diff --git a/include/openspace/properties/property.h b/include/openspace/properties/property.h
index 80b224bf76..4f40070f44 100644
--- a/include/openspace/properties/property.h
+++ b/include/openspace/properties/property.h
@@ -314,10 +314,10 @@ public:
      * Property::ViewOptions::PowerScaledCoordinate = <code>powerScaledCoordinate</code>.
      */
     struct ViewOptions {
-        static const std::string Color;
-        static const std::string LightPosition;
-        static const std::string PowerScaledScalar;
-        static const std::string PowerScaledCoordinate;
+        static const char* Color;
+        static const char* LightPosition;
+        static const char* PowerScaledScalar;
+        static const char* PowerScaledCoordinate;
     };
 
     /**
@@ -329,10 +329,10 @@ public:
     const ghoul::Dictionary& metaData() const;
 
 protected:
-    static const std::string IdentifierKey;
-    static const std::string NameKey;
-    static const std::string TypeKey;
-    static const std::string MetaDataKey;
+    static const char* IdentifierKey;
+    static const char* NameKey;
+    static const char* TypeKey;
+    static const char* MetaDataKey;
 
     /**
      * Creates the information that is general to every Property and adds the
diff --git a/include/openspace/properties/propertyowner.h b/include/openspace/properties/propertyowner.h
index 56a69783bb..e26af2db6f 100644
--- a/include/openspace/properties/propertyowner.h
+++ b/include/openspace/properties/propertyowner.h
@@ -25,7 +25,6 @@
 #ifndef __OPENSPACE_CORE___PROPERTYOWNER___H__
 #define __OPENSPACE_CORE___PROPERTYOWNER___H__
 
-#include <openspace/properties/property.h>
 #include <map>
 #include <string>
 #include <vector>
@@ -33,6 +32,8 @@
 namespace openspace {
 namespace properties {
 
+class Property;
+
 /**
  * A PropertyOwner can own Propertys or other PropertyOwner and provide access to both in
  * a unified way. The <code>identifier</code>s and <code>name</code>s of Propertys and
diff --git a/include/openspace/rendering/abufferrenderer.h b/include/openspace/rendering/abufferrenderer.h
index 042c0380dd..798a1373a8 100644
--- a/include/openspace/rendering/abufferrenderer.h
+++ b/include/openspace/rendering/abufferrenderer.h
@@ -43,14 +43,14 @@
 
 namespace ghoul {
     
-    namespace filesystem {
-        class File;
-    }
-    namespace opengl {
-        class ProgramObject;
-        class Texture;
-    }
-}
+namespace filesystem { class File; }
+
+namespace opengl {
+    class ProgramObject;
+    class Texture;
+} // namepsace opengl
+
+} // namespace ghoul
 
 namespace openspace {
 
diff --git a/modules/space/rendering/planetgeometry.h b/modules/space/rendering/planetgeometry.h
index eae02b77d1..98b93841c9 100644
--- a/modules/space/rendering/planetgeometry.h
+++ b/modules/space/rendering/planetgeometry.h
@@ -27,6 +27,10 @@
 
 #include <openspace/properties/propertyowner.h>
 
+#include <memory>
+
+namespace ghoul { class Dictionary; }
+
 namespace openspace {
 
 class Renderable;
diff --git a/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp b/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
index bc4da65ab8..6ec3200fe1 100644
--- a/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
+++ b/src/engine/openspaceengine.cpp
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@
 #include <openspace/openspace.h>
 
 #include <openspace/documentation/core_registration.h>
-#include <openspace/documentation/documentation.h>
 #include <openspace/documentation/documentationengine.h>
 #include <openspace/engine/configurationmanager.h>
 #include <openspace/engine/downloadmanager.h>
@@ -38,13 +37,8 @@
 #include <openspace/engine/wrapper/windowwrapper.h>
 #include <openspace/interaction/interactionhandler.h>
 #include <openspace/interaction/luaconsole.h>
-#include <openspace/mission/missionmanager.h>
 #include <openspace/network/networkengine.h>
-#include <openspace/properties/propertyowner.h>
 #include <openspace/rendering/renderable.h>
-#include <openspace/rendering/renderengine.h>
-#include <openspace/rendering/screenspacerenderable.h>
-#include <openspace/scripting/scriptengine.h>
 #include <openspace/scripting/scriptscheduler.h>
 #include <openspace/scene/rotation.h>
 #include <openspace/scene/scale.h>
@@ -55,28 +49,18 @@
 #include <openspace/util/time.h>
 #include <openspace/util/timemanager.h>
 #include <openspace/util/spicemanager.h>
-#include <openspace/util/syncbuffer.h>
 #include <openspace/util/transformationmanager.h>
 
 #include <ghoul/ghoul.h>
 #include <ghoul/cmdparser/commandlineparser.h>
 #include <ghoul/cmdparser/singlecommand.h>
 #include <ghoul/filesystem/filesystem.h>
-#include <ghoul/filesystem/cachemanager.h>
 #include <ghoul/font/fontmanager.h>
 #include <ghoul/font/fontrenderer.h>
 #include <ghoul/logging/consolelog.h>
 #include <ghoul/logging/visualstudiooutputlog.h>
-#include <ghoul/lua/ghoul_lua.h>
-#include <ghoul/lua/lua_helper.h>
-#include <ghoul/lua/luastate.h>
-#include <ghoul/misc/dictionary.h>
-#include <ghoul/misc/exception.h>
-#include <ghoul/misc/onscopeexit.h>
 #include <ghoul/systemcapabilities/systemcapabilities>
 
-#include <fstream>
-#include <queue>
 
 #if defined(_MSC_VER) && defined(OPENSPACE_ENABLE_VLD)
 #include <vld.h>
diff --git a/src/properties/property.cpp b/src/properties/property.cpp
index 6b495248aa..a70540dea4 100644
--- a/src/properties/property.cpp
+++ b/src/properties/property.cpp
@@ -32,24 +32,24 @@ namespace openspace {
 namespace properties {
 
 namespace {
-    const std::string _loggerCat = "Property";
-    const std::string MetaDataKeyGuiName = "guiName";
-    const std::string MetaDataKeyGroup = "Group";
-    const std::string MetaDataKeyVisibility = "Visibility";
-    const std::string MetaDataKeyReadOnly = "isReadOnly";
+    const char* _loggerCat = "Property";
+    const char* MetaDataKeyGuiName = "guiName";
+    const char* MetaDataKeyGroup = "Group";
+    const char* MetaDataKeyVisibility = "Visibility";
+    const char* MetaDataKeyReadOnly = "isReadOnly";
 
-    const std::string _metaDataKeyViewPrefix = "view.";
+    const char* _metaDataKeyViewPrefix = "view.";
 }
 
-const std::string Property::ViewOptions::Color = "color";
-const std::string Property::ViewOptions::LightPosition = "lightPosition";
-const std::string Property::ViewOptions::PowerScaledCoordinate = "powerScaledCoordinate";
-const std::string Property::ViewOptions::PowerScaledScalar = "powerScaledScalar";
+const char* Property::ViewOptions::Color = "color";
+const char* Property::ViewOptions::LightPosition = "lightPosition";
+const char* Property::ViewOptions::PowerScaledCoordinate = "powerScaledCoordinate";
+const char* Property::ViewOptions::PowerScaledScalar = "powerScaledScalar";
 
-const std::string Property::IdentifierKey = "Identifier";
-const std::string Property::NameKey = "Name";
-const std::string Property::TypeKey = "Type";
-const std::string Property::MetaDataKey = "MetaData";
+const char* Property::IdentifierKey = "Identifier";
+const char* Property::NameKey = "Name";
+const char* Property::TypeKey = "Type";
+const char* Property::MetaDataKey = "MetaData";
 
 Property::Property(std::string identifier, std::string guiName, Visibility visibility)
     : _owner(nullptr)
@@ -181,7 +181,7 @@ void Property::notifyListener() {
 
 std::string Property::generateBaseDescription() const {
     return
-        TypeKey + " = \"" + className() + "\", " +
+        std::string(TypeKey) + " = \"" + className() + "\", " +
         IdentifierKey + " = \"" + fullyQualifiedIdentifier() + "\", " +
         NameKey + " = \"" + guiName() + "\", " +
         generateMetaDataDescription() + ", " + 
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ std::string Property::generateMetaDataDescription() const {
     std::string vis = VisibilityConverter.at(visibility);
 
     return
-        MetaDataKey + " = {" +
+        std::string(MetaDataKey) + " = {" +
         MetaDataKeyGroup +   " = '" + groupIdentifier() + "'," +
         MetaDataKeyVisibility + " = " + vis + "," +
         MetaDataKeyReadOnly +" = " + (isReadOnly ? "true" : "false") + "}";
diff --git a/src/properties/propertyowner.cpp b/src/properties/propertyowner.cpp
index 43f271a627..e45cd9279f 100644
--- a/src/properties/propertyowner.cpp
+++ b/src/properties/propertyowner.cpp
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 #include <openspace/properties/propertyowner.h>
 
+#include <openspace/properties/property.h>
 #include <ghoul/logging/logmanager.h>
 #include <ghoul/misc/assert.h>
 
@@ -33,17 +34,16 @@ namespace openspace {
 namespace properties {
 
 namespace {
+    const char* _loggerCat = "PropertyOwner";
 
-const char* _loggerCat = "PropertyOwner";
-
-bool propertyLess(Property* lhs, Property* rhs)
-{
-    return lhs->identifier() < rhs->identifier();
-}
+    bool propertyLess(Property* lhs, Property* rhs)
+    {
+        return lhs->identifier() < rhs->identifier();
+    }
     
-bool subOwnerLess(PropertyOwner* lhs, PropertyOwner* rhs) {
-    return lhs->name() < rhs->name();
-}
+    bool subOwnerLess(PropertyOwner* lhs, PropertyOwner* rhs) {
+        return lhs->name() < rhs->name();
+    }
     
 } // namespace
 
diff --git a/support/coding/count_includes.py b/support/coding/count_includes.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..98465a57f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/support/coding/count_includes.py
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+"""
+OpenSpace
+
+Copyright (c) 2014-2017
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this
+software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software
+without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify,
+merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
+conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies
+or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
+HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF
+CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE
+OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
+This file takes the output of compiling in Visual Studio with /showIncludes enabled and
+counts the number of times that each header file is included (excluding system headers).
+This gives an indicator as to which header files can be made more efficient the most
+efficiently
+
+The script requires one argument, which is the text file of one or many runs of the
+Visual Studio compiler
+"""
+
+import sys
+
+if len(sys.argv) != 2:
+    print("Usage: count_includes.py <text file containing /showIncludes results")
+    exit(0)
+
+file = sys.argv[1]
+
+with open(file) as f:
+    lines = f.readlines()
+
+    # Only get the lines that actually have includes
+    lines = [l for l in lines if "Note: including file" in l]
+
+    # Prefix to remove from each line an
+    prefix = "X>  Note: including file:"
+    lines = [l[len(prefix):-1].strip() for l in lines]
+
+    # Remove system header
+    lines = [l for l in lines if "windows kits" not in l.lower()]
+    lines = [l for l in lines if "microsoft visual studio " not in l.lower()]
+
+    # Remove external headers
+    lines = [l for l in lines if "ghoul\\ext\\" not in l.lower()]
+
+    count = {}
+    for l in lines:
+        if l in count:
+            count[l] = count[l] + 1
+        else:
+            count[l] = 1
+
+    for key, value in sorted(count.iteritems(), key=lambda (k,v): (v,k)):
+        print("%s: %s" % (key.ljust(100), value))