Xara Speed

[Nicolae Trifu]

I work with large 'xar' files, 50 -100 MB.

They contain many large bitmaps, both imported and created.

It takes a long time to save these large files, which I do very often for protection.

Computer, RAM or video card do not seem to make a big difference. ( P4 2.8, 3GB, ATI 9800 256MB ) vs. ( Dual Xeon 2.8, ATI PCI-E 512, 4GB plus 2GB PCI RAM card. )

Is there anything to do about it ? ... Pagefile ?

Thank you,

[Availor]

Hello,

50-100MB files are sure very large. Too large I might say. If I may make a suggestion: Delete some of your bitmaps and put them on a different file. It's onviously not vector drawings that take so much space.

[minimiro]

If you work for print this big files - One propose

if some of your bitmaps are over 350-400dpi - reconvert it and downsample to this resolution.

there was one formula to calculate halftone point which shows that after 350-400dpi is without sense, nevermind what res you use output and linearization will downasample all to needed res

[Nicolae Trifu]

Availor,

Don't say 'too large.' ( see drawings.)

I just tried Xara Pro ( which really moves faster, impressive ) but saving files is only marginaly beter.

It's not the writing to disk in itself - Xara is doing some processing, that's what takes longer.

Maybe Xara is just finally doing all the processing, while
during work it is displaying proxies ?

Anyways, I was hoping to be able to 'give' Xara something like a RAM disk cache.

But thanks for the suggestion.

Nicolae

[Nicolae Trifu]

Note : My final product is a 40" - 48" wide print @ 300 dpi,
which gives you more than 12,000 pixels accross.

Imported images are 300dpi, generated bitmaps the same.

I am looking not for suggestions on how to employ the software, which I have been using every day since before CorelXara.

I was curious if Xara is caching anything to disk in the process of saving a file, and then ofer it a RAM disk to work with instead of a physical drive. By the way, SCSI is not faster.

But thank you.

Nicoae

[minimiro]

If this will printed to wide format digital printer then resolution over 150-200dpi by my opinion is absolutely unneeded.. this will give you over 30% smaller file and over 30% speed up

[Nicolae Trifu]

Minimiro,

You are not wrong, but I have clients who require tiff images 36" and wider @300dpi delivered on CD.

They pay for it.

So I still want to see if there is a way to speed up saving a large file.

Nicolae

[Availor]

Availor,

Don't say 'too large.' ( see drawings.)

I just tried Xara Pro ( which really moves faster, impressive ) but saving files is only marginaly beter.

It's not the writing to disk in itself - Xara is doing some processing, that's what takes longer.

Maybe Xara is just finally doing all the processing, while
during work it is displaying proxies ?

Anyways, I was hoping to be able to 'give' Xara something like a RAM disk cache.

But thanks for the suggestion.

Nicolae

Nicolae, in that case I don't think I have more suggestion for you.
By the way, very impressive work, nice drawings.