# Open CAD Studio — File Open & Render Speed Roadmap This document lists the planned improvements for cutting **file open time** and **on-screen draw (render) time**. It builds on the already-landed **Rendering Optimization** work (Phase 1-4); what is left now sits on the open-time, allocation, and draw-call sides. Source-scan summary (references): - File open flow: [`src/io/mod.rs`](src/io/mod.rs) (`open_path_with_phase`, `load_file`, `purge_corrupt_entities`). - Post-open UI work: [`src/app/update.rs:90-192`](src/app/update.rs#L90-L192) (`FileOpened` handler — xref resolve, second purge, linetype populate, etc.). - Derived-cache build: [`src/scene/mod.rs:90-212`](src/scene/mod.rs#L90-L212) (`build_derived_caches` — rayon-parallel for hatch / image / mesh). - Wire tessellation: [`src/scene/mod.rs:1328-1402`](src/scene/mod.rs#L1328-L1402) (rayon, zoom-adaptive curve tol). - Block defn cache: [`src/scene/block_cache.rs:238`](src/scene/block_cache.rs#L238) (`build_defn` — single-threaded today; nested expansion is topological). - Pipeline: [`src/scene/pipeline/mod.rs`](src/scene/pipeline/mod.rs) (batched hatch, frustum cull, LOD — Phase 1-4 done). --- ## Phase 1 — File Open Time **Goal:** measurably halve the wall time between "Open" click and "first frame" for a 50 MB DWG. ### 1.1 Drop the second `purge_corrupt_entities` ✅ DONE Today `purge_corrupt_entities` runs once on the [background thread](src/io/mod.rs#L62-L74) and again in the [`FileOpened` handler after xref resolve](src/app/update.rs#L138-L145). XREF content already comes from a separate document — fold the purge **inline** into xref resolve and delete the outer one. On large files walking `doc.entities()` again is a measurable cost. **Work:** make `resolve_xrefs` call purge as it merges each xref; remove [`update.rs:138`](src/app/update.rs#L138). ### 1.2 Move XREF resolution to the background thread [`resolve_xrefs`](src/app/update.rs#L132-L166) runs on the UI thread today — large external references freeze the UI. Move it into the `open_path_with_phase` worker; have `DerivedCaches` carry the resolved-xref list back. The UI thread only emits log lines. **New phase tag:** `PHASE_XREFS` (we already have 3 phases; this is the 4th). ### 1.3 Single-pass entity walk (parse + purge + cache planning) `load_file` → `purge` → `build_derived_caches` does three separate `entities()` walks. A single pass can produce: - corrupt-entity detection, - hatch / image / mesh handle lists, - AABB accumulation for `world_offset` (currently a separate pass inside `compute_world_offset`). ✅ the world_offset AABB scan is now folded into the cache-handle walk (see 2.4); corrupt-detect + hatch/image/mesh planning remain a follow-up. Target: three `O(N)` passes → one. ### 1.4 Memory-mapped file reads (DWG / DXF) `DwgReader::from_file` / `DxfReader::from_file` likely load the whole file into RAM with `std::fs::read`. Switching to `memmap2`: - eliminates the cold-cache read syscall on large files, - lets the DWG section index be walked on disk (if the acadrust API supports it). **Dependency:** acadrust upstream may need a `from_reader` / `from_slice` API; add it in our patched fork (`hakanaktt/acadrust`). ### 1.5 Parallelize the acadrust parser (long-term) acadrust's DWG parser is single-threaded. Section-based parallelism (header / classes / objects / blocks / entities — independent offsets) is the biggest unrealized win. Lives in the upstream fork. **Order:** profile first — is this really the largest slice? Measure with `puffin`. ### 1.6 Defer raster image decode [`build_derived_caches`](src/scene/mod.rs#L177-L186) calls `ImageModel::from_raster_image` for every `RasterImage` entity — pixel decode happens up front. Wasted if the entity is off-screen. Defer the decode until **first render** (per-handle lazy `OnceCell`). ### 1.7 File-hash cache (warm re-open) When re-opening the same file (`(path, mtime, size)` key) keep a disk snapshot of `CadDocument` + `DerivedCaches` (e.g. `~/.cache/OpenCADStudio/`). Skip DWG parse entirely. **Win:** most-recently-opened file goes from 1-2 s to sub-100 ms. **Risk:** cache invalidation. Stay conservative — load only on exact `mtime + size` match, otherwise normal parse. --- ## Phase 2 — First-Frame Wire Tessellation After `FileOpened`, `bump_geometry()` fires; the first frame tessellates **every** model-space wire. Measurable hitch at ~100 k entities. ### 2.1 Parallelize block-definition build ✅ DONE [`block_cache::build`](src/scene/block_cache.rs#L127) was single-threaded. No topological stratification was needed after all: `build_defn` stores nested INSERTs as by-name references (`LocalSub::Nested`) and never expands them at build time, so each defn depends only on the read-only `doc` — the builds are embarrassingly parallel. Now a plain rayon `par_iter().collect()`. `compute_block_aabbs` is also parallelized: its `defn_aabb_recursive` walk is read-only over the finished `defns` map and re-walks shared nested defns (no memo), so the per-name resolves fan out across rayon (read phase), then a serial phase stores each AABB back. ### 2.2 Incremental wire cache (delta tessellation) ✅ DONE (render path) A per-entity tessellation memo (`tess_memo`, `Handle → Arc>`) sits inside `wires_for_block_culled` on the culled Model render path. It's keyed by a guard hash of the tessellation parameters (tol / view / anno / offset / bg / entered viewport); a mismatch (zoom, layout) clears it. `bump_geometry` clears it (structural change); incremental edits drop just the changed handle via `mark_entity_dirty` and bump with `bump_geometry_no_blocks`. So a single-entity edit (line commit, grip commit/cancel, MOVE / ROTATE / SCALE / MIRROR, COPY, ERASE) re-tessellates only the touched entities and reuses every other — the per-entity geometry math is skipped for the unchanged set. `transform_entities` marks the moved handles dirty, `erase_entities` drops the deleted ones, and `copy_entities`' new handles are natural memo misses; all use `bump_geometry_no_blocks` so the block cache is kept too. The hit-test (`view_aabb == None`), paper and per-viewport paths bypass the memo so their cull params don't thrash it. Remaining: the assembly still concatenates into one `Vec` and rebuilds the batched GPU buffer (O(N) clone + upload), and the uncalled hit-test (`entity_wires_arc`) still rebuilds on edit — driving those to true O(1) needs per-handle GPU slots, which trade against the single-draw batch (3.3). `bump_geometry()` invalidates the whole wire cache today ([`scene/mod.rs:650`](src/scene/mod.rs#L650)). Edits usually touch 1-2 entities — re-tessellating the whole doc is waste. **Fix:** wire cache becomes `HashMap)>`. The editing command bumps the version of the affected handles; the render path re-tessellates only those, reusing the rest. Also useful on open: any partial cache (e.g. from block defns) can be re-used. **Partial (landed): block cache survives non-block edits.** The block-definition tessellation cache (`BlockCache::build`, every block defn) was keyed on `geometry_epoch`, so *any* edit rebuilt all block defns — a ~30 ms baseline wire re-tess turned into a ~400 ms spike on block-heavy drawings at line-commit / grip-start / grip-release. The cache now keys on a separate `block_epoch`. `bump_geometry` bumps both (safe default); the operations that provably can't change a block defn — adding a top-level entity (`add_entity` for non-Insert/Block) and grip-moving an entity/insert — call `bump_geometry_no_blocks`, which re-tessellates only the visible wires (block cache reused). Block-content edits (REFCLOSE, block create, xref, explode) still go through full `bump_geometry`. **Partial (landed): grip drag.** Dragging an entity's grip called `scene.apply_grip` every move, which `bump_geometry`'d → a full model re-tessellation per move (plus an O(N) clone of all wires for snapping). Now the first move hides the edited entity from the base (one re-tess) and shows it as a one-entity overlay preview; subsequent moves only re-tessellate that one entity (cheap) — the base stays a cache hit. Snapping runs against the set directly (the edited entity is already hidden, so no clone and no self-snap). The drag commits on release / Esc: un-hide + one final re-tess. **Partial (landed): preview / interim overlays.** `set_preview_wires`, `clear_preview_wire` and `set_interim_wire` used to `bump_geometry`, so every rubber-band frame of a drawing command re-tessellated the whole model (the same 30 ms → 400 ms spike, but while drawing). Preview / interim wires are an overlay appended to the cached base wire set in `build_primitive`, not part of the tessellation cache — so they no longer bump geometry. The base stays a cache hit (no re-tess), and the overlay forces only a GPU wire re-upload via the `has_overlay` content-id path. Snap/hit-test (`entity_wires_arc`) also stops re-tessellating per preview frame. ### 2.3 Progressive first render On the first frame emit a **coarse**-tol wire pass (e.g. 4× the normal tol); refine to full tol on the second frame. The user sees *something* within 16 ms; detail snaps in smoothly afterwards. ### 2.4 Merge the world-offset scan into the single-pass walk ✅ DONE [`compute_world_offset`](src/scene/mod.rs#L128) walks the whole MSPACE AABB when the header is unreliable. That scan should join the single-pass walk from 1.3 (we are already iterating `entities()`). --- ## Phase 3 — Per-Frame Render Cost After Phase 1-4 culling/LOD, what's left is **upload bytes** and **draw call count**. ### 3.1 Camera-only invalidation: don't re-tessellate The wire cache key today is `(geometry_epoch, camera_generation)` ([`scene/mod.rs:414`](src/scene/mod.rs#L414)). A camera change should not force re-tessellation — only zoom-adaptive curve-tol changes need resampling, and only for curve entities (Arc / Spline / Ellipse). Straight geometry is camera-invariant. **Practical:** split the wire cache in two: - `tess_cache[handle] → WireModel` (rebuild only if tol-invariant content changed), - `frame_visible[handle] → bool` (recomputed per `camera_generation`). **Partial (landed): pan reuse.** The Model-tile wire cache no longer keys on the exact camera hash. It now keys on `(geometry_epoch, pan_invariant_hash, tessellated_region)` where `pan_invariant_hash` covers rotation + tol (`wpp`) but NOT the pan target. A pure pan keeps the epoch + signature and only shifts the view, so as long as the new visible rect still fits inside the 1.25×-margin region the wires were culled to, the tessellation is reused outright — no re-tessellation, `tess ms` drops to ~0 on the PERF HUD. Zoom (changes `wpp`), orbit (changes rotation) and edits (change epoch) rebuild exactly as before; the cull margin is unchanged, so miss cost is identical (no zoom regression). **Partial (landed): selection decoupled.** Picking an entity used to call `bump_geometry`, invalidating the wire cache and re-tessellating the WHOLE model just to repaint one entity (30 ms → 400 ms on a large drawing). The highlight is no longer baked into tessellation: wires are always base-coloured (`sel` is empty in `wires_for_block_culled`), and the selection highlight is applied in the GPU xray overlay from the live `selected ∪ hover` set, recoloured to `WireModel::SELECTED`. Selection / hover now bump a cheap `selection_generation` instead of `geometry_epoch`, so the overlay refreshes without any re-tessellation or main-buffer re-upload. `tess ms` stays flat when selecting. **Partial (landed): per-frame split.** `build_primitive` ran `split_face3d_wires` every frame — an O(N) per-wire handle lookup + clone to separate Face3D wires — even on a pan that reused the tessellation. It's now memoized by the tile's wire content id, and the non-overlay frame reuses the `other` Arc with no clone at all. So a pan reuses tessellation, the split, and the GPU upload; only the uniform + scissors update per frame. **Partial (landed): hover.** `set_hover_highlight` no longer bumps the geometry epoch (a full re-tessellation) when the hovered entity is already selected — the effective highlight set `selected ∪ {hover}` is then unchanged, so the tessellation output is identical. Hovering over / between selected entities is now free. The full camera/selection-from-tessellation split is still open and needs running-app verification (highlight colour is baked into `WireModel.color` across several tessellation sites). ### 3.2 Persistent GPU buffer pool — diff upload ✅ DONE (wire pan path) Wire vertex buffers are world-space, so a camera move alone never changes them — only the `view_proj` uniform (already uploaded per frame). The wire upload was gated on `(geometry_epoch, camera_generation)`, re-sending every pan. Now each Model-tile tessellation is stamped with a monotonic content id (`WIRE_CONTENT_GEN`), reused when a pan reuses the tessellation; the pipeline holds the resident buffer's id and `upload_wires` is skipped when it matches. Gate is independent of the camera tick so a preview/interim change still uploads. Non-tile paths and overlay frames force a fresh id (unchanged behaviour). Monotonic id avoids the ABA hazard of a raw `Arc` pointer. Still open: a true `HashMap` per-entity pool for partial edits (re-upload only the changed slots); this covers the whole-buffer pan/idle case, the dominant one. Today every wire GPU buffer is re-uploaded when [`cached_epoch`](src/scene/pipeline/mod.rs#L101) changes. A persistent pool — `HashMap` — uploads only the slots that actually changed. Big win in CAD-edit scenarios. ### 3.3 Single-draw batched wire pipeline (Phase 4-B-style) ✅ DONE `upload_wires` made one GPU buffer + one draw call per `WireModel` (tens of thousands on a large drawing). Now it merges maximal runs of *consecutive* wires sharing scissor + mesh-edge state into one concatenated instance buffer each (`WireGpu::from_run`), so the existing draw loop issues one draw per run — a 2D model collapses to a single buffer + single draw. Runs stay *consecutive* (not globally regrouped) so the sorted draw order is preserved bit-for-bit; depth bias and alpha blending are unchanged. The `WireInstance` layout, shader, scissor logic and draw loop are untouched — only the buffer packing changed. (No iced widget-pipeline limits were hit: the change lives entirely inside the existing custom wgpu pipeline.) Every `WireModel` today costs one draw call plus a bind-group swap. Port the batched hatch pipeline (`hatch_batched_gpu.rs`) to wires: - pack all wire vertices into one storage buffer, - per-instance `(color, pattern_id, lw_px, visibility)` in a side buffer, - vertex shader pulls instance data via `instance_index`, - a single `pass.draw(0..V, 0..N)` covers everything. At 100 k wires that collapses thousands of draw calls into one. If iced 0.14's widget-pipeline limits allow, immediate win. **Follow-up (landed): separate overlay buffer.** Command-preview / interim / grip-drag wires were appended into the main wire buffer, so every drag frame re-uploaded the entire (batched) base set. They now ride in their own small per-frame `gpu_preview_wires` buffer drawn on top in the wire pass, so the resident base buffer stays untouched during a drag — only the tiny overlay re-uploads. Combined with the no-re-tess work, a grip/command drag now costs one small overlay upload per move, nothing else. ### 3.4 Hardware instancing for repeated block inserts When the same block defn is `INSERT`-ed N times (every door / window in an architectural drawing) each instance currently renders as its own wire set. Hardware instancing: - upload the block defn vertex buffer once, - one 4×4 transform row per Insert in an instance buffer, - `pass.draw_indexed(0..V, 0..N_instances)`. Typical architectural DWGs: 10-100× faster. ### 3.5 Glyph-stroke batching `tessellate.rs` produces one `WireModel` per glyph stroke today — one text entity = dozens of models. Cache stroke geometry per font once (`HashMap<(font, glyph), Vec>`), then per-text only a transform matters. --- ## Phase 4 — Allocation & Memory ### 4.1 Swap `HashMap` for `rustc-hash::FxHashMap` ✅ DONE `Handle` is an integer wrapper; the default `SipHash` is overkill. `FxHashMap` gives 20-40 % in hash-heavy sites (block_cache, hatches / images / meshes, viewport_wire_cache). ### 4.2 Arena (`bumpalo`) for transient wire vertices Tessellation allocates millions of small `Vec`s. A bump arena — single allocation, frame-end reset — kills the per-vertex malloc cost. `bumpalo` plays well with rayon (per-thread arenas). ### 4.3 `SmallVec` for small collections `Polyline.vertices`, `Hatch.boundary_paths`, glyph-stroke lists are typically < 8-16 entries. `SmallVec<[T; 8]>` skips the heap on the common case. ### 4.4 Compact entity-ID representation `Handle` is 8 bytes. 100 k entities → 800 KB just in keys. Hot handle HashSet / HashMap usage can be flattened to `Vec` indices plus a single `FxHashMap` translation table — cache-friendlier. --- ## Phase 5 — Profiling Infrastructure (prerequisite) Don't start any of the above **without measuring first**. ### 5.1 Add `puffin` or `tracy` spans - `io::open_path_with_phase` → `parse`, `purge`, `caches` spans. - `Scene::wires_for_block` → `block_cache`, `tess`, `sort` spans. - `Pipeline::prepare` → `upload`, `cull`, `draw` spans. Gate behind `debug_assertions` or a `--features profile` flag. ### 5.2 Open-time breakdown log ✅ DONE When open completes, push to the command line: ``` Opened "x.dwg" — 84321 entities — parse 1.2s, purge 80ms, caches 340ms, xref 60ms, first frame 210ms ``` Regressions are visible immediately. ### 5.3 Frame-budget HUD ✅ DONE (CPU tess slice) A CLI `PERF` toggle overlays the cost of the most recent wire re-tessellation (ms + wire count + geometry epoch) on the active viewport, anchored top-left. Reads ~0 ms while the wire cache is warm (idle pan/zoom), so it isolates exactly the work a cache miss costs — the slice every render-path change (2.2 / 3.1 / 3.3) moves. Timed at the miss paths in `model_tile_wires_arc` / `paper_sheet_wires_arc` and stored on `Scene`. Still open: GPU-side `upload` / `draw` / `GPU-wait` spans need wgpu timestamp queries; the CPU tessellation slice covers the current hot path. --- ## Priority Order **Phase 5 first** (profiling) — avoids speculation. Then, measurement-guided: 1. **Phase 1.1 + 1.2** (cheap, low-risk, certain win). 2. **Phase 1.3 + 1.6** (single-pass + lazy image). 3. **Phase 2.2** (incremental wire cache — wins on both edit and open). 4. **Phase 3.1** (camera-only invalidation — users pan/zoom constantly). 5. **Phase 3.3** (batched wire pipeline) and **Phase 3.4** (instancing) — biggest render win, highest complexity. 6. **Phase 1.7** (warm cache) — dramatic UX, but invalidation must be correct or it creates nasty bugs. 7. **Phase 1.5** (acadrust parallel parse) — hardest, longest-term; only worth it if profiling confirms it is the dominant slice. ## Deliberate non-goals (for now) - **GPU compute culling:** for orthographic 2D CAD the CPU quadtree is enough. Already covered by Phase 1-4. - **Out-of-core entity streaming:** meaningful for 100 MB+ single files; typical Open CAD Studio files are not there yet. - **Multi-frame async tessellation pipeline:** if 2.3 progressive render works cleanly, this isn't needed.