Appearance
Slow with large documents
When the editor pauses, drags lag, or a graphic cannot keep up on air — what is normal, and what to change.
What is normal
Some pauses are expected, and short:
| When | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Opening a document of 512 KB or more | Seconds, with a progress panel | It is read in the background; the last step holds the window a moment |
| The first picture of a document | Under a second, once | It is prepared the first time it is drawn |
| Save and Export .riv on a very large document | About a second | The whole document is written |
| Reloading a 3D scene of more than 200,000 triangles | One to two seconds, with "Loading the 3D scene…" | The scene is rebuilt |
See Limits and performance for the numbers.
Everything is slow
| Check | Do this |
|---|---|
| Is another program using the graphics card or the processor? | Close it. Timings can double when another program is busy |
| Is the stage zoomed right in on a very large artboard? | Zoom out: the stage draws up to about 16 million pixels |
| Is Monitor out running? | It draws every frame for the card. Stop it when you do not need it |
| Are many DeckLink previews or clips playing in slots? | Turn previews off with the eye beside a port, or stop clips you are not looking at |
| Is the onion skin on with many frames? | Show fewer frames, or turn it off |
| Is a 3D layer heavy? | Lower its render scale while you work on something else |
Dragging or typing lags
On a large document an edit should stay under a hundredth of a second. If it does not:
- A bending mesh is rewritten every frame. Preflight says how much of the frame it costs. Fewer points buy the time back.
- Very large pictures take memory. Scale them to the size they are shown before importing.
Switching artboards takes a moment
The panels redraw their lists for the artboard. On a document of 85 artboards it takes about a fifth of a second. That is expected.
It cannot keep up on air
The Monitor out chip counts late frames; preflight lists costly effects. Most graphics use a small part of a frame. What uses the rest:
- meshes that bend every frame — cost follows the number of points;
- 3D layers — cost follows the pixels: lower the render scale, drop an effect;
- many live slots at full resolution.
See Preflight findings for the 3D messages and what to do about each.
Still slow?
Note what you were doing, how long it took, and the document's size, and report it: see Reporting a problem.