Scapple is slow and lagging in newest version

On windows 11 plenty of Ram, but Scapple version 1.41 has become lagging when moving background shapes that are magnetic and when typing there is visible lag. Not sure why, did see info on number of notes, and background shapes on background shapes is effecting projects with modest numbers of notes and images.
One file is has pictures and 25 notes and size is 1.9 megs
another has 44 notes with no pictures and is 3.8 megs
Any suggestions for improved preformance would be helpful. Have rebooted computer without improvement.

Have you tried turning auto-save off in general settings? I would suspect that might slow things down a fair bit if the software is having to continually rewrite +2mb files.

Ok will give that a shot and give feedback.
addendum I did turn if off but moving background shapes or notes and typing still sluggish. Did not happen till newest update. Is a little better.

Interesting that older projects that got upgraded like one with 296 notes and 7 megs worth of files function fine, but newer projects started since upgrade are slow.

Hmm, that’s an interesting clue. I can’t imagine why it would have an impact, but one of the few differences between a new and old board would be the amount of padding within items. You may have noticed that notes on newer boards have a bit more space between the text and their borders.

That amount of padding is a board setting that can be changed. We made it that way so that older boards could maintain their original padding amount, and thus the layout wouldn’t break. Thus it is possible to change the padding, which might serve as a way of troubleshooting whether that is actually the problem.

I would suggest doing this on copies of the originals, since as I mention, this can break the layout (particularly where word wrap would change the height of the note, which could be all over the place if you use auto-fit):

  1. First, open any newer board that is sluggish, using a plain-text editor. Notepad is fine if that’s all you have.

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the file, and look for a line that looks like this:

    <NoteXPadding>8.00</NoteXPadding>
    
  3. Change the value to “4.00”, save and open this modified version in Scapple.

Does that improve performance? If so, try the opposite:

  1. Open one of the older boards, that works fine, in a text editor.
  2. Copy and paste the original “8.00” line into this file, anywhere between the indented <UISettings> … </UISettings> lines. Have the newer board open as a reference of what it should look like, if you are unsure.
  3. Save, and open the modified version in Scapple. Is it sluggish now?

If so, we have a good answer for what is causing the issue. Maybe not why, but at least we know where to look.

So I tried that going from 8 to 4 seemed to help a little but not all the way and in latest sluggish projects double clicking does not always create a new note.
Took the older large project with 296 notes and 7 megs of files and changed padding and new notes created new project with higher padding and typing and movement of shapes and notes is fine(responsive). seems since latest update that this has happened. I did add custom note styles to some of those projects and imported note styles creating duplicate styles which I deleted. (not sure if that would have any impact

So took out all the images from one project and dropped size to 1.85 megs and still sluggish but better, inconsistent on double clicking for notes to appear. Will add note from menu, but typing in text lags, I would be glad to send scapple file if that would help. I am typing in another smaller project and dumping in notes for now, but obviously would like to figure out what to do.

That would actually help a lot. These kinds of problems are a lot easier to pin down if you can monitor what is going on in a debugging environment. Feel free to drop me a PM with a share link to the most sluggish and difficult example you have, or attachment if it isn’t too large when zipped.

Be glad to. I have a recent file on different project in scapple that is working fine with minimal lag should I send both to compare. I can zip and email or can I share a link on Dropbox with you? I have not done before. Will try to send to you.

A dropbox link or two is probably best, because the forum has I believe a 2mb limit for attachments. But if it’s easier for you, the tech support email always works too.

Each attachment was under 2 mb but will share a Dropbox link later today

Link copied for two files in dropbox and emailed to you.

I sent you the share links in Dropbox. Did you receive the links to the scapple projects with the sluggish behavior

I don’t see anything of that nature in the queue, perhaps it got spam blocked. Since it’s just a Dropbox link, could you send it as a PM here? That would probably be easier.

Okay, I got a chance to look at these, and I don’t think it has anything to do with when they were made, save for perhaps personal preferences changing over time. The one that is slow uses the “Cloud” border effect on the large magnetic shapes. I suspect this is causing a lot of redraw calculation when they are so large like that.

I went through the three large shapes and changed their borders to Square or Rounded, and all of the lag went away.

So we have a good direction in which to look, for optimisation. Thanks!

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Thank you will change border and give you update on response.

Clear marked improvement with removing the cloud border on shapes and notes. Jagged notes had a similar effect though seemed to be lower level of magnitude. I have been adjusting project and changing boreders with great improvement. Thank you for to getting back to me.

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Yes, I noticed Jagged wasn’t so good either, which makes sense as it would still need to be drawing 500 little lines (or whatever) instead of four (or eight with rounded caps).