HUGE files....why?

[Willallison]

I know not why, but by the time I've finished, many of my files seem to be rather larger than they should be.
This happens regularly in AutoCAD and more recently in Rhino (3) where for what I would regard as relatively simple boats - 30 to 40 ft with few imported blocks etc, I routinely wind up with files that are 12MB in AutoCAD and a whopping 65MB in Rhino.
Needless to say that this does wonders for the speed of my computer - I suspect it may be the cause of a number of recent and regular crashes....
Only today I went to email a Rhino file - made up of only 2 surfaces - and it was over 5MB!

Any clues?

[kengrome]

I'm only guessing, but some software keeps all changes so you can "undo" them later, and after a while the files become very large as you keep making more an more changes. If this is what's happening, maybe it is possible to do something like "Clear History" so all the previous revisions are erased.

[Willallison]

Further to this, I've looked at some more of my Rhino files.
As I go through a design I regularly save the updated work as a new file name. I've just been through the one I'm working on now and discovered that the files vary in size from an enormous 85MB to an extraordinary 175MB!
These are not only huge, but defy logic, as their contents are ostensibly the same.....:( :?: :confused:

[masalai]

Find one that is not needed and open it as a text file (as most are) then be prepared to waste half a day figuring out what is what (print it if you want to use lots of paper 100 to 200 sheets:D:D:D and more....

[DanishBagger]

In my apps (audio editing apps, that is), if I merely save the projects, I do save them as "projects". [Add: Meaning, if I work with a ten minute multitrack file - say ten tracks, each having audio taking up 50 megs - when I save it will take up at least 500 megs + all the "undo's".]

In order for me to get a file smaller file, I either have to "bounce" them to harddisk (which is essentially removing everything "project" leaving only the played contents), or I can export them to a given filetype. I would guess that's about the same you will have to do, although, it's not the same type of app or file. But see if you can find something "save as" where you can choose type, "export" or something like that. [add: with the above, I can get that 500 megs down to anything I want. The ten minutes could be 50 megs in mono, 100 megs in stereo - uncompressed of course. it could also be, say 1MB, if exported to some shyte mp3-codec].

[bhnautika]

Will I have found the same thing and I think it’s a problem with cad software today. I have just started to use rhino a bit lately for a number of projects. The software I normally use is Xcad. I couldn’t believe the file sizes I was starting to get, so I did a test. In xcad (which is over 10years old) and rhino 2 (close to Xcad’s age) I created a box with just lines one metre square then put a surface on each side. The file sizes were, xcad 18KB,rhino 31KB, so it appears that rhino makes big files. I think it also depends on the surfaces type and the number of points. Just one surface can increase the file size quickly. A fillet on a corner turns two surfaces into three .You could export some of the surfaces out as separate files to see which are adding KBs. The pic is of a project I am working on, its of all surface plates, internal framing, bulkheads, sole, furniture and parts and comes to 10MB. The rudder and prop are 1.2MB on their own! So a little can mean a lot.

[KevinMcKee]

Try the save small option in rhino. it tosses out the rendering meshes, and rebuilds them next time you use need them. makes the files much smaller.

[raw]

re rhino - guessing you have the rendering mesh set high.......


re - ACad ever heard of "purge"?

[Willallison]

Right. The save small option makes a massive difference, as raw suggested, I have my render mesh setting very high. I guess the trick is to run it low and only increase when you want to produce reasonable renders...

Re AutoCAD - yes, I use purge quite regularly, but it makes little difference.

Thanks guys

[Willallison]

Just a little update....
I changed my mesh setting back from custom to "smooth and slower", in the process dropping the file size from 95MB to 8.5.... onya Raw....
The problem with SaveSmall is that you loose all of your layers, so whilst it may be useful in some circumstances, one wouldn't want to do it with a working model.
Thanks to all as always:D

[DanishBagger]

Sounds like save small is like saving the thing as a file as oppose to a project.

[terhohalme]

Will,

SaveSmall doesn't do anything to layers, only surface meshes and bitmaps are taken off.

If you just RTFM. Or try it. Yes, Rhinos help (3.0) has an error here.

Terho

[DanishBagger]

If you just RTFM.

How kind of you … :p

[Willallison]

I'm guessing, but I assume RTFM is a colourful way of suggesting I do a little research in the manual...?:D
I did, of course, and yes, that's what the R3 manual told me... thanks for setting it straight though

[marshmat]

I tend to agree with what's already been said about 'save small' and rendermeshes, provided the geometry is originally from Rhino. NURBS geometry itself is a reasonably efficient format. But if you're working in a shaded or rendered view, the mesh used to create that view is likely going to stay with the file when you save... and those meshes can get huge (on the old dual-P3 I used for a lot of the solarcar work last year, I generally worked strictly in wireframe because of this exact problem.... well, plus the crappy 2D graphics card).
Another thing that can blow the Rhino file sizes halfway to Mars is importing geometry from elsewhere. SolidEdge, for instance, creates insanely huge export files (IGES, STEP, etcetera) that can take forever to load into Rhino and cause a 40+ MB jump in file size when they finally do.

[quicksail]

For AutoCad you can use the purge command to help reduce file size. This will get rid of empty layers, line types, and all other drawing variables not being used in the drawing. It helps reduce file size but can be a pain when you go back to make changes (i.e. line types have to be reloaded if not already there).

I agree with what has been said about Rhino. Save small if file size is a concern or if you are archieving some projects. Also, keep meshes as simple as possible when doing basic modelling as this will allow your computer to work faster.

Good luck

[Fanie]

Maybe you could decrease the size of your boat... :D