topic Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB? in AutoCAD Forum

Why is this seemingly empty SprinkCAD drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:11:11 GMT

I've seen AutoCAD file sizes grow large for various reasons in the past, but they've always been associated with some visible or even invisible but selectable object in the drawing. I recently realized one of my drawings had ballooned to nearly 70 MB. I selected all and copied all the objects to a new file, and that file is under 3 MB. So I deleted absolutely everything I possibly could from the original file, purged everything, audited, etc. and the file is still nearly 70 MB. I can't say it has nothing in it, because there's a couple text styles and dimstyles I can't get rid of. But select all results in nothing, so there isn't anything else that can be deleted or purged. I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what's in this file that is causing it to be so huge.

***THE POST TITLE HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARITY***

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pendean — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 12:57:42 GMT

May I ask, are you using this method to create a template file? Or is this just a teaching-moment 😉

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 12:58:43 GMT

Trying to figure out how the file size got so big so I can prevent it from happening again.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pkolarik — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:04:45 GMT

Have you tried looking at the Style Manager? I've found things in there in years-past that couldn't be purged, but sometimes could be manually deleted. Enough of those types of items can add up in your file's size. (C3D drawings often have tons of them)

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pendean — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:07:35 GMT

Your file came from a user of SprinklerCAD from what I can tell: @pkolarik might be on to something. Did you forget to mention that, or perhaps you did not know? Is is a friend asking you, and you... .

And yes, that method of creating a template file from DWGs with unknown sources can be very troublesome.

I don't have that add-on to test what else is in the file.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:07:52 GMT

I don't think regular AutoCAD has Style Manager. When I typed into the command line I got STYLESMANAGER, but that just opened up my plot styles folder.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:09:16 GMT

I'm the SprinkCAD user. SprinkCAD doesn't cause this. I've been using it for 12 years. Typically when I get a giant file size, it's because of some objects in the background I got from the architect, sometimes some AEC objects.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pendean — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:14:38 GMT

There is no AutoCADARCHITECTURE or MEP content in your file as I tested here:
Just 39 purgeable Registry Apps and SprinkCAD Proxies.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:22:26 GMT

I forgot that if I open a file with SprinkCAD loaded, it'll load the SprinkCAD regapps. That's why they're still there. But I purged them and the file is still huge. I'm not sure what the proxies are, but they can't be causing the huge file size. As I mentioned in my post, when I copied the contents of this drawing to a new file and saved, the file was under 3 MB. And that file also has all the SprinkCAD things in it. I'm just so baffled because I've never seen an empty file be this big. Clearly some artifacts are still in it causing the file size. But it's crazy that they can't be found.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pendean — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:26:30 GMT

Can you share the original DWG file before the one you posted?

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

TheCADnoob — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:37:36 GMT

~~Have you ran an AUDIT on the file?~~ Edit: It would help if I read the OP lol sorry

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 13:53:57 GMT

Here is the original file before I deleted everything in it.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

TheCADnoob — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 14:55:46 GMT

I'm guessing the extra file size is coming from the proxy objects.

The EXPORTTIAUTOCAD command gets the file to a lean 2.3 mg.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 14:58:50 GMT

Interesting. I ran that on the Empty Drawing file and the result is 54 kB.

So then, where and what are the proxy objects? How did they get there? And how can I get rid of them?

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

dmfrazier — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:06:35 GMT

Change this setting so that the dialog box appears when you open the DWG with proxy objects, in which you will see where the proxy objects are coming from.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:09:39 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion. I've had that turned off for as long as I can remember. But I checked it and then opened the Empty Drawing again. Both showing the proxy graphics and the proxy bounding box resulted in nothing. So I'm still completely stumped.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

dmfrazier — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:16:11 GMT

Read through the text in the dialog to understand what the objects are and where they came from.

Installing object enablers might make it possible to modify or view some of them. If they have no graphics, however, there will be no way to access them. Removing them using @TheCADnoob's advice is probably the only thing you can (and should) do.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

pendean — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:20:34 GMT

As noted by others

See attached.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

jamieq — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:27:07 GMT

Weird, The SprinkCAD extension I use doesn't have any object enablers, so I have no idea what could've done this. Looking through my autosave files, it looks like this drawing fluctuated between 2 MB to 10 MB, and then at some point started just climbing steadily in size. 14 MB one day, 19 MB the next, then suddenly 32 MB, and out of nowhere it ballooned to 72 MB. I have absolutely no clue what happened. I didn't add anything to the drawings. At least I know how to fix it, but man am I baffled as to what happened. I appreciate everyone here helping figure it out, though.

Re: Why is this seemingly empty drawing file nearly 70 MB?

dmfrazier — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:42:14 GMT

"The SprinkCAD extension I use doesn't have any object enablers..."

Object Enablers (Autodesk's term) are just ARX applications. SprinkCAD is likely an ARX app, too, so essentially it installed its own OE.

The majority of the proxy objects were Civil 3D objects :

These probably came from collaborators on the project.

I can't explain why objects would proliferate, though. You could ask SprinkCAD support.