Polygon Pour Slow in latest Update (Fusion 2606.1.22 arm64 [Native])

[al_walker]

Hi,

With the latest update, I get a progress window appear briefly every time I route a trace and longer when I am modifying a Polygon Pour. Thermal spokes are not automatically redrawn and I have to swipe the affected pad off screen and back on again to force a redraw. 

I'm not sure what this latest unannounced change is meant to achieve, all it does is slow down my workflow and the pop-up windows are annoying. I've made this point before, but as users we shouldn't be seeing these issues as software QA testing should be catching them prior to release.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @al_walker ,

I hope you're doing well. The progress window was added because some polygon operations take a long time to process, so it was determined that giving the user feedback about this would be helpful. Another user brought this up recently and we are going to put a timer for it.

Now, typically it's not recommend to route with the polygons filled because performance suffers. The hide and refill polygon pour commands can be used to update the poly when you move something around without having to show it.

Best Regards,

[pal.szabo]

Hi @jorge_garcia,

I would like to suggest two improvements that would significantly increase the user experience with polygons:

1. It seems that whenever a via/route is added/moved, all polygons belonging to the same net are recomputed, even those on the other side of the board or unaffacted layers. Implementing a polygon hit check costs virtually no time, but can save huge amount of computation. I have boards with complicated geometry and many layers where rework or minor adjustments on anything related to GND takes 6-7 seconds, so I am forced to come up with workarounds just to maintain some performance at all.

2. If I am mistaken in point 1 and only affected polygons are recomputed, please implement computation on multiple background threads! This job is very easy to parallelize to utilize the multicore processors in all computers today. And it can run in the background and only update the UI when the computation is done. It can even be aborted and restarted if the user does other modifications in the meantime (oh how I wish we could!). Please don't run the whole thing in the UI thread in 2026...

Best regards,

Paul

[al_walker]

Hi @jorge_garcia 

I really didn't have a problem with polygon pour redraws prior to the latest release. Admittedly I'm running a fairly fast computer (Apple November 2023 14" MacBook Pro M3 Max with 64 GB of RAM), but nothing unusual for intensive CAD work (especially when it comes doing photorealistic renders on a reasonable timescale), but I've not previously had any significant performance hits when routing with polygon pours visible, even on complex 12-16 layer HDI PCBs, and even when I get the spinning wheel for a bit, I'd rather have that than a pop-up window. With the latest release I'm getting the polygon processing window appear briefly even when I'm just routing a trace with the polygon pour fills hidden which is even more annoying. A lot of the time I'm using polygon cutouts to tidy up polygon pours to meet PCB manufacturers' requirements to remove small slivers of copper that will affect manufacturability etc. as well better meeting requirements for as EMC and signal integrity. A timer setting that ensures that I never see this pop-up window again would be perfect.

 

Whilst I'm sure that the addition of the polygon processing window was done with the best of intentions, it has had a profoundly negative impact on my user experience. Much like the Intent-Driven Design pop-up window which I'd be very happy not to see again (everything mechanical I do is a hybrid design anyway, and as  I start new electronic designs and libraries rather less frequently, I'm happy to do so from the menu), both are solutions to problems that I never previously had.

Kind regards,

Al

[al_walker]

An example of the refresh/redraw issue when editing polygon pours, again I have to swipe away and back again to cause a redraw.

 

 

[pal.szabo]

Hi @al_walker,

I was merely reflecting to the reason @jorge_garcia gave for introducing the progress window (namely the performance issues). The UI is unresponsive while the polygons are being recalculated, with or without the progress window, and (at least for me) that's causing the negative user experience. It is a problem that should be solved rather than displaying an hourglass, imho. If it's done in the background, there is simply no need for any progress bar.

You having to swipe away and back seems to be a real bug, and I apologize for 'hijacking' your bug report, that was not my intention.

Best regards,

Paul

[al_walker]

Hi @pal.szabo 

No problem, your suggestions are most welcome.

Kind regards,

Al

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @al_walker , Hi @pal.szabo ,

Thank you both for your feedback. There is a ticket for this already and some improvements to polygon performance have been done which is making this progress window possibly superfluous for most use cases.

In regards to the startup window asking about hybrid designs I don't have any say in that but I'll bring it up to the appropriate team to see what can be done to get that window to not show up.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[pal.szabo]

Hi again,

I noticed that with the January update Fusion crashes consistently if I am in routing mode, the preview is shown on the board and I execute another command with a keyboard shortcut (e.g. Move or Unroute). It then shows an 'Unexpected error occured' window, then it shows the progress bar and then crashes. I suspect it has something to do with the progress bar, because I didn't have this problem before the update.

I have also sent the crash report with this same description, but thought I would mention it here, as well. Regardless, I would also like to suggest to remove this progress bar, because it doesn't solve anything.

Best regards,

Paul

[s_angelopoulos]

Hi,

I would like to add that the “Processing Polygons” progress dialog is not only distracting due to appearing after every minor trace adjustment, but it also causes the mouse pointer to jump to this dialog if the Windows' setting for autofocus mouse pointer on new dialogs is enabled, resulting in many unnecessary mouse movements. The issue is even more annoying in multi-monitor setups, when the dialog and the mouse pointer may appear on a different monitor.

[jorge_garcia]

Hey everyone,

So just an update this will be resolved in the very near term, so hopefully before the Feb release of Fusion if possible if not at the latest in that release. In regards to the Intent Driven design dialog and wanting it not to show, one of my colleagues found a good work around. Go to Preferences and in the default page make sure Default to Home at startup is checked. That will avoid the dialog.

See the attached image.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[ImDaveM]

hmm i noticed this annoying pop up too, its very annoying, before the update i could route a trace that affected the polygon pour and it was fine, the pop up i dont think is needed UNLESS its say more than 5 seconds.

[al_walker]

Hi @pal.szabo 

I had the same crash issue yesterday, so I now avoid doing any clicks etc. whilst the progress bar is in operation.

Kind regards,

Al

[pineauHW3Z6]

Apparently the polygon pop-up window also appear when you're editing the schematic.. which is REALLY annoying...
This is so disruptive and doesn't really bring anything unless, as said above, the task is going to take a significant time.

There should at least be an option to disable it in the preferences.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @pineauHW3Z6 ,

This should not have come in the way it did. We are working to get it fixed ASAP.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[ImDaveM]

I like to update the polygon as im routing or re-routing as i can keep an eye out for orphans, so real time updates are very useful, but most of the time this is only a short time to update the display, so a timer ( maybe user defined, is a good way to go, but what about just showing an update progress bar in the corner like the other processes? no need for a new popup window! in fact the popup get in the way and it causes routing errors .

[ImDaveM]

yes, i noticed this too! that way i got messed up traces! causing me more rework!

[al_walker]

Hi @jorge_garcia @pineauHW3Z6 

Yes, I have the polygon processing window appear when I'm editing a schematic, such as when I'm replacing a part.

Kind regards,

Al

[al_walker]

Hi @jorge_garcia 

None of these issues are fixed in the latest release, which is disappointing given the significant impact on user experience and workflow productivity.

Kind regards,

Al

[al_walker]

I'm even getting the processing polygons window in the schematic view if I rename a component, I don't see how a change to the NamesTop or NamesBottom layers should affect the polygon pours.