Large .ipn Drawing file

[timdown73]

Hi All,

I'm working on an installation drawing that has 11 sheets with about 15 views throughout and am wondering if it's normal for the .dwg file size to be so large, currently it's 92.5 mb. It contains views of an .ipn that's 2.8 mb and an .iam of the same assembly that's 1.4 mb. I have about 10 views in the .ipn file all with different representations to show the various steps of installation. I have attached a partial screen shot just to give an idea of what the steps look like on the .dwg. The .dwg file is working ok it just takes awhile to save and open because it's so large. Is it normal for .dwgs containing a .ipn to get this large or is there something else I should be doing to keep the file size from getting so large?

-Tim.

[Mark.Lancaster · Accepted solution]

@timdown73

Is all of the views shaded as well?

Anyhow what you describe will impact the performance of the drawing.   Break the drawing up into smaller chunks (meaning separate drawings hosting 1 or 2 sheets).

[timdown73]

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@Mark.Lancaster wrote:

@timdown73

Is all of the views shaded as well?

 Thanks for the quick reply!

Yes, all of the views are shaded.  I take it that impacts the file size?

If I break up the drawing my sheet count would be wrong - I know I could fake the count but...

Would Levels of detail instead of Design reps help keep the file size down? (I avoid using LODs because of the dreaded error you always get about link views or something like that).

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[swalton · Accepted solution]

I avoid LODs in drawings.  The primary cause is the save issue that you mentioned.  Each LOD instance that is shown on a print is an additional instance of the parent .iam file in memory.  This can add up.  I tend to use LODs to isolate a small portion of a large assembly file.

Do your views have to be shaded?  In the past, I found that shaded views slowed down drawing performance.  I typically build all the views and annotations with unshaded views, then shade them prior to printing/output.  If I have to make changes, I go through the drawing and unshaded the views, make the changes, then re-shade them.  I make sure to link the shading control of any child views to their parents so I minimize the number of views I have to edit.  It may be possible to use a bit of iLogic to improve this workflow. 

Is it possible to divide the large assembly into sub-assemblies, then detail the subs in separate drawings?

[timdown73]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I took your advice and unshaded the views; the drawing went from 95 mb to 29 mb. A big improvement! For clarity we want all of our views shaded on our installation drawing. I did not know that shaded views made such a difference. Thanks again guys.