I wanted to use inkscape as a graph editor and draw some shapes with connection tool lines between them. The first few go along fine, but no matter what I do, by (about) node 8 things start slowing down to the point where it is incredibly difficult to actually draw a connection between two shapes, since inkscape has slowed down to the point where it can't update the real time line before it is "set".
This is very repeatable on my MacBook Air, Max OS X 10.7.5, 1.8Ghz Core i5, 4 Gigs.
I downloaded the lastest stable release, which the link says should be 0.48.4...but when I install the about screen says 0.48.2 r9819.
This behavior can be replicated simply:
1. Draw a small circle (I happen to have set the style to a light blue fill and a simple outline).
2. Copy and paste 10 circles randomly around the page (fairly far apart so no risk of overlap).
3. Use the connector tool to start connecting centers of the circles randomly (I'have at least one node with three edges incident to its central connection point).
Things should start freezing up by around node 8. The shape I used doesn't seem to make a difference (e.g. squares).
not reproduced on Windows 7, Inkscape 0.48.4 r9939. result is attached
I have never used the connector tool before, so I was not able to get the lines to join the circles centres together. The actual connection point appeared to be random. However I did not experience any slowdown.