Autodesk Technology Managers Forum
Share your knowledge, ask questions, and engage with fellow CAD/BIM Managers.
cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Reply
Message 1 of 11
CB4L
2481 Views, 10 Replies

Large File Size

I am hoping one of you have seen this issue before and can help me out.

 

We use both ACAD and CIvil 3D here. Most of the engineers use ACAD 2010 and our survey and I use Civil 3D. I have been having a problem with the drawing size rising to 2 or possibly as high as 5 MB when saved in ACAD 2010. If I open these same drawings in Civil 3D 2010 and save them the drawing size drops typically below 1 MB (to a size I would assume is correct). I have run the scalelistedit routine on these and it does not have the same affect as when I open them and save them in Civil 3D.

 

I am really frustrated by this because it happens on many project drawings and I end up re-saving them on a daily basis. It is not on just one computer or one drawing - it is throughout the office and I could probably say all used drawings by ACAD 2010.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


Bob

 

 

10 REPLIES 10
Message 2 of 11
pendean
in reply to: CB4L

Is R2010 set to save to a lower DWG format?

 

5MB is of concern to you? Is this a low-server capacity issue, or a slow network capacity issue, or a user low-PC spec issue? Or do you "email" files and concerned about that limitation? Please elaborate.

 

Also, Civil is a vertical and if your files contain AEC objects created with it, they appear as proxy Objects in plain AutoCAD: both programs are not quite the same based on file content.

 

That's the size of our an average DWG file early in a project, no one thinks twice about it.

Message 3 of 11
CB4L
in reply to: pendean

This actually comes down too performance issue. I understand the difference between ACAD and Civil 3D and have the object enablers installed  to work with them. THe problem is when I save the drawings in Civil 3D 2010 the drawing file size may be 900kb. Afterwards the drawing will be opened in ACAD 2010 and basic editing done, and once it is saved it will end up being 2-3 MB. Understandably that in itself is not large BUT it does not make sense that the size would grow that much by saving in plain ACAD. Would that mean then that all companies could only have Civil 3D and no ACAD to compliment it?

 

My guess is that I am missing something small because I did not have this issue in the 2008 versions.

 

THanks for your input.

Message 4 of 11
dgorsman
in reply to: CB4L

All sorts of things to look for, among them scale list (think you've already covered that), automatically inferred constraints, certain programs include a routine to automatically purge data that don't/can't be called from vanilla AutoCAD, and (I think this may be your case) options like "Maintain visual fidelity for annotative objects".

----------------------------------
If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 5 of 11
pendean
in reply to: CB4L

You did not answer my first question: that's makes all the difference.

 

And you are also writing that your hardware is on the low-end and not able to address 2-3MB DWG files (down from 5 in your first post...?): I can't imagine how low a system or network you have, you've not shared that information, but it must be quite significant. Can we assume you've not really upgraded anything since R2008 was in your office 5+ years ago?

Peer-to-Peer network? No switch to connect users if you do have a "server"?

Message 6 of 11
OMCUSNR
in reply to: CB4L

Bob,

 

What hardware are you using, and what OS - it's going to make some difference.  Also, I'd say you have a real recipe for disaster usng both plain acad & C3d in the same office.  The two programs are just different enough that it can cause real headaches trying to use both.  With C3d, your engineers should be able to do more real design work on their own, much faster than annotating womething done by a tech and returning it to them (this from a tech).

 

I'm with Pendean on this.  Now a days, it's not uncommon to see file sizes of 20meg or better, especially if point clouds or raster images are involved.  You hardware may be the biggest problem you have.

 

Reid

Homebuilt box: I5-2500k, MSI P67A-GD65, 12gig DDR3 1600 ram, ASUS ENGTX460 Video card, WD Velociraptor WD4500HLHX HD, Win 7 64 pro.
Message 7 of 11
CB4L
in reply to: CB4L

My apologies for the delay, things are extremely busy here and my goal is to really ensure this is resolved.

 

I will try to explain my network environment also (I am far from an IT expert but doing what I can). It was suggested that this could be a network issue. Our server works as a file server - users access all the drawings in the projects. They use ACAD 2010 for the most part, I do most of the Civil 3D work (i.e. points, tins, etc.). Users have Windows XP  - two or three have Windows 7 -  they all have at least 4GB RAM (I know the max recognized is approx. 3.5). I have nothing special about my computer except I use Civil 3D and others use ACAD.

 

I do appreciate the assistance you are giving.

 

Bob

Message 8 of 11
chriswade
in reply to: CB4L

Ok, our office uses Revit, Civil 3D, AutoCAD MEP, AutoCAD Structural and AutoCAD, so I know a few things about how this works or well, doesn't work.

 

Bottom line is if a project utilizes the features in Cvil 3D, AutoCAD MEP or other verticals, then it should ONLY be opened in Civil 3D or TrueView.

 

If the project doesn't use any of these features, then it should ONLY be opened in vanilla AutoCAD or TrueView.

 

Bottom line is mixing the two is dangerous, although there are ways to deal with it, such as using DWGConvert to explode all AEC objects in place.

 

What happens is you edit the file in Civil 3D, then someone with regular AutoCAD opens and edits it, then saves it, any Civil 3D information or AEC objects (even if all you did was erase something, it adds AEC objects to the file) gets saved as proxy objects, which if opened again in regular AutoCAD will usually produce errors when running an Audit and definitely increases the size of the file. Everytime that you open and save the drawing in either program from then on (unless you used DWGConvert as mentioned above), you add to the problem. Civil 3D will usually handle it ok; however, regular AutoCAD will not deal with this properly. We actually have one file that this has happened with from an outside consultant that when we recieve an update from them, it will take 30 minutes to open the file. Then we have to manually select everything and copy and paste it into a new file using regular AutoCAD, as at this point, even the DWGConvert method doesn't help.

Message 9 of 11
bla2001
in reply to: chriswade

This is a REAL problem and I'm surprised that Autodesk has not fixed this.  We are constantly receiving files from Civil Engineers that when opening in AutoCAD balloon in size.  I have one file that is over 100mb.  Yes over 100mb.  We just cannot work like this. 

 

If anyone has a good solution please let me know!

Message 10 of 11
ScottHodges
in reply to: bla2001

I'm here working on 2 GB files which don't bog the system down to anything like you have described. As other posters have said, Audit errors will be generated in those mixed object drawings, which combined with the proxy object conversion process sounds like what is bogging down your system. In our office we only ever pass the drawings down from C3D, never back up, as the problems you are describing MUST occur.

Message 11 of 11
JamesMaeding
in reply to: chriswade

items get saved as proxy objects?

That conflicts with my understanding of "custom objects".

With c++ "object arx", you can write definitions for custom objects.

Lots of programmers do this, not just Autodesk.

The Mapcad guys did this for their nice tools.

Anyway, these custom objects get handled in two ways:

1) if the full C++ prog, or the object enabler for the prog, are loaded, the object is displayed using that program's logic, and the entities will list as "AEC_Points", "Mapcad Leader" and so on, their correct names.

2) If the prog or OE is not loaded, the items display as "Proxy_Objects", and Autocad shows them using their default linework display. So if an AEC_Contour was derived from a polyline, Acad shows the item like a pline.

 

So to say that saving in vanilla acad 2010 will save the items as proxy objects, does not make sense.

When you open the items back in C3D, they will not be proxy objects but aec_points or whatever.

 

It very well may be that saving in acad 2010 does save the objects in a state where they have less data, thus a file size reduction. This would be the same as an object's style having an effect on the file size. I would have to test to see.

 

I still see confusion on the OP issue though. You must run some basic tests to narrow down why files would jump around in size.

I always tell people to watch for excess app ids, but I guess they are not the issue as they are hard to get rid of. You would see a jump up, not up and down.


internal protected virtual unsafe Human() : mostlyHarmless
I'm just here for the Shelties

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the community or share your knowledge.

Post to forums  

Administrator Productivity


Autodesk Design & Make Report