Increasing Screen Drawing Speeds

As the graph windows in your project increase in number and complexity, you may notice a certain reduction in system performance. The following information may help to minimize certain video-related performance problems.

Screen redrawing speed

Origin provides various methods to increase the redraw speed of the active graph window as well as the redraw criteria of the non-active graph windows in your workspace. This is most helpful when, working with graphs of large data sets, creating graphs with large numbers of graph annotations (text labels, drawing objects, etc.), creating graphs with many layers, working with project files (*.OPJ) that contain many graph windows.

Ways to increase screen redraw speed:

• Use a faster, but less accurate, page viewing mode.

For more information, see Available Page Viewing Modes: Speed vs. Accuracy in the Origin Help file.

• Another solution is to turn off the redrawing of non-active graph windows in your workspace. When you are customizing a single graph window, there is no need to continually redraw every window in your workspace.

For more information, seeControlling the redraw criteria of a graph window (when it is not the active window), below.

• Another way to improve the redraw speed of the active graph window is to hide graphic elements in the graph window.For example, if your graph window contains multiple layers - but you are only editing one layer - you could temporarily hide the other layers while you are editing.

For more information, see Hiding Labels, Data, and Layersin the Origin Help file.

• Speed Mode lets you specify the maximum number of data points that can display for each data plot in a layer. This not only increases redraw speed but it allows you to systematically reduce the number of data points in your plot (which may increase legibility).

To learn more, see Speed Mode, below.

• Graphic image caching lets you use vector or raster buffering to display data plots in a layer, instead of having Origin redraw the data plots each time the graph window is made active, or when a dialog box that was covering the data plots is closed.

Speed mode and graphic image caching controls are on the Size/Speed tab of the layer's Plot Details dialog box.

Controlling the graph window redraw conditions

When you are editing a graph window and your workspace includes other visible graph windows, you can prevent the non-active graph windows from redrawing as you make changes to the active graph window. Situations in which this may be helpful:

• If you are editing the Plot Details dialog box for a particular graph window, and this dialog box obscures part or all of a non-active graph window, you may not want the non-active graph window to redraw (not to be confused with "refreshed" in which case, a graph is actually changed/updated) after you close the Plot Details dialog box.
• Similarly, if your workspace includes a number of graph windows, and the active graph window is covering part or all of a non-active graph window, you may not want the non-active graph window to redraw when you move your active graph window in the workspace.

Controlling the redraw criteria of a graph window (when it is not the active window)

To adjust (or turn off) drawing of inactive graph windows:

1. Select Format: Page when the graph window is active.

or

1. Double-click in the gray area outside of the graph page (but inside the graph window).

Both actions open the Plot Details dialog box with the graph page icon selected on the left side of the dialog box.

2. Select the Miscellaneous tab on the right side of this dialog box. The Percent of Page Uncovered to Redraw Pagesetting controls the redraw of this graph window when it is not active.

3. Type a redraw threshold value n; This means that n% (or greater) of the graph page must be uncovered before the graph window redraws, as when:

• The active graph window that is on top of the non-active graph window is moved.
• A dialog box that was covering this non-active graph window is moved or closed.

The smaller the n, the more frequently the graph window is redrawn.

Speed Mode

In addition to graphic image caching, you can use Origin's Speed Mode to increase the redraw speed of your graph layer. With speed mode, you can control the number of data points displayed in a graph layer. This option is most useful when working with large data sets. Speed Mode can be turned on for any 2D or 3D graph. When Speed Mode is enabled, the layer icon displays in red and a Speed Mode is On watermark appears in the layer. The watermark is not included when printing, copying, or exporting the graph.

To adjust Speed Mode settings:

1. With your graph active, select Format: Layer from the Origin menu.
2. Select the Size/Speed tab.
3. For plots created from worksheet data, Select the Worksheet Data, Maximum Points Per Curve check box to enable speed mode for all the data plots in the layer that are created from worksheet data. Type the desired value (n) in the associated text box. If the number of data points in a data plot exceeds n, Origin displays a subset of the data plot containing n points, drawn by extracting values at regular intervals from the data set.
4. For 3D data plots created from a matrix or for contour data in the layer, Select the Matrix Data, Maximum Points Per Dimension check box to enable speed mode. Type the desired value (n, m) in the X and Y text boxes. If the number of data points in a data plot exceeds n or m, Origin displays a subset of the data plot composed of -- at maximum -- n by m points. This subset is drawn by extracting values at regular intervals from the matrix columns (X) and rows (Y).

Alternatively, you can select Speed Mode from the Graph menu which opens the speedmode X-Functiondialog. The dialog lets you specify a number of options for where your changes should apply ( Target ) as well as a range of Speed Mode settings from Off to On - High.

To turn off the Speed Mode is On watermark:

1. Select Tools: Options to open the Options dialog box.
2. Select the Graph tab and clear the Speed Mode Show Watermark check box.