 2-D spread of a 3-story house at 1/4" = 1' scale. That means a page size greater than 11x17. In fact, it would be the standard 24x36 page size. That just brings my computer to a grinding halt-- twice I've had to do a Ctrl-Alt-Delete to end the program, as it just hung up on disk access for what seemed like forever. When it does work, the response time is so slow that it's just unusable.

Any tips for speeding things up? I used the "send to LayOut" command from SketchUp, set the scale to what I wanted and tuned the DPI down to 150 hoping that would help-- but it's still just too slow to use.

Do I need to restrict myself to one of the templates available? I notice that the largest size offered is 11x17.

Gaieus · 22 Dec 2007, 21:18

Goggin,

While working, go down to 72 dpi. Then when exporting, you can go up higher (leraned from "SU Guides")
I don't know. I have a fairly poor configuration with my computer and apart from starting time I don't usually have problems with LO.

zx10r_Gaz · 22 Dec 2007, 23:37

Thanks Gaieus,

Good tip that.

I had exactly the same issue as Goggin, too slow to function, and now its OK... LO still takes much longer to start up than SU does...

Gaz...

Charlie__V · 23 Dec 2007, 01:09

Goggin,
Gai is right on the mark, work in Layout with the lowest dpi for most response time.
However,Final dpi output seems to be dependant on your hardware/model size.
For example:
Working model "A" @ 72 DPI in layout...good response time etc,, then export .pdf @ 300 dpi. sometimes good(delay as it renders)......other times grey box with red X (usually fast render).
You will need to find the "sweet spot" per model, by that I mean the max dpi output(no grey box w/Red x) over the Layout working dpi.
Hope this helps.
I am sorry I cannot be more specific on this,only because I have results that vary.
I am hopeful Layout Exits Beta soon, as I have spent some good time with it and really like it's future potential :~)

Charlie

Goggin · 23 Dec 2007, 02:20

That did the trick.

Thanks.

@unknownuser said:

zx10r_Gaz:
LO still takes much longer to start up than SU does...

Yeah, I thought there was something wrong with my computer the first few times I used it!

Gaieus · 23 Dec 2007, 08:00

On my computer it starts rather slow, too (and most of the users say this). LO is way much more memory dependent than SU afaik. The "red cross syndrome" comes from the lack of memory, too I think. Imagine that now I'm working on an almost 3-yera-old computer with just 512mb of ram.

Still could produce some nice output although I don't use LO as an everyday routine tool (this might change in the future though as I'm expecting to work on a specil project where the "client" is a "conservative" humanities guy who likes to see everything printed in A3 format...)

Goggin · 23 Dec 2007, 21:25

Any idea when the official (non-beta) version comes out, and whether there will be an additional charge for it (beyond what we payed for to get SU Pro)?

It's a nifty tool, although I'm still just learning.

Charlie__V · 23 Dec 2007, 23:32

Goggin,
No Idea when they may drop the Beta from the Layout description.
Given the time that has passed since Layout was released....I get more hopeful each day there will be significant update that takes layout...out of Beta!

Best,

Charlie

dylan · 24 Dec 2007, 07:33

Yes, hopefully the Beta will end soon and a new version hit the market.
I think it could be a really good and powerful program once it is tweaked.
Fingers crossed work is still proceeding with it and developments are on-going for a future release.