Kicad becomes slow in response and mouse movements

Software
1

My machine setup:

Intel Core i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16 GB RAM
SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670

Kicad info:

Application: KiCad
Version: 5.1.10-88a1d61d58~89~ubuntu20.04.1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.68.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1f zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.2.0) libssh/0.9.3/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.40.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 5.4.0-77-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
    Boost: 1.71.0
    Curl: 7.68.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=OFF
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

I experience the very same issue described here. It’s a pain to work the whole day with Kicad: about every hour I have to restart my machine.

It’s not a problem of hw resources. RAM is about 25% with no swap needed, and even during the “hang” moments the cores are well below 15%.

Is there any fix for this undesirable behavior?

2

If the slowness persists across kicad restarts and you have to restart the os to fix it then issue lies not with kicad. Check if other opengl applications are affected at the same time. Also check if switching to another rendering mode in kicad affects the issue. If any of those are true it’s likely bad graphics drivers.

3

Actually, after a power on the first slowness appears after several hours. If I restart Kicad it becomes responsive again, but the next slowness appears in less time. After three or four restarts of Kicad, the slowness is almost immediate, like in 2-3 minutes.

I use other OpenGL applications (i.e. FreeCAD) and they do not exhibit any issue. I will try with the fallback mode as soon as possible.

4

Same thing here (on a HP Pavilion, running Linux)
One thing I have noticed is that when it happens, one of the cores is at 100% and the rest at almost zero and the fan starts to run.

5

I will double check the next time, but I’m pretty sure mine CPUs are not at full throttle.

6

Yep I confirm. Panning the window or moving components during slowness leads to some CPU activity, but there is not a single core that goes up to 100%.

7

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