Large File Size 3D Drawing DWG/ Large File Size Empty DWG

[Anonymous]

Hi 

Really hoping someone can help/ offer some further guidance! I have spent weeks working through problems with a 3D floorplan I created for a tertiary architectural assignment.

I believe I have done everything from purchasing a higher performance computer - as the constant lagging and freezing of the software lead me to believe my computer lacked the requirements for the software. To then gaining a higher performance machine and still having the same issues and going through all the recommended procedures in the AutoDesk Forums and Help Guides to reduce the 11MB file size.

I have used (multiple times): 

- AUDIT (clean, no issues were found)

- PURGE

- -PURGE (REGAPPS - none found)

- WBLOCK

- LAYERFILTER (nothing in filter list)

- XREF (nothing in this list aside from the dwg itself)

- COPY + PASTE

The smallest I have been able to reduce the file to using these commands is 9MB with WBLOCK, which is still problematic. 

I then deleted every single object individually and saved/ checked the file size each time to see if any particular object was causing the problem which lead nowhere and actually increased the drawing size by a few 100KB. 

Following deleting everything in the drawing I then proceeded to delete every layer except Layer 0 with LAYDEL. 

I now have a completely empty drawing that still 8.81MB! 

Any further suggestions? 

Note: I am using Autodesk AutoCAD 2020.

[j.palmeL29YX]

Post the file please ... 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, please find attached.

Dat102_Draft_Render is original file.

DAT102_Draft_Render_4_Empty is the file where I deleted everything completely. 

The project itself is not a heavy project - a basic 3D model of a 3 bedroom, one storey house. 

[pendean]

PURGE, deleted your Layout1 and setting SHADEMODE to 2D is all I did, 179kb.

[Anonymous]

Hi, thank you, can you do the same on the large file with all the detail - DAT102_Draft_Render? Will it reduce the same and retain the drawing? 

[hencoop]

It seems like I remember reading that the 3D edit history is retained in a drawing.  If you have done considerable 3D editing to get to this point you may well have that much data stored of just the 3D edits history.  I'm pretty sure I remembered this correctly; however, someone from Autodesk or a 3D expert should probably confirm this.  I don't have much call for 3D solids work... it has been awhile.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, yes quite a lot of 3D editing, I will have a look further into that or as you said if an Autodesk or 3D expert could confirm if this could be the issue and how to action?

[j.palmeL29YX]

---

@hencoop wrote:

... the 3D edit history is retained in a drawing.  

---

That will happen only while SOLIDHIST is set to 1. But in the example file this variable is set to 0, and I don't believe that @Anonymous  created the solids with activated variable and did set it to 0 before uploading here. 

But who can know it ...  😉 

Or do you ( @hencoop)  mean an other edit history?

[Anonymous]

No I certainly didn't, seems well above my level of AutoCAD!
I performed the same commands that @pendean mentioned above on the full drawing and reduced it down to a similar 9.3MB like some of the other commands I've used.
I've been able to get some PC assistance to help with some of the software issues. 9MB still seems larges for a small project - although 3D and I have completed the editing of it. I could be wrong?
Also, when I try to do a base view it misses half of the 3D blocks in the drawing! Even following scaling it to 1.0001 like recommended.

[dmfrazier]

Coming to this late, but it's an interesting topic, so...

I opened (with AutoCAD 2021) the larger of your two files, loaded up a special, very handy LISP program I acquired (somewhere - I'll find it again if you want it) which writes out every block in the current DWG to its own DWG file (basically, it WBlocks every block), ran it and then looked at the output DWG files in File Explorer.

There were 59 blocks written out to DWGs. The largest is 2.2MB (3D_bath), the smallest is 174KB. Most are closer in size to the smallest than to the largest. The total size on disk of all 59 files is about 16.4MB.

Now, granted, when a block is written out to a DWG it does use more disk space than the block does within a DWG, but not much more. So, clearly the host file size is not out of scale with its contents. (This explains why a previous responder was able to significantly reduce the size of the "empty" file you posted by purging all the unused stuff.)

The take-away here is that perhaps the *only* way the file size of the posted DWG can be reduced is by reducing the complexity of at least some of the blocks. For example, often a block's size will be inordinately large simply because the basepoint is quite distant from the objects or from 0,0,0, so simply changing the insertion point may be all it takes to reduce the file size significantly. In the case of the 3D_bath block, which seems to be inordinately large for what it is, there may be more efficient ways to draw it without losing its essence.

Hope this helps.