Compressing Solidworks files 7

[gdea]

I have been experimenting with several different methods of shrinking Solidworks files for E-Mail byte-size limit purposes, including surpressing the features in the design tree, and also encompassing the model itself with an extruded box in the graphics area. Both of these methods seem to work ok, hopefully I will get more consistent with accumulated knowlege and practice.
I have downloaded unfrag.exe, and after running the program and filling in the proper info, it tells me that the file was reduced in size ok, however I cannot figure out where it saves the unfraged file to. It does not create a folder on my root, and it doesn't add the file to the folder that the file candidate came from. If someone could give me the clue that I'm missing, I would appreciate it.
Thanking you,
gda

 

[TheTick]

It does not save the file anywhere. It reduces the existing file. Compare file size before and after.

also check out "EcoSqueeze". Does about the same thing.

 

[Theophilus]

I just Zip my files. You might want to check out alternative compression software (not specific to SolidWorks) such as 7Zip and others that can write to the more heavily compressed .rar format for small file sizes.

However, with the increasingly inexpensive server space (often free), I find this less and less important--certainly no longer worth my time in suppressing features, etc. to compress file sizes.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

If you are preparing files for emailing, you should consider using the "all-in-one" functionality of SolidWorks' Pack and Go utility. It collects all relevant files, compresses them to Zip format, and attaches them to the default email program ready for sending.

 

[gdea]

Thank you all for your response.
gda

 

[SBaugh]

By using 3rd party compression software you can run the risk of corrupting your files. If that does occur SW is not going to repair corrupted files that were compressed by a 3rd party program.

If you run a search on the web I found many ways of doing this many years ago. Saving a file to a new name is a fast way to reduce file size temporarily. It will return after you open and re-save the file again.

regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[TheTick]

We had a discussin here on Eng-tips about this a few years ago. Of all the people reporting who used EcoSqueeze or Unfrag, only one person had one file corrupted. One person actually had a corrupted file "healed" by EcoSqueeze.

These programs do not compress like "Zip" does. What these programs do is actually remove empty-but-reserved OLE bytes from files. This is different from "zip" compression. BTW you can get a double-bang by "Unfragging" and "zipping".

I think SW has actually improved file size in this respect. The % file size reduction from EcoSqueeze or Unfrag on SW2007 files is not as dramatic as it was in previous versions. I would guess that it is because SW has taken steps to control OLE-induced bloat from within SW's save process.

 

[StefanHamminga]

Also try 7zip, an open source, free, archiver with better compression than both zip and rar. Since it is free you can do without shareware or license costs.

http://www.7-zip.org/

And no, I don't have any connection with the project, other than that I use it for backupping on my server and workstations. (I would like to use it for e-mail, but my customer base is not ready for anything other than zip...)

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums

 

[rollupswx]

>including surpressing the features in the design tree, and also encompassing the model itself with an extruded box in the graphics area.

I don't think I saw anyone mention that in r2007 and later you can now simply roll up the feature tree, save and zip.
No longer need to suppress features or put in a box.
In earlier versions if you tried to save in a rolled up state you would get an error.

Just let the person on the other end know to roll down the feature history. This can especially confuse them if there is an assembly along with the parts and they try to open the assembly first.

 

[Theophilus]

Apart from the fact that 7-Zip is freeware, the .rar compression format is superior to Zip in that file sizes are smaller with many file formats. It's a less-common format, but you don't have to fork over $30 to use it. If you have less tech-savvy clients/vendors, using 7-Zip might be a bit of a pain (as Stefan alluded to), but since it's a free download, it's certainly worth it for folks who know how to install applications without help.

Random 30-file test, SolidWorks 2007:
7-Zip:
Native (rar): 10.1MB
Tar format: 19.5MB
Zip (Ultimate): 11.66MB (long compression time)

WinZip:
Zip (Maximum): 11.75MB (fast compression time)




Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine

 

[Solidjnke]

Have you tried using the "Delete Body" feature ?
In my experience, it reduces the file size nearly half.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

I have to agree with Theo', it's generally just not worth my time (or the recipients time) to use anything more than a zip or rar compression.

The suppress features or rollback or delete body tricks are fine for a large complex part, or for a small assy with just a few parts, but they would soon become a royal PITA for larger assys ... especially when also having to return all the components to the default state.

The saving in download time would quickly be lost in un-suppressing or rolling forward or un-deleting all the components.

Now, if a macro(s) could be made to perform this task for both sender and receiver ...

 

[gdea]

I would like to thank all you Gentlemen for your time and responses to my query, which thanks to you yielded a wealth of Information for me. I now can treat most clients the way that they need to be treated, with regards to how is best for them to view files sent by me. Most have Solidworks for viewing and will be using the "roll up-roll down" method, where the ones with viewing software will have to uncompress using Zip or Rar, and yet others prefer 3D PDF, or E-Drawings. Thanks again to you, I can now please them all.
gda

 

[Updraft]

Scott's comment about saving a file as a new file does save a lot of space. Apparently this saves just the needed information for the file and none of the extra stuff that gets accumulated in a working file. I don't remember where I saw this, but UnFrag effectively does this for the user, temporarily saving the file to a new name and then renaming it back to the original file. This has the advantage of keeping all the links to that file. Saving a file to a temporary file obviously does not keep links to associated files, but often this is not an issue if you are sending single files (it would be if you are sending related files such as parts/assemblies/drawings).

I have never had a problem with UnFrag, but then due to the increasing e-mail capacities this has become less of an issue. However, I am usually only e-mailing a single file or have to send a whole project in which case I am mailing a CD or using FTP.

I'll have to look into the roll up/down method. That seems intriguing. The only problem I see with it is that every file has to be opened and rolled down. How about a macro to do this? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler? Buehler?

Happy New Year everyone!!

- - -Updraft

 

[Theophilus]

Of course, you can also save a whole assembly as a single parasolid file. Bring in that file to SolidWorks and it will create the assembly and part files--only without features--so therefore smaller file sizes. Zip those, and you're getting quite small.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

What did you dream? It's all right--we told you what to dream.
--Pink Floyd, Welcome to the Machine