Matlab App Designer editor is very slow

Hello everybody !

I have been developing a software using Matlab App Designer for 2 months, and while my code grows up (~9k lines today), App Designer editor takes more and more times, even for simple tasks, like writing a piece of text, or make a line break...

I tried to untick "Enable app coding alerts", without noticing any significantly change...

I don't have choice to edit my code in another text editor and paste it in Matlab AD..., which is not convenient...

Do you guys have any idea to fix out this issue ?

[Robin L.]

I think this is link to how Matlab AD works : after unzipping and analysing the files created by a new Matlab AD app, I think that each time we type something in the editor, it analyses the entire code and fills system tables containing custom functions, callbacks, 1 line = 1 case, etc... which takes time !

Is there a way to limit that ? I assume this is very safe for a novice, but frustrating for others !

[Ajay Kumar]

9k lines are too much in one script. I have a good suggestion.

Try to break down the designer script into some functions and write them in separate .m files and use function calling in designer script.

This makes app designer more efficient.

Answer 1

[Jared MacDonald]

Hi Robin,

If possible, please update to release R2020a where this has been significantly improved. You can read more details in the MATLAB Release Notes here:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/release-notes.html

and search for "App Designer" under the Performance section of the R2020a release notes. Switching to code view, typing, entering new lines, etc., have all been improved.

Thanks,

Jared

[Adam Danz]

I face the same problem with r2020a and my app is currently <750 lines including plenty of comment-lines.

When I run the app in debug mode and I try to execute a line manually (highlight it and press F9) it can take several minutes just to run something as easy as ~isempty(app.ListBox.Items). When I try to quit debug mode, it often takes several minutes for that process to complete, too.

This section I'm running in debug mode is within a try/catch block which may or may not contribute to the slowness. It's really really slow most, but not all, of the time when in debug mode. Otherwise, it runs well without any timing issues.

[Clovis Bonavides]

I am having this same or a similar problem - and it shows both in r2020b and r2021a. It started occurring after I added a (2nd) checkbox to a panel. If the speed was before 100 miles/hr it is now crawling at less than 1 mile/hour. And even quitting Debug mode takes forever - same for quitting MATLAB. It must be certainly a bug, and a nasty one, btw. Waiting for a fix from Mathworks....

[Javier Martín Sánchez]

I am having exactly the same problem. I have been struggling with it for a long time and I am giving up already. In addition, I have read that GUIDE (the only one working resonably well for me) will be removed in upcoming versions. If this BIG issues cannot be solved in a resonable short time ... I am already considering switching to python.

[Adam Danz]

For those people reporting similar problems, it will be helpful to include your Matlab version information.

Find your version info by typing ver into the command line.