Materials not purging properly

[nishin.rohini]

Hi

I have purged, saved and closed the drawing, but when drawing is opened again the the materials are showing in the purge screen again. i have repeated the purge several times, but when drawings is opened it shows the materials. also the file size doesn't change a single bit after doing the purge on materials.

the same happens when i add a xref file. the material are back when i add or reload the xref's

can anyone specify why its happening.

[S.Faris]

Maybe the file is corrupted : How to repair corrupt AutoCAD files

[imadHabash]

make sure that those materials are NOT used . 

[s.borello · Accepted solution]

Have you verified that these materials are not in use?  Have you performed an audit on the drawing?

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

are you working with Vanilla AutoCAD or with a vertical like AutoCAD Architecture or Autodesk Civil 3D or something like that? Because then materials might be assigned via styles.

In case you are only using Vanilla AutoCAD and you don't have objects from verticals you might try command -EXPORTTOAUTOCAD to create a new drawing from your current one, and that is as clean as possible.

- alfred -

[leahs6ALC9]

I know this is an old thread, but I've been having the same problem for a while now and just came across a solution today.

It turned out that one of my XREF's contained materials in the styles component of Civil 3D. In order to delete them I used PURGESTYLES (to remove unused styles) then PURGE (to remove the materials). Purging styles was a simple matter in my XREF as I wasn't using any so I just removed them all. If you need to keep any of the styles, simply uncheck the box next to them.

Hopefully this helps someone. It's been bugging me for ages!

[pendean]

---

@leahs6ALC9 wrote:

I know this is an old thread, but I've been having the same problem for a while now and just came across a solution today.

It turned out that one of my XREF's contained materials in the styles component of Civil 3D. In order to delete them I used PURGESTYLES (to remove unused styles) then PURGE (to remove the materials). Purging styles was a simple matter in my XREF as I wasn't using any so I just removed them all. If you need to keep any of the styles, simply uncheck the box next to them.

Hopefully this helps someone. It's been bugging me for ages!

---

Nice tip. Thanks for sharing.

[cadffm]

Nice tip. Thanks for sharing.

but not for AutoCAD, where we are (AutoCAD Forum)

In your case it was a (C3D)Style as Alfred pointed to years ago,

good to know.

[leahs6ALC9]

Ahh, yes. I didn't check which forum I was in. I found the thread via a Google search. I suppose it's still useful to know if any AutoCAD users also have access to Civil 3D. The materials that were in my XREF are the default materials in one of the Civil 3D templates, which possibly suggests that the original poster may have had a DWG created using a Civil 3D template. If that's the case, it seems interesting that they still show up in vanilla AutoCAD.

[wwuN4PXR]

Is it possible to use 'PURGESTYLES' within AutoCAD? My AutoCAD file (DWG) size increased itself, I had to purge it for the redundant 'MATERIAL' manually after every opening and closing. Thanks.

[leahs6ALC9]

Hmm. I believe style purging is only available in Civil 3D and AutoCAD Architecture. 

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ARCHDESK/2024/ENU/?guid=GUID-59B4853A-D6B1-4116-8BD0-2D7327A9F62A

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/How-to-purge-unuse...

If you have a colleague with one of these programs, you could have them purge the styles.

Does your file decrease in size after purging the material?

[wwuN4PXR]

Hi Leahs6ALC9,

Yes, my file decreased greatly in size after purging the material manually.

WIlliam

[leahs6ALC9]

Interesting. Given that you said the DWG size "increased itself", I wonder if someone else has accessed your file and saved changes. The material that you're purging would have to have come from somewhere. I'm not sure if that's something you can find out, but it would be useful to look into. They might be able to remove the material on their end.

[wwuN4PXR]

Hi leahs6ALC9,

When I opened a DWG file, simply modified something few, saved it, and the file size increased to around 35MB. If I purged the 'Material' and saved again, the file size decrease to around 2MB. Thanks.

William

[leahs6ALC9]

This is probably one of those situations where it would be useful to see the DWG ourselves. Post it here if you can (assuming there's no issue with confidentiality).

Alternatively, have a look at this thread on file size increases:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/autocad-file-size-increases-with-each-save/td-p/7194729

There's also an Autodesk Support page you can take a look at:

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCAD-DWG-files-...

[wwuN4PXR]

Hi leahs6ALC9,

I will hide some information in the DWG and post it here. Hope that the issue will be recognized. Thanks lots.

William

[wwuN4PXR]

Hi leahs6ALC9,

I tried to make my DWG to post here by Bind option of XREF. However, after Binging, the DWG file size didn't increase largely. The situation changed so I couldn't post it here for recognizing the issue. Thanks lots.

William