gEDA-user: Option to not display polygons

[Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi.

Just finished my latest, a bit larger layout (The one I bragged about
lately). After I added polygons to pour the remaining board estate with
copper, PCB slowed down significantly. Frames per second as measured 
with the benchmark() action went down from very usable 16 FPS (*) to 1 FPS. 
Teh thin_draw_poly option from the setttings menu improved visibility but 
did nothing to the speed. This is no surprise, since it draws the same
objects but with very transparent color.

To get the GUI workable, I had to fall back to the old layer-hack: Move 
the polygons to separate layers and make them a layer group of their own.
With this set-up the polygon layers can be selectively switched off and 
the GUI becomes snappy again. Since this is a four copper layers, I ended 
up with eight regular PCB layers. 

Of course, I have to add the polgon layers to the layer group of the 
original layers before export or DRC. In addition I have to save and 
revert to force recalculation of polygons. Polygons have been slowing 
down the PCB GUI ever since I used the application for the first
serious project in 2006. Certainly, this has hit others before. Much 
has been done to improve polygon rendering. But obviously, these 
critters still have the potential to severely handicap the GUI. Two
questions:
  
* Is there a technical reason to not provide an option to selectively
not draw polygons at all. Kind of like hide_names in settings?

* Is there a technical reason to not provide a button for polygon 
recalculation?

These seemingly simple features would make the above hack obsolete.

---<)kaimartin(>---

(*): Thank you so much, Peter!
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Email: kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x6C0B9F53
not happy with moderation of geda-user



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