---
name: "coin_profiling_intro"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "coin"
version: "1:4.0.10-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/coin_profiling_intro"
---

# coin\_profiling\_intro(3)

Scene Graph Profiling

## NAME

coin\_profiling\_intro - Scene Graph Profiling

### Enabling profiling in Coin

To enable profiling in Coin, use the environment variable **COIN\_PROFILER**. When profiling is enabled, Coin will gather profiling data during every scene graph traversal by any action.

### Enabling the default profiling display

To get some profiling data shown on the screen, you also need to use the **COIN\_PROFILER\_OVERLAY** environment variable.

This will give you the default profiling graphics, which shows a top list of node timings categorized by node types, a scrolling graph of action traversal timings, and a scene graph navigator for closer scene graph inspection.

### Read the profiling data

The **SoProfilerStats** node can be used to fetch the profiling data in the scene graph. If it is positioned anywhere in the scene graph, the fields of the node will be updated every time **SoGLRenderAction** is applied to the scene graph, with profiling data gathered from every traversal through the scene graph since the last **SoGLRenderAction**, up to the point where **SoProfilerStats** is located. Depending of how you wish to use the data, either attach sensors to the fields, or connect the fields on other coin nodes to the fields on **SoProfilerStats**.