Why are my Acad2000 dwg files so big when they have so little in them?

My office uses ACAD2000. (kinda old but works for our purposes.)

I have noticed that some drawing files are very large for their
content. One example is a drawing with 8 lines which has 3 layers, no
blocks, and its size is about 3 megabytes.

The drawing is totally purged.

I'm looking for any recommendations. Are there any utilities out
there that can clean up hidden garbage?

Unfortunately my CAD team can't be taught good drawing hygeine.

Thanks in advance.

 

Try purging the DWG files of Layer Filters. Create the following Layer Filter
LSP file (LFD.lsp), load and run it. Then Save the file and compare it with
the origina (BAK) file. If that works, then I'd suggest that you set up to
run the LFD.lsp file automatically each time you open any file. This way it
will Purge the drawing of Layer Filters all the time.

ps... whatch out for word wrap in the Lisp file cut/paste info that I've
included

Regards,

BruceF


;;; by Phil L
;;; this layerfilter killer doesn't use vla for the vlax handicapped
;;; type in lfd and it will remove all layerfilters
;;; only way I know to get the table object, "layer", where the filter object
;;; pointer resides, is to get layer '0' and go to its owner since
;;; layer 0 always exists.
;;; Checks layer object for xdict, looks for a layerfilter object.
;;; if found deletes the layerfilter object entity.
;;; makes sure there are no more. (Which shouldn't be)
;;; also makes multi runs thru each xdict to be sure only one layerfilter
;;; I don't know if more than layerfilter object is allowed but
;;; this kills ALL of them
;;; added: kills acad_layerstates also, I don't know what this is but I
;;; don't need or want them. If you need these edit the code indicated
;;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;
(defun LFcount ( l / c)
(setq c 0)
(foreach x l
(if (= 3 (car x))(setq c (1+ c))))
c
)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;;
(defun killdict (l s / el c )
(setq c 0)
(if (/= (car l) 360)
(progn (alert "dxf structure problem")(exit))) ; dxf 360 is
pointer to dict item
(while (setq el (dictsearch (cdr l) s))
(setq c (+ c (LFcount el)))
(entdel (cdr (assoc -1 el))))
c
)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;; go thru list and return sublist starting with key data = s or nil
;;; (getsublist '((1 2)(3 4)(5 6)) '(4))==> ((3 4)(5 6))
;;;
(defun getsublist (l s )
(if (or (not l) (= (cdar l) s))
l
(getsublist (cdr l) s ))
)
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

; *** START ***
(defun C:LFD ( / LT found found1 ) ; kill all layerfilters
(setq LT (entget (cdr (assoc 330 (entget (tblobjname "layer" "0")))))
found 0
found1 0)
;; look for all acad_xdictionary
;; then look for all layerfilter entries

;; do for all layer table entity/object
(while (setq LT (getsublist LT "{ACAD_XDICTIONARY" ))
(setq found (+ found (killdict (cadr LT) "ACAD_LAYERFILTERS"))

;;remove following line if layerstates are wanted
;;;*;;; found1 (+ found1 (killdict (cadr LT) "ACAD_LAYERSTATES"))

LT (cddr LT)))

;;;*;;; (princ (strcat "\nLAYERFILTERS/LAYERSTATES found and killed: " (itoa
found) "/" (itoa found1)))
(princ (strcat "\nLAYERFILTERS found and deleted: " (itoa found)))

(princ)
)
;;; by Phil L

 

Thank you both. SuperPurge, alas was no help. My 8 line drawing is
still at 2.7 meg.

 

One thought came to mine. If you have some blocks which are lots of JUNK in
them, you might want to try to clean them up (and redefine them) and see if
that makes a difference. That is one reason why you can't purge some stuff
because they are part of a block.

That is something you should deal with. In my humble opinion (having been
drafting manually/CAD for over 30 years)... SLOPPY drafting is NOT excusable.
And if a 'draftperson' doesn't understand the necessisty of clean CAD work,
they read them the riot act.

My 2-Bits worth.

Regards,

BruceF

 

Use CDGpurge at this link:

http://watertech.blogspot.com/2005/03/cdg-purge-resurrected.html

garth.

 

When drawings become huge compared to their content I use the "wblock"
command, save what the monitor screen shows, and create a new drawing
file. This has always brought huge files dowm to size. The command is
in 2000.