Hi,

I've been trying to open and use some large and/or complex files from Wiki Commons, and they cause Inkscape to crash with great regularity, and even if they don't are slow and extremely laggy. I've got the current stable release - 0.48.4 - and my system is running Win7 x64 with 16gb ram and an nVidia 570GTX, so it's reasonably powerful for this sort of thing, but I've noticed that when running Inkscape, ram utilisation never goes about about 35%, no matter how complex the image. My guess is that Inkscape is running out of ram, but there's plenty available that it isn't using. Is there anything I can do to try to improve this?

how much ram is used before you open any imag ?

urls of some exemples ?

My system is idling now at about 25% ram usage.

Links for example images which will reliably crash either upon opening or within a few minutes:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... _World.svg
http://sourceforge.net/projects/epsmapsfordesig/
Both are over 20mb

Example images which are extremely laggy:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... e_1648.svg
Any of the more complex coats of arms, ie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Greater_Coat_of_Arms_of_Charles_I_of_Spain,_Charles_V_as_Holy_Roman_Emperor_(1530-1556).svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Greater_Coat_of_Arms_of_Spain_(1700-1761)_Version_with_Golden_Fleece_and_Holy_Spirit_Collars.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Greater_Coat_of_Arms_of_Spain_(1761-1868_and_1874-1931)_Version_with_Golden_Fleece_and_Order_of_Charles_III_Collars.svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_the_Kingdom_of_Italy_(1890).svg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_ ... Norway.svg

Most are a couple of mb but never more than 10.

Hi.

Inkscape "out of the box" uses one processor thread only - for a multicore processor system make sure all cores are enabled in the preferences.
This improved rendering speed a lot on my system. See below;

Random crashes using "heavy" programs can be due to bad RAM. Download memtest86+ http://www.memtest.org/ and let it run overnight to test your RAM.


Click image for larger version

Good Luck

RGDS
Ragnar

ragstian wrote:Hi.

Inkscape "out of the box" uses one processor thread only - for a multicore processor system make sure all cores are enabled in the preferences.
This improved rendering speed a lot on my system. See below;

RGDS
Ragnar

My preferences looks very different to that - the only expandable tab is tools, and the closest tab I can find to yours is labelled Filters, and has nothing about the number of threads. Are you running 0.48.4 or a newer version?

On 0.48.4, Win7, 64-bit, Inkscape Preferences > Filters > Number of Threads. But that will only help if the images have a lot of filters.

Oh my! The first image is over 26 mb. It also contains embedded raster images, which I would guess are responsible for the large file size. I don't think changing the processor thread number will help with that. I would probably have trouble opening that, with only 4 gb RAM.

But just for comparison, I saved that last one (Coat of arms...Norway) which is 2.72 mb. I watched the Task Manager as I opened it. I was idling at 0 to 1%, and as it opened, it maxed out at 13%. I don't know if that helps anyone here? And trying to work with it in Inkscape, it behaves about as I would expect for that size of an image. I certainly would use layers, and whatever other techniques that will help handle large files (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12160). That's some very nice work btw, whoever the artist is!

Anyway, it doesn't seem to me that you should be having the kind of trouble you're describing, with 16 gb RAM. Maybe Ragnar is onto something with faulty memory?

It's sort of "normal" for inkscape not to work very well with large files. I understand the 0.49 version will address some of this. For now no matter how much disk/CPU/RAM you've got, inkscape doesn't make good use of it. Has to do with how some of the modules hang together in inkscape, some of which are outdated and inefficient. 0.49 will also have a new rendered afaik, with newer code to take advantage of more memory and GPU.
Those large svg files from wiki commons usually don't use filters, so as to be compatible with most browsers. The files though have a lot of detail. Best to work with them in outline mode if you can.

brynn wrote:On 0.48.4, Win7, 64-bit, Inkscape Preferences > Filters > Number of Threads. But that will only help if the images have a lot of filters.

Couldn't see the forest for the trees - thanks

Oh my! The first image is over 26 mb. It also contains embedded raster images, which I would guess are responsible for the large file size. I don't think changing the processor thread number will help with that. I would probably have trouble opening that, with only 4 gb RAM.

Part of that is that the image is mainly comprised of a staggering number of tiny tiny paths. If you remove the bitmap straight away, handling is much improved, but it will still reliably crash in short order on my system.

Anyway, it doesn't seem to me that you should be having the kind of trouble you're describing, with 16 gb RAM. Maybe Ragnar is onto something with faulty memory?

I'll run that test as soon as I have the opportunity.

chriswww wrote:It's sort of "normal" for inkscape not to work very well with large files. I understand the 0.49 version will address some of this. For now no matter how much disk/CPU/RAM you've got, inkscape doesn't make good use of it. Has to do with how some of the modules hang together in inkscape, some of which are outdated and inefficient. 0.49 will also have a new rendered afaik, with newer code to take advantage of more memory and GPU.

Is there a timeframe for the release of 0.49, at all?

Those large svg files from wiki commons usually don't use filters, so as to be compatible with most browsers. The files though have a lot of detail. Best to work with them in outline mode if you can.

Will do, cheers.

The last time frame I've heard is "sometime this year". However, it IS already available as a development version. A lot of people like to use dev versions, because they can get new features and fixed bugs without waiting. But they have to be willing to put up with instability. And when you consider exactly how stable the "stable" releases are, I can only guess that means frequent crashes! But if it's just this one image....well, I guess it's not 1, but several....anyway, I was thinking that it might be worth using the dev version, just for this project.

However, I would look into the memory test. Based on what I've read in the forum, you really shouldn't be having the kind of trouble you've described. Idk, unless you're extremely impatient or exaggerated the trouble, lol. You know, I didn't think of this earlier, but why does your system idle at 25%? I wonder if you closed down everything except Inkscape, if you might have more luck?

brynn wrote:The last time frame I've heard is "sometime this year". However, it IS already available as a development version. A lot of people like to use dev versions, because they can get new features and fixed bugs without waiting. But they have to be willing to put up with instability. And when you consider exactly how stable the "stable" releases are, I can only guess that means frequent crashes! But if it's just this one image....well, I guess it's not 1, but several....anyway, I was thinking that it might be worth using the dev version, just for this project.

However, I would look into the memory test. Based on what I've read in the forum, you really shouldn't be having the kind of trouble you've described. Idk, unless you're extremely impatient or exaggerated the trouble, lol. You know, I didn't think of this earlier, but why does your system idle at 25%? I wonder if you closed down everything except Inkscape, if you might have more luck?

Well, when I say idle, I meant in terms of the difference between having Inkscape running and not. At 25% ram usade, I have open 10+ tabs in Opera, 10+ tabs in Chrome, Steam, uTorrent, Origin, Thunderbird, and so on and so forth

It says my file is 1,372 kb big and i can't open it on Inkscape or Gimp or Internet Explorer so is there anyway i could just take a look at the file so i don't have to start all over again?

xt828, wow! I suspect that if you were to close up all, or at least most of the browser tabs/windows, your memory would go back down towarads 0, and free up that 25% to help in opening the large files.

SymphonicFire, 1,372 kb isn't extremely large, actually a little over 1 mb. Even if you had only 1 or 2 mb RAM, you should be able to open it. What kind of file is it? Could you share it with us?

@SymphonicFire: You could try to open it with Google Chrome or IfranView 1.3MB do not sound that big. If you want you can also send me the File and I can export it for you to png or PDF.

@xt828: Maybe you will also run into the same problems I had, saving such big files... solution is here: http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13570