Slow Layer Display

[Tyler Mitchell]

On November 21, 2005 15:14, Arun K Chanumalla wrote:
> how do i generate a spatial index (.qix) for the shape
> file..?
> is there a documentation avilable for that on the
> mapserver web site.

Hi Arun,
You will need a tool called shptree.  It should have come with your MapServer 
installation.  Where did you get MapServer from?  Are you running on linux or 
windows using a pre-made package?

> Do you think 7-8 mins of time is reasonable for the
> shape file with 4344711 records in the .dbf file.?

I don't think so, but you need to plan ahead.  What type of data is it - 
points, lines or polygons?  I'm assuming it is not point data, as I expect 
that wouldn't take so long to draw.  If it is line or polygon data, then you 
should create a lower 'resolution' version of the dataset for viewing at 
different scales.  I haven't used it for a while, but I remember a perl 
script called thin.pl that can help you do this.  I usually do this by 
putting the shapefile into a PostGIS database and using the simplify() 
function.  This reduces the complexity (number of points) of the shapes and 
improves performance.

Let me know if you need more detail.  Anyone else using a good generalisation 
method?

Tyler