Extremely poor performance when displaying imported SVG text (Outlines)

[bensbenz]

I created an SVG file that has the outlines of text that I want to engrave, and when I bring it into fusion the whole program becomes so slow its unusable. If I toggle the sketch off that contains the outlines, its back to normal. Once I have finally managed to get the text in place, if I make an extrude of it and toggle off the sketch everything runs fine. The problem is that its so slow to start with that its almost impossile to get it scaled and positioned. I have checked my system resources and it doesnt appear to be taxing my machine at all. I have tried other suggestions on the forum such as disabling effects and updating my graphics driver but nothing helps. I am able to accomplish pretty much the same exact thing in SW running in a VM on the same machine with better performance, so its got to be fusion. I really need to resolve this as its something I will be doing a lot of in the near future.

Thanks

Just FYI my machine specs are:

GPU: Geforce GTX 750Ti

CPU: i7-3770 @ 3.4GHz 

Memory: 16GB

Driver Version: 347.52

OS: Windows 8.1 Pro

[cekuhnen]

The sketch engine is a work in progress so I am sure that they will adjust the speed issues at one point

[Anonymous]

Yeah, from what I read Fusion 360 has progressed considerably from what it was a relatively short time ago.  Which is awesome.

I can see in very serious production work, where time is money to the nth degree, and everything needs to work perfectly, that currently necessary work arounds start becoming detrimental.  But for a lot of people, that are making things, it's really not a big deal in my mind, if a work around can be found.   

[cekuhnen]

I agree that in some areas the workflow is not ideal but yet again one has to consider how new this software is. At the end users cannot expect a perfect new system coded in a year 😉 Fusion might need some more time to mature but in all honesty did all other CAD apps do. I simply enjoy following it's development and for those who need a SW replacement or such they might just have to wait a little.

But hey at least they will know at one point there will be a great new CAD app for Win "AND MAC !!!!".

[Anonymous]

Speaking of using Fusion for cool things, how did that egg beater go? 🙂

[SithechCustoms]

Almost 3 years later and Fusion still falls paralyzingly short on using text sketches, no matter what the format. I spent literally 7 hours today trying to manipulate 10 lines of text in a si file dxf and also tried svg, into the correct alignment and scale. Why does Autodesk simply refuse to make any improvements to these functions?

[promm]

@SithechCustoms,

Our current workflow still has some room to go, but we have made a lot of progress in the last three years.  Can you share what you are trying to do?  I am happy to make a video using your data with our current workflow for you.

Cheers,

Mike Prom

[SithechCustoms]

I'd like to say first, that I do appreciate all the improvements you guys
have made over the last couple of years, I mostly love Fusion.

I'm trying to do the same thing as everyone else that complains about text
usage and importing and then using .dxf and .svg files. The system is
incredibly paralyzingly slow, and either crashes or locks up routinely, no
matter what size of document I am using. I don't really care to list all
of the details, because you might as well just say "everything". Fusion
regularly locks up and freezes when trying to
move/scale/edit/manipulate/import/place/you name it...svg and dxf files
imported.

For example, yesterday and the reason for being so pissed off, I imported
(tried a dxf & svg with same results) a ten row, about 3-5 words each row,
file with text on it for engraving. My solid model was a simple 10" x 12"
rectangle with .032" thickness. All I wanted to do was place the text
sketch onto the rectangle so that I could use "Trace" in CAM to engrave
with a diamond tip drag engraving tool. Zero complex geometry, no complex
drawing and on a MAC and PC that are used regularly for complex model
geometry and CAM simulations in a CNC machine shop. I literally starred at
my computer for 7+ hours trying to manipulate the sketch into position.
I'm actually just getting pissed off again reliving this in my mind so that
I can try to explain to your guys, when I know the result will only be some
techy jargon I either don't understand, or don't care to implement. You
inevitably will offer some work around in another program or tell me to
bide my time. Bottom line is text is broken in Fusion, and the system for
handling drawing files is broken and/or irregular. I can have logos with
lots of art work just fine, but then have a file with text on it just
completely break Fusion down to parade rest. I don't understand the
irregularities nor the consistencies of Fusion crashes. I lost about $500
in man hours trying to get a $50 plaque engraved...unacceptable. Please do
something about it, 3 years is too long for such a basic tool.

[jeff_strater]

@SithechCustoms, if you'd be willing to share the SVG here, we'd be happy take a look at it.  My guess is that it contains a lot of geometry, and may not be quite as simple as it seems.  What software did you use to generate this SVG?

Jeff

[Bstarcraft2]

Here's a 3 year old thread, cool!

I wasn't using this program 3 years ago but I can tell you after importing this SVG today,  Fusion 360 was NOT happy. 

Unfixing the SVG and adding some center point slots to intersect is slow, as soon as I start manipulating them it crashes or freezes, I guess sometimes both.

Also attached rough approximation of the desired result in jpg

[HughesTooling]

@Bstarcraft2 The file contains just over 1500 line and Fusion's not going to work well with a file like this. My advice, use a program that doesn't have history or a constraint solver, just try one of the many 2d basic cad programs. 

You might get farther in fusion if you extrude first then add the slots in a new sketch, hide the first sketch so it doesn't interfere. Make sure you select a plane for your second sketch not a face then extrude cut. It doesn't help that all the outlines are double lines unless you just want thin borders.

Mark

[cekuhnen]

Rule of thumb

Never manipulate important svg files
Specifically when they are dense in a sketch solver based engine

[Bstarcraft2]

@HughesTooling, Thank for the helpful reply.

I asked for some advice on this project in this thread: 

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-design-validate/advice-on-approach-for-a-simple-project/td...

But have yet to receive any replies. Perhaps you could take a look and steer me in the right direction?

[malek1979m]

Here we are, now 5 years after the opening of this thread, and SVG processing is still horrid. I've been using Fusion 360 for well over 5 years and have honestly not noticed any improvement with regards to SVG importing. Anyways, I've read this entire thread, and there's a workaround I read about that doesn't work for me at all, and I'd like to know why. From the second I import an SVG and extrude it, ALL subsequent operations are painfully slow, whether I hide the SVG sketch or not or even if I delete it. Everything I do is incredibly slow. I'm writing this post in between simple operations I'm doing in Fusion 360, while it decides to finish. For example, I started a new sketch, and I drew a series of 10x3mm rectangles, and after setting the dimensions for each rectangle, I have to wait ~17 seconds for the program to start responding again. This is nothing compared to most other operations, where I have to wait 30+ seconds for anything to take place. Extruding, applying appearances, copying/pasting, literally doing ANY operation takes a VERY long time to process. Again, this is long after the SVG is gone, deleted from the timeline, deleted from the tree view. The only thing that speeds things up again is disabling capturing design history, which I obviously don't want to do.

[whitecollarGEBLE]

I am also finding that importing a very simple .svg  (178 lines) for a text logo causes Fusion to slow to an absolute crawl. The move function is almost unusable 😐

[jeff_strater]

please share this SVG.  178 lines should work well, in my experience.

[r.augusiewicz]

5 years later and stil....

Graphic designer creates a pretty complicated SVG with free Inkscape in few minutes, having totally no issues with it and with the performance, and here comes me.... a CNC warrior with pretty high end computer, wanting to program it with cam/cad, importing the svg files with like 30 names that I have to engrave and

1. It's like impossible. Once I load the svg doing enything with that sketch takes like 10 minutes and I feel like back in 1990.

2. When you do engraving you can't select multiple sketches, but you have to click everything by single clicking of your mouse, so it makes like literally 500 mouse clicks, which could be one window selection.....  - another topic in the forum that is like 5 years old.

Ehh I am using Fusion for hobby use and I truly wanted to pay full price for it to support the team, but how can I? Other ppl are using some top easy softwares to program their CAD files, make toolpaths and they are doing it within a blink of an eye, using program that don't let them do more complicated things and my many hours put into learning Fusion 360 comes as burden competing with them.

Yeah, sorry, this is very negative post but I am SOOOO FRUSTRATED.

[Anonymous]

5 years later and it still doesn't work. What other software are you using? This is painful. 

[MichaelT_123]

Hi Mr.RAugusiewicz,

I second that complaint, sort off.

However, I would like to note, F360 (CAD) software is a little different animal than some other software whose sole purpose is to draw multiple lines on a screen only.

In CAD software, all these lines are put in strict relation to each other. Imagine, how computationally intensive it would be to establish relationships on n-lines ( e.g. connecting their ends). Many years ago, I did such exercise ( on PC/AT 286). I don't remember details now (it should be understandable :)! ), but the complexity of such an algorithm is something like:

        T(n) = O(n^x), where x∈<2,4>  

Most SVG software produces output without any care about optimizing it. So, one end-up with a file consisting of a plethora of short curve segments generated by a quivering mouse.

Much more, such SVGs transmute even to font formats (TTF,…), also causing a headache of many F360 users who openly relieve themselves pouring their frustration on this forum.

In short words: GARBAGE IN … GARBAGE OUT.

Can F360 deal effectively with such garbage? If you look around, GARBAGE industries proliferate around us. A stupidity of one is a business opportunity for others.

So, TF360, please use this business opportunity to replace PC/AT 286 era algorithm(s) with the modern one(s), utilizing existing hardware to its full potential.

Unfortunately, it is not the case now!

Pozdrowienia

MichaelT

PS.

Regarding your particular case, consider to switch-off a sketch profile calculation (and possibly some other options which are not necessary for your scenario).

[therealsamchaney]

Yes it's pretty abysmal when using SVGs.

I recommend checking out Inkscape which has a "simplify" function for SVG paths. Just go into Path --> Simplify or use Ctrl L.

This will quickly remove most of the points on each path but maintain the shape of the path pretty well. Then save it as a plain SVG and insert the simplified one into Fusion instead.

Hope this helps,
Sam

[Anonymous]

Bumping this thread because this problem shouldn't still exist. I'm importing a 24KB .svg file to try and emboss onto a model.

Fusion 360 developers will chime in and say some nonsense about constrained sketch environments and Fusion 360 can't possibly be expected to handle more than 300 curves in 2021. Surely there is a workaround. Surely you can fix this problem.

This problem has been documented since 2014 in these very forums! How are you not able to solve this or create a workaround? What are you even doing about the problem?