WF4 on Windows 7: slow plotting

[RussDav]

Has anyone else tried using WF4 on Windows 7 and noticed that it takes longer to generate a plot? If so, did you find a remedy?

The 64 bit RC and RTM of 7 produce the same results, about twice as long to generate the same plot as it takes on XP, 32 or 64 bit. I haven't tried the 32 bit 7 since I need to move up to 64 bit.

Running the Ocus benchmark, I see that graphics related things are lagging a bit on 7, but I don't see anything taking twice the time, even the plot and DXF generation steps. That makes me wonder if there is a config option that is affecting the plot generation. I do run the same configs with XP and 7 though.

On the plus side, I do think PDMLink runs smoother on 7 at least. Hopefully the graphics drivers will catch up to XP and improve this plotting slow down.

 

[grimmy65]

I would first check your drivers. Make sure they are all 64 bit and windows 7 compatable. Either of these could cause slower plotting. My appolgies if I am stating the obvious but we all forget the little things sometimes.

If that doesnt work, wait for WF4 M120. This is supposed to be the first 7 supported release of WF4.

 

[RussDav]

Yep, got the latest of everything of the proper flavor. Nvidia has made definite improvements with the latest driver, so I hope they continue the trend of improvement.

It definitely seems graphics related. I ran a batch plot with pro_batch (non-graphical), and the results are nearly identical between XP and 7.

 

[RussDav]

I think I found it. Turn off "enable desktop composition", then the plot times become very close.

I could swear that I turned off all the foo-foo features at one time or another while testing, but I must have missed that one.

 

[dgallup]

I've seen some messy desktops but none actually composting. What on earth does "enable desktop composition" do?

 

[RussDav]

When you mouse over an icon of a minimized window on the task bar, desktop composition is the feature that shows a mini-view of that window in the little window that pops up and then the window itself if you mouse on to that pop-up. It also provides the pre-view (or whatever it's called) of minimized windows when you use alt+tab to switch through windows. It may do more too, but those are the ones I know off the top of my head.

It's kind of a snifty feature, but it may not be worth it if you do a lot of plotting of complex drawings in Pro/E. Maybe that will change with future versions of Pro/E too.