Reducing the size of drawing files

I've got a five page drawing of an assembly, BOM, Rev Box, different
configurations, nice coloured views. It's over 15 Mb in size.

Which is strange because I've got another two page drawing of the same
assembly, different configurations, nice cloured views, Rev box but
it's only 3 Mb.

Has anyone got the faintest idea why one should be so much larger than
the other. Are there any particular things you can do in a drawing
which greatly increase it's file size. Is there any way of figuring
out what particular aspect of the drawing is taking up all the space
without deleting views, saving and checking how much smaller it gets.

Thanks,

Eric Christison

 

Solidworks files seem to balloon every time you save it - lots of empty
space. I use a program called UNFRAG and it gets rid of the empty spaces.
Haven't had any problems with the files either.

 

I second that. I use Unfrag many time a day. Have for years without
problems. It nearly cuts the file sizes in half. It's really neat to
Unfrag the entire engineering drive and see that you actually gained 4 gig
of free space. I did that when I first started using it.

Back to the point. I have found in the past that section views seem to
bloat the file size the most. I have only recently started using shaded
views in my drawings. They too seem to bloat the file size an astronomic
amount. So I would say it is a toss-up between these 2 drawing features
that might make the difference.

 

In addition to Unfrag, I would also recommend EcoSqueeze.
Couldn't tell you the diff, except to say that I heard somewhere that SW
doesn't recommend Unfrag anymore.

Try them both and see which one you like better.

HTH,
Muggs

 

Cheers Keith!

Tried doing as 'save as' this morning and the file size reduced from 29 to 9 Mb!

Thanks,

 

Actually, SW is paranoid about EcoSqueeze too. Apparently there is some
possibility that bad things could happen when you throw out the duplicated
data, although I have never heard of anyone actually having a problem. It
might also be possible that SW could use the duplicated data to help out
when you send them a problem file, but I think that might be an urban myth.

EcoSqueeze is nice because it doesn't change the time stamp on your part. It
also gives you some additional ways to reduce the file size, such as
removing the preview display, removing the pixel data, and removing all of
the parasolid data.

Jerry Steiger
Tripod Data Systems
"take the garbage out, dear"

 

Actually the problem is not SW but rather within M$. SW is M$ compatiable so
M$ puts information into the file. That information balloons the file and it
continues to grow. There isn't much you can do about it, other then don't
save Edrawing data in the file - Tools\Options - Option

 

It has been discussed in this group and went no where. (not to say it
couldn't go somewhere)
And, there was a company or two which sold a add-on for just this
purpose but I don't remember who they were?

As was mentioned, it's mainly the M$ format SW uses which includes
redundant information but it also is the result of saved 2d/3d graphical
data. There are settings which you can change in your prt files or
templates which will help reduce the file size, such as turning off,..
Save Tessellation with part document
Save eDrawings data in SolidWorks document

Matt Lombard has a Tools/Options settings which suggest good settings.
http://www.frontiernet.net/~mlombard/rulesofthumb.html

Otherwise, as you probably know, EcoSqueeze (I still use it, no
problems) is probably one of the best utilities for reducing the bloat
in prt/drw/asm's, as well, M$ doc's.
http://www.ecocom.com/eng/index00.htm

...

 

Ecosqueeze it with the caveat that if it becomes corrupt (Ecosqueeze of
course won't corrupt it) there won't be the shadow information necessary for
SW to reconstruct the document.