Viewing slices by number and faster slice rendering for larger models

Feature Requests & Ideas
1

I’n not sure if this is a recent issue, or if preform was always like this, but I’ve noticed recently that when trying to view slices on larger models the display turns into a really bad slide slow, making it difficult or even impossible to select a given slice to look at.

As a quick fix it would be nice to be able to type the number of the slice to view rather than having to rely on the right hand slider (which on a high resolution screen is a bit too fiddly anyway even when rendering fast smaller models).

It would also be good to look at optimising the rendering of the slices when using the slider though, since it is surely possible to view slices responsively.

I’m assuming it’s not my machine that’s the issue since I’m running an i7-4770k overclocked to 4.6Ghz, which I’m guessing is more relevant than my graphics card since it seems Preform uses OpenGL via the QT framework - although I do have respectable enough GTX 970.

Here’s a link to my most recent form file https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bxi9QnsGaF7EakZTUE9kRDJGU0U/view?usp=sharing that shows the slide show when trying to select a layer slice. I’d be interested if anyone else with a decent machine could confirm the slice viewing performance is a problem for them too…

2

I tried your file and have the same issue. Here I’m running a i7-4770@3.4GHz, 16Gb of Ram and a Nvidia Quadro 2000D.

3

Thanks @Silvio_Augusto - that seems like confirmation it’s not just my machine, and that it’s a Preform rendering performance issue.

Interestingly it’s just the slice viewing that’s an issue, I can rotate and zoom large models very reponsively…

4

I think it might be due to the supports–maybe the slicing gets slower with a higher number of objects that it has to slice rather than the number of polygons

5

@Zachary_Brackin is right, I have always experienced performance issues after adding supports. I too downloaded your file and had similar issues, but upon removing the supports, slicing is flawless.

  • Kevin
6

@Zachary_Brackin a very logical postulation and @kevinduhe concisely proven.

However - the issue remains, displaying slices isn’t much use if you can’t do it with supports in place.

1 Like
7

There might be something they can do, slicing might be single threaded so making it multi-threaded would be a significant improvement if that’s the case. Not sure about the behind the scenes stuff

1 Like
8

It’s a workaround, but you can use page up/page down to move by one layer and hold shift down to move by 10 layers.

3 Likes
9

useful tip, thanks @BenFrantzDale

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10

I had no idea that was a thing. Very useful.

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11

Just to add to the tip from @BenFrantzDale; given the page-up and page-down function - the home and end keys work as you’d expect, ie they jump to the start and end layers respectively.

1 Like