Paste surface file size too large

[Anonymous]

I am pasting together a topo surface and liDAR surface. Both files are less than 30mb but when I paste the surfaces together the file size climbs to over 1gb. The best I have managed to reduce the pasted surface to is 850mb with operation order changes and simplify. 

This is on Civil 3D 2018. Comp spec - Processor Intel Core i7 2.7ghz, 32gb RAM, 64gb Virtual Memory.

Any light on this matter would be much appreciated as I have hit a brick wall in trying to figure it out.

[AllenJessup]

It doesn't ring a bell with me. But it may help others if you include your software version and computer specs.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Hello,

check the contour intervals.

Lidar is usually 2 or 5 foot and survey is usually 1 foot.

If you changed the Lidar to a 1 foot contour interval . . .. .I could believe your file size would be huge.

after that check your contour weeding and smoothing settings.

good luck,

nonbeard13

[Anonymous]

Thanks very much for the tips.

By checking through those areas and creating a new surface from contours the surface got down to 100mb but still larger than I would expect it to be.

[Anonymous]

hello again,

the one thing about Lidar - the area is usually +/- one square mile.

do you really need all of that area?

Look at the drainage patterns that cross your site and then clip the lidar contours 100+ feet from the drainage areas and make a nice shaped figure.  

then add create your surface.

good luck,

nonbeard13

[Anonymous]

I have found that starting with a basic template, one without all the styles and associated overhead results is a much smaller EG file.  So it would be "No Template - Imperial" or Metric depending, then import only what is needed to create the surfaces, merge together, then shortcut the resulting composite surface, create a new drawing using the same "No Template - Imperial" short cut in the composite surface only, then use that file as your xref.

This procedure has resulted in much smaller EG files.

[copper.chadwick]

@Anonymous,

What a good question and with lots of variables and potential solutions. I see you're new here, and I'd like to say welcome to the Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D Forums! I saw lots of potential solutions provided. 

Please hit the Accept as Solution button if any post fully solves your issue or answers your question.​ Doing so helps those that have provided the answer and helps the whole community to gather knowledge by sharing the solutions when something has been proven to help. Thanks in advance!