The go_faster Parameter

Posted by Scott Lininger, SketchUp Team

So I've been sitting in on a lot of product demos recently from some great Ruby API developers, and in a couple of cases they did not know about the "go_faster" parameter.

The "go_faster" parameter, you say. What's that?!

Let's look at two pieces of code. First without it:

start_time = Time.new
Sketchup.active_model.start_operation("Draw a grid")
for x in 0..50
  for y in 0..50
    p1 = [x, y]
    p2 = [x+1, y]
    p3 = [x+1, y+1]
    p4 = [x, y+1]
    Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_face(p1, p2, p3, p4);
  end
end
Sketchup.active_model.commit_operation
end_time = Time.new
total_time = end_time - start_time
puts total_time.to_s + " seconds to run"

On my IBM Thinkpad this executes in 5.9 seconds. Now let's add the parameter...

start_time = Time.new
Sketchup.active_model.start_operation("Draw a grid", true)
for x in 0..50
  for y in 0..50
    p1 = [x, y]
    p2 = [x+1, y]
    p3 = [x+1, y+1]
    p4 = [x, y+1]
    Sketchup.active_model.entities.add_face(p1, p2, p3, p4);
  end
end
Sketchup.active_model.commit_operation
end_time = Time.new
total_time = end_time - start_time
puts total_time.to_s + " seconds to run"

Whoohoo! One little flag and now it runs in 4.7 seconds. That's a 25% increase in performance for typing six keys on my keyboard.

If you're already using Model.start_operation in your plugins, this is a change worth making. If you're not, you should be. In addition to this performance increase, start_operation groups all of your model changes into a single "undo," which makes your plugin easier on your users.

What Ruby performance secrets do you know? Let's hear 'em in the comments!