File size on disk - SE Best Practices?

[Superslinky]

Hey all, I was looking into file sizes that seemed to very from model to model as far as file size went so I did a little test to confirm. What I found was that the same object (size, shape, etc) took up more size on disk depending on the way it was created. In a nutshell I did a simple plate 1" thick with a couple rounded corners. The first one I created with a sketch and then prodruded it. The second I created a block and then filleted the corners and the third one, I created a protrusion with the shape. The simple protrusion took up the least amound of space but that got me to thinking. Is there anything anywhere that can help when trying to determine the best practices when modeling in SE? Things like this would be good to know. At least in my company were we are limited as far as network storage goes.

Anyway, just wanted some opinions...

Thanks

 

[KENAT]

Have you checke out the FAQ area?

I put together a FAQ that has some guidelines for modelling best practices, some of which are to do with file size & other performance issues.

faq562-1410

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[beachcomber]

The more features you have, the bigger the file will get.
Even simplifying the model will increase the file size.

In your example, the simple protrusion is 1 feature, the sketch and extrusion is 1 feature + the sketch, and the third one is 2 features, so I would expect them to increase in file size in that order.
Try simplifying by removing the rounded corners and see what the new sizes are.
The worst features are helix and thin-wall.
I believe a simple cut-out is also more 'efficient' than a hole feature, because it contains less information.

bc.
2.4GHz Core2 Quad, 4GB RAM,
Quadro FX4600.