Revit Project Size

[ChristinaB]

My projects are around 20MB....is this normal? I know most servers can except up to about 5MB. How do we get around e-mailing Revit files of this size? Do we need to have an FTP site, or is there a way to compress/reduce file size? Help!

[aaronrumple]

We email PDF's not Revit projects... Sometimes DWG's. I'd never let a Revit project out of the office. Too much embeded knowledge to give to the client.

[luigi]

Projects of that size CAN be normal. There are ways of making it smaller, like purging the contents. You can zip it, but it won't zip too much.

On a side note, are you emailing it to yourself, or to somebody that is working at home? Different servers have different limitations on sizes, so the 5MB isn't a specific number.....for example in my current hotmail I can receive an email up to 10MB, at my previous home I don't think I had a limit, because I remember receiving very large emails (but maybe not higher than 14MB )

[MikeJarosz]

Before we broke the building into 3 parts, the Freedom Tower was over 100mb. Things slowed down, but we got our work done.

Before you get excited about 100mb, keep in mind it replaced over 40,000 Ac*d files that totalled much, much more.

[hand471037]

We email PDF's not Revit projects... Sometimes DWG's. I'd never let a Revit project out of the office. Too much embeded knowledge to give to the client.

well, not for free anyways ;)

[sfaust]

it replaced over 40,000 Ac*d files
:shock: yikes

[Scott D Davis]

it replaced over 40,000 Ac*d files that totalled much, much more.
Let's just estimate each DWG averaged 1/2 Meg.....that's still 20,000 MB (20 Gigs) worth of AutoCAD files! All that is now in one 100MB file!

[FK]

There are tools that will let you slice a file up and put it back together. If you want to e-mail files, use GMail, but you'll get better mileage by renting space on a server or using a p2p tool. Buzzsaw is an option too. ;-)

[dnilsson]

Before we broke the building into 3 parts, the Freedom Tower was over 100mb. Things slowed down, but we got our work done.

Before you get excited about 100mb, keep in mind it replaced over 40,000 Ac*d files that totalled much, much more.

My current project is about 115mb. Probably way to much detail modeled in the early stages. But we've been working on it for well over a year now (started it in 5.1) so I guess if it was any smaller it would say something about our productivity.

[Mr Spot]

Before we broke the building into 3 parts, the Freedom Tower was over 100mb. Things slowed down, but we got our work done.

Before you get excited about 100mb, keep in mind it replaced over 40,000 Ac*d files that totalled much, much more.
Wow i can't believe the file size is only around 100MB, we had a file at around 160MB and the building was a fraction of the size. I have found though, that file size seems to be directly proportional to the number of views of the model...

[Scott D Davis]

Buzzsaw is an option too. ;)

Yeah, you'd better offer that, since you are a part of La Familia now!

[Cathy Hadley]

I use a great FTP site.. www.xdrive.com

only 9.95 a month... well worth it.

CZH

[FK]

Another (free!) option: YouSendIt (http://yousendit.com). Up to 1 GB files.

[Wes Macaulay]

Wow i can't believe the file size is only around 100MB, we had a file at around 160MB and the building was a fraction of the size. I have found though, that file size seems to be directly proportional to the number of views of the model...Really? I haven't found any connection there... I have found that the greater number and greater complexity of objects in the model seems to have the greatest effect on file size...

[Mr Spot]

Well i discovered it the other day when reducing a file so it could be sent to support. I actually deleted the top 5 levels and it made no difference to the file size whatsoever... I tried refreshing explorer and copying the file to make sure it wasn't just windows incorrectly reporting the file size, however it made no difference... I then began deleting views and it was only then the file size began to change...

[gravelin]

.../ I actually deleted the top 5 levels and it made no difference to the file size /...
J'ai remarqué cela aussi.
Je procède maintenant ainsi
1- Fermer toutes les vues sauf une
2- purger le projet
3- Enregistrer
4- fermer le projet
5- puis fermer revit
Si je ne respecte pas cet ordre (surtout 3-4-5),
La taille du fichier ne diminue pas.

I noticed that too.
I proceed now thus
1 To close all the view except one
2 to purge project
3 To save the project
4 to close project
5 then to close Revit
If I do not respect this order (especially 3-4-5),
the size of the file does not decrease.

[rookwood]

On the subject of revit File sizes, why are Revit backup files 2 - 3 times larger than the original file size.

I use a laptop exclusively, since I travel a great deal, so file management has become a critical issue since I began using Revit recently. With an 80G HD, I have gone from 25G free space to 5G in the last 4 weeks and I've only been working in Revit. Just this past weekend I learned the value of retaining the backup files.

I am looking to replace my current Dell Inspiron 8500 (I've had three Dell Inspirons and I can't say enough positive about both Dell quality and service). I am leaning towards is the Dell Inspiron Extreme XPS at a cost of $6,000. I would get the 7200 RPM hard drive but it is currently limited to 60G, so I need to be cognisent of my usage and remain diligent with file management. I've noticed an extreme drop in performance as my free HD space quickly diminishes.

[Bim Man]

alot of the size comes from what is in your project. if you are done, purge out what you are not using. i have a template file for our residential use which has everything i need in it. so when i start a new project i do not have to load families in. this does make a for large file it is around 18 megs. but when the project is finished and i purge out everything i did not use it goes down to around 10 to 12 megs depending on the size of the project. when we transfer docs to venders they are pdf or dwg. thus doing away with any size of file limitation. but if we are transfer back and forth to ourselves at home or outsorcing we use an ftp site.

hope this helps

Pete

[hand471037]

Also keep in mind that imported Raster Images and Captured Renderings add a lot to the file size.

Also keep in mind when you delete an imported Image, it's still in your project until you purge.

[MikeJarosz]

The Freedom Tower is now three files that can be linked to appear "whole". When we reached 100mb, we realized we still had a long, long way to go. So Waltham convinced us to break it up. This helped in more ways than one. We can have 20 people banging away at 3 files instead of 20 people banging away at one file.

The 40,000 files was not an exaggeration. I numbered them, just for fun. You UNIX guys out there can try:

ls -R "*.*" | nl (from the root directory).

[cadkiller]

My projects are around 20MB....is this normal? I know most servers can except up to about 5MB. How do we get around e-mailing Revit files of this size? Do we need to have an FTP site, or is there a way to compress/reduce file size? Help!
Chris;

You can upload the project to a web site and send them a link and they can download it from there.

[Wes Macaulay]

The Freedom Tower is now three files that can be linked to appear "whole". When we reached 100mb, we realized we still had a long, long way to go. So Waltham convinced us to break it up. This helped in more ways than one. We can have 20 people banging away at 3 files instead of 20 people banging away at one file.And if the packages are going to be tendered separately (so drawings from one package won't be needed in another) then it really does make sense.

I always appreciate hearing the details you hand out, Mike. Helps us little people who only get to do little projects... you know, like world-class convention centers that can handle 5,000 guests :razz:

Large files are no big deal. I was talking to one of my clients today who told me that his Form-Z files were often 150Mb. Just buy extra RAM chips...