Reducing File Size 2

[Webber]

I have two similar 2D drawings in AutoCAD 2000. Both drawings have been purged. However, one drawing is 300 kbytes and the other is 2500 kbytes. How can I clean up the second file?

 

[exit]

Hi Webber,

did you check hidden or duplicate objects, do the *.dwg include pixelgraphics, did You try "audit", try Cahya's way and save as *.dxf or make a wblock...?!

regards, Lothar Win NT4.0 (SP6),
ACAD 2000i (SP2), ADT 3.0 (SP3),
OCÈ 5200

 

[CADaver]

Drawing with blocks are smaller if you use more than two of the same block. However, if you've done a lot of COPY/PASTE from the clipboard, you may have dozens of single use blocks ($abracadabra) filling up your block list. Find and explode those blocks, then purge.

3D solids can make the file considerably large as well.

 

[borgunit]

I have occasionally found an errant entity in the drawing that causes huge chunks of data to be eaten up. You may try to quadrant out the drawing, and remove entities, save the drawing and compare sizes. You can narrow down the item this way. I found a block of a small fitting once (about 20 lines) but replacing it reduced the dwg file by 5 MB. My two cents...

 

[cfee]

All EXCELLENT suggestions!

For maximum reduction of drawing file size along with the file dialog acessibility we used to have with wblock, try using the "EXPORT" command, and select "DWG" file type for your output. It creates a W-BLOCK style drawing output, with the ability to interactively select the target drive, directory, and filename! ("W"standing for "WRITE to disk" from the earliest days of DOS AutoCAD)

note: By hard selecting the entities you want to include in the target drawing, you strip out ALL unwanted LAYERS BLOCKS and DIMENSIONING STYLES, along with other LARGE spurious entities. Results in absolutely minimum file size.
Alternately, you can type "ALL" at the select objects prompt, get all entities in the drawing, and create a duplicate of the drawing with unwanted items (as listed above) eliminated.

If you select the drawing you're in as the target drawing, you replace your heavy drawing with the much lighter result; sort of a super-purge. Just remember to NOT save, as you exit the current drawing!!!

Good Luck!
C. Fee

 

[exit]

Hi Webber,
why don't You reply, did You solve the problem, please tell us how...!!!???
Here another tip: Super Purge as shareware.

http://www.manusoft.com/Software/SuperPurge/Index.stm

It work good and hard.

Lothar Win NT4.0 (SP6),
ACAD 2000i (SP2), ADT 3.0 (SP3),
OCÈ 5200

 

[Webber]

Thank you to you all for your helpful replies. Sorry I was not able to join in earlier (exit! ) I have just returned to the office this morning.

Anyway, I tried some of the suggestions and they seemed to work. However, there seems to be some "embedded" objects in the drawing. Using "All" to select my objects provided 26373 objects ("1 not on current layer"?) and "Windowing" my selections provided only 844 objects. Using "ALL" resulted in the same file size. Windowing my objects reduced a 24710 kbyte file to 311.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Now, I will investigate further to find the embedded objects.

Best Regards

 

[CADaver]

Webber,
Enter the SELECT command, when prompted to select objects enter (SSGET"X&quot. That will select the entire database (26k found). Then enter R to remove, and select a window around the objects you can select (844 removed). Your selection set now contains all the "embedded" objects. My guess is they are on frozen or off layers, or they are empty text nodes.
You can then WBLOCK that selection set to a drawing for further investigation.