Re: Performance question when printing to matrix-printer
Posted: Mon May 12, 2014 12:35 pm
Hi,
I finally got some time to continue working on this issue...
Doing this I found out, that you don't have to start a print or export job to see the difference.
Just load the report in the designer and switch to the preview-tab. When you do this, the data is fetched and the report prepared. This works at the same speed for both reports (Test DB Laser.mrt and Test DB Matrix.mrt).
BUT...
When you then press the button for the special Matrix-Preview (the right-most button in the preview-window's toolbar) a new preview-window should could come up showing the special Matrix-Preview. And this where it starts to take VERY LONG! You can really easily try this yourself... Just create a similar Matrix-Report like mine using one of your database, let it use approximatly 5000 records, put a databand on it with 3-4 fields, then go to preview and then click the Matrix-Preview-Button.
Further, I have noticed that the more "Font-Tags" I have in my matrix-report (like <#doublewitdh> or <#b>) the longer it takes until the Matrix-Preview-Window comes up. This is direcly linked, just add some of those font-tags to the report you just created and call the Matrix-Preview-Button again...
Since I think that the rendering of the Matrix-Preview is similar to using PrintToDotMatrix() the source of the whole issue must be found there.
I have a feeling that the whole issue is related to the replacement of those Font-Tags with the actual Printer-ESC-Codes...
These are my settings:
Could one of these settings influence the rendering so badly?
I hope you can now reproduce this using these informations and that you find the source of this behaviour and maybe even a solution/workaround...
Cheers,
Pascal
I finally got some time to continue working on this issue...

Doing this I found out, that you don't have to start a print or export job to see the difference.
Just load the report in the designer and switch to the preview-tab. When you do this, the data is fetched and the report prepared. This works at the same speed for both reports (Test DB Laser.mrt and Test DB Matrix.mrt).
BUT...
When you then press the button for the special Matrix-Preview (the right-most button in the preview-window's toolbar) a new preview-window should could come up showing the special Matrix-Preview. And this where it starts to take VERY LONG! You can really easily try this yourself... Just create a similar Matrix-Report like mine using one of your database, let it use approximatly 5000 records, put a databand on it with 3-4 fields, then go to preview and then click the Matrix-Preview-Button.
Further, I have noticed that the more "Font-Tags" I have in my matrix-report (like <#doublewitdh> or <#b>) the longer it takes until the Matrix-Preview-Window comes up. This is direcly linked, just add some of those font-tags to the report you just created and call the Matrix-Preview-Button again...
Since I think that the rendering of the Matrix-Preview is similar to using PrintToDotMatrix() the source of the whole issue must be found there.
I have a feeling that the whole issue is related to the replacement of those Font-Tags with the actual Printer-ESC-Codes...
These are my settings:
Code: Select all
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.CutLongLines = false;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.KillSpaceGraphLines = false;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.KillSpaceLines = false;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.DrawBorder = false;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.PutFeedPageCode = false;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.UseEscapeCodes = true;
StiOptions.Viewer.DotMatrix.EscapeCodesCollectionName = "EpsonFX";
I hope you can now reproduce this using these informations and that you find the source of this behaviour and maybe even a solution/workaround...
Cheers,
Pascal