Smartstream Designer taking FOREVER to create job

[jelder]

I have a variable data job that is taking a long time to complete. The finished size is small, so we can fit 192up on our press sheet (48x24). I'm able to get everything working correctly, except when I try to create the job with the imposition applied. SSD seems to hang up during the "Creating TIFF" stage.
I eventually got the job to finish...94344 records, 492 sheets at 192up. It took about 3 hours 20 minutes to create the job.
I've found that using a smaller sheet size works much faster. Is there a limit to the sheet size or number up that SSD can handle? Is there anyway to get this to complete faster? I've tried working locally instead from our server, but that hasn't saved any time.
Please note that the artwork doesn't contain any images...it's really a pretty simple variable data job. I do have one rule applied for switching layers.
Any advice would be great! THANKS!!

[DCurry]

Layer switches do increase the time significantly. You could do a test and turn off the layer switch rule and see how long it takes. If it makes a big difference, is there a way to accomplish what you need without using a layer switch?

That is a pretty large number of records, too, especially if you are imposing it while merging. 

I would try sending in smaller chunks, maybe 10,000 records at a time.  

Another thing to try would be if you have another way to impose you could merge the records unimposed, then use another method to impose the 1-ups. However, that might take a long time depending on how you do it. 

Try these one at a time. If you try 2 or more at once you won't know which, if any, had any effect. 

There is also a server version of SmartStream called Composer which would chew this up pretty fast, but it is not cheap. 

[DCurry]

Another thought - if a smaller sheet size is faster, you could do it that way as step one, then impose the smaller sheets onto your larger sheet.

[MacTwidget]

What format are you exporting to? PDF will take SIGNIFICANTLY more time to generate than JLYT.

[DCurry]

Good point about JLYT. My last shop, where we used SmartStream, did not use it so I completely forgot about that as an option. 

[jelder]

Thanks for the input! I will try removing the layer rule and see of that speeds things up...although accomplishing the same result without that rule could be tricky.
Also imposing smaller sheets could work, but the job is gathering in order, so keeping everything in the proper order could be a challenge. Plus adding up the time to impose smaller sheets, then combine them (while making sure everything stays in order) could take just as long as letting SSD do its thing.
I'll pose the question about JLYT to those that may know if our RIP can handle it.
Thanks again for the suggestions...I'll let you know how it goes!