Altium 19 Slow Performance

[Bud]

Altium recommended system requirements

Intel® Core™ i7 processor or equivalent.
High performance graphics card (supporting DirectX 10 or better), such as GeForce GTX 1060/Radeon RX 470.

[T3sl4co1l]

List panel open?

It didn't used to be broken but in 18 or so they really screwed it up.  SCH List is just about useless.  PCB List is still fine (keep it set to "edit/view selected" though).

In general, 20 is a lot slower than previous versions.  It's dumb, go figure.

Tim

[aabbcc]

So I'm trying to learn altium again. Tried some time ago with v18 and it seemed to work ok from what I can remember. However now with v20 is super slow...

Just selecting a pin in when creating a footprint takes 1 second for it to load the properties panel, clicking outside the pin again on the work area takes another second, etc....

For example, trying to draw this resistor symbol takes approx 1 second for every time I have to click and change the direction of the diagonal line...


Is there nothing I can do about this?

Specs:
Surface sp4
i5-6300 2.4GHz
8GB Ram
Integrated graphics, intel HD 520
256GB sdd

Do I really need to buy a dedicated workstation with an i7, 16gb ram and a dedicated graphics card for this?

On a Surface ? you're joking right ?

No, I'm obviously not joking. Also when loading one of the included example projects (even the bigger ones) pcb routing, 3d viewer and schematic capture seems to work just fine with with barely any lag.  Creating schematic symbols for specific is where it's it's taking it's time loading for 1 second everytime I click on a pin, line or component. I dont know if it has anything to do with the supplier search because it feels like it is constantly trying to fetch all the metadata from digikey as soon as I click any of the component pins/lines.

Blueskull mentioned the schematic will constantly re-compile, I'm not sure if that is something you can disable in the options (like online DRC). Also dedicated GPU required.

I would just go back to v18.

Yea that sounds lke something that would cause every click to take 1 second. I'll check if I can disable something else. But yes, will probably revert to v18 which worked really smooth on my surface.

List panel open?

It didn't used to be broken but in 18 or so they really screwed it up.  SCH List is just about useless.  PCB List is still fine (keep it set to "edit/view selected" though).

In general, 20 is a lot slower than previous versions.  It's dumb, go figure.

Tim

Yea I had the list panel open, will try to hide it and see if that helps! Really wanted to get v20 to work since the new router looks super nice.

[aabbcc]

Also, straight from the horses mouth:

"The need for a high-performance graphics card is directly related to the amount of use of the 3D PCB capabilities. For example, a Core i7 processor with on-chip integrated HD4000 graphics will be more than adequate if you only require occasional use of the 3D PCB capabilities. If you intend to make extensive use of the 3D PCB features, for computationally intensive tasks such as 3D video or interactive presentations, then it is recommended to use a high performance gaming graphics card in combination with a 3D mouse, such as the Space Navigator."

https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/altium-designer-system-requirements

I.e. I don't buy it, either altium designer v20 is the most poorly optimized software in the world or there is something else at play. Having a project open with a blank pcb, blank schematic, schematic component list and simply drawing a symbol should not require a stationary workstation with an i7, an i5 with integrated graphics should be more than enough for that specific task and not incur a 1 second loading just because I'm pressing a line which displays component properties...

[jusaca]

Having a project open with a blank pcb, blank schematic, schematic component list and simply drawing a symbol should not require a stationary workstation with an i7

THIS.
I'm perfectly aware of the differences between Eagle and Altium, but Altium just did such a good work with blowing up there code that somtimes I get the feeling they are trying to make it slow. Just ridiculous... I think for a lot of tasks Eagle would be even more productive, just because you can work faster with it. During the time Altium needs to start and load my project I would have already routed a simple board with any other tool ;(

[thm_w]

Can leave Altium running, RAM is relatively cheap, use sleep mode on the PC instead of shutting down if you want as well. I restart PC maybe once or twice a month.
Go back to an earlier version that is faster. If 20 is slow, stop paying for maintenance and let them know why. Don't torture yourself.

[olkipukki]

If 20 is slow, stop paying for maintenance and let them know why. Don't torture yourself.

Do you reckon it will help? 

Please do not forget if you will stop paying the subscription , very likely end up paying catch up fees later...

[OwO]

Reading this thread makes me happy 😇

[olkipukki]

Why is that?   

[thm_w]

Do you reckon it will help? 

Please do not forget if you will stop paying the subscription , very likely end up paying catch up fees later...

Its not going to help, if its just a few seats no one will care. But its the principle.

[DmitryVovk]

I have been using Altium since version 16, it seems to be a constant roller since going to AD19.  I'm currently on AD19.1.5 and the performance on my PC is poor.  Simple tasks like selecting/moving/deleting components is slow.  I select a component and a track, only to see the hourglass (or whatever you call it now) for ~1-2 seconds.  Move those components, hourglass for another second, delete objects, wait another second or two.  It just seems to be sluggish in everything I do, I've tried to reboot, minimize the projects, documents I have open.

Is anyone else seeing this type of performance with AD19, or is it just me?  I had a co-worker try on his PC, and it seems to have a similar performance issues.  I don't have a top of the line PC, but it's not a $300 walmart special either. 

i7-3770
16GB RAM
Win7 64-bit
Quadro P2000

Previous versions of AD19 have performed better, so part of me thinks something has changed on my machine, but I'm hoping the EEVblog crowd might be able to point me in the right direction.

Hi
I had same problem untill not turn grid from dots to lines.

[cmcraeslo]

Has someone figured out how to fix this slow issue? AD16 is unning fine, AD19 is slow on component selection. Every time I click a component, it runs online DRC and it takes around 2s to finish. Is there a way to disable this?

[Mars]

I've also seen a performance hit in recent times but I'm not sure when it happened or what caused it. I reluctantly upgraded from AD18 (which was tolerable relatively speaking) due to a revision specific bug that caused trouble with bus member naming from designs made with eg AD16 or AD17. The bug was fixed in AD20 but overall the software now feels sluggish. But the worst part is not how the software performs, but what it does. God, I miss Xpediton PCB.

[olkipukki]

You can do either:
1) Global settings: Preferences : PPCB Editor - Online DRC
2) Project settings: Design Rules -> Rules to Check -> ...

In general, update to latest Ryzen (or Intel  ) high-clock CPUs, it costs peanuts compare to Altium prices 

[cmcraeslo]

I have DRC check set to a minimum (clearence only). AD16 doesn't suffer from this problem at all.
What seems to bother me is the fact that it runs DRC check on simple component selection/deselection. Why would it do that? I'd understand that this happens when I move it.

[fleks84]

Anyone who has Altium slows down in Schematic mode - start by reducing the amount of grid display: Options - Grids (Imperial Grid Preset and Metic Grid Preset) - remove unused grid values. Be surprised)