Drawing file size is huge - contains a lot of contours.

[john.8317]

I need some help. I have a drawing file that is a site plan. The site is a 40 acre site. The size of this file is around 30,000k and has several xrefs in it. The problem isn't in the xrefs it is in the contours. I isolated the contours and wblocked them out to it's own cad file. The contours are splined polylines. How can I reduce this file size so it's e-mailable.

I am using ADT 3.3 AutoCAD

[Opie]

How big was the wblock of the contours? Do you know how many layer filters you have in these drawings?

I would think that it would be a layer filter issue. You might try this thread (Huge file sizes) and follow any links within.

[Wanderer]

I need some help. I have a drawing file that is a site plan. The site is a 40 acre site. The size of this file is around 30,000k and has several xrefs in it. The problem isn't in the xrefs it is in the contours. I isolated the contours and wblocked them out to it's own cad file. The contours are splined polylines. How can I reduce this file size so it's e-mailable.

I am using ADT 3.3 AutoCADIs sending it as a DWF an option?
I have some files that just have so many entities that even with all the purging/deleting/etc of unnecessary items, they are still too big to email (my outgoing limit is 4mb, and I easily reach that with most of my drawings, so I either mail a cd or a different file type).

[john.8317]

I am not sure if a DWF would be an option. We have sub-contractors that request working cad files. We send them the entire set of DWGs that coorelate with the sheet they need. If they need Sheet C-406 then we send that sheet along with the xrefs that are attached. The only thing that is causing the file size to be huge is the massive amount of contours. I really don't think that layer filters is an issue either. I am talking about 40+ acres of contours. They are all splined polylines. 2 layers. 1 C-topo-xist 2 c-topo-new

There are many points along one pline. That I feel can make a file size bigger. I just need to find a way reduce things down without re drawing.

John

[Opie]

But how many filters do you have for layers? What if you only send the contours to those that need them?

I know how big a 40+ acre site is. I just completed a 20 acre site of existing and design contours. My file size was not big at all. The design dwg was a little over 2 MB.

[jaberwok]

Hi John.
As you say, a lot of (splined) polylines with a lot a vertices is always going to produce a large file.
It may be worth trying this -
Saveas to DXF. Archive to ZIP or RAR or similar.
As an example - the "Stadium North Elevation" sample drawing is 2 608 kb. As a DXF file it is 14 570 kb. ZIPped it is 1 984 kb and RARred it is 1 296 kb.
The actual degree of saving in size will vary with different geometry types.

[ccowgill]

try using overkill (on the command line), an express tool (delete duplicate objects in the express menu), make sure peditaccept is set to 0, sometimes overkill wont work when it is 1. it will optimize the polylines

convert the splines to plines, I'm not sure of the process, I didnt write it down. it has something to do with flattening the spline the problem is it introduces a large number of verticies which increase file size.

[tyeelaw13]

the reason the drawing is probably so large is because the contours have 3 dimensional characteristics to them. You might want to do a search for a flatten lisp, and isolate the contours, and flatten them (unless they need the 3d contours to remain 3d). It sometimes takes a few run throughs to get all the lines to flatten down. If that doesn't work, you might need to trace over the contours, and then set those lines back to a delta Z of 0".

Hope this helps!

[jaberwok]

Why would z values have much impact on file size? Each contour would be a plane figure, just at different elevations.

:confused:

[tyeelaw13]

depending on how the contours were drawn, when points and projections are used in a drawing, they typically take up a lot more memory. It's more than just the 3d aspects that take up the memory. I just know that we have an older plotter, and if anyone tries to run a site plan through it, it locks up because the graphics and the size of the drawing make the plotter freak out. If i flatten the drawing, it will plot fine.

[dcochrane757156]

This option might not be a possibility but if you explode your polylines the file size will shrink considerably

[jaberwok]

depending on how the contours were drawn, when points and projections are used in a drawing, they typically take up a lot more memory. It's more than just the 3d aspects that take up the memory. I just know that we have an older plotter, and if anyone tries to run a site plan through it, it locks up because the graphics and the size of the drawing make the plotter freak out. If i flatten the drawing, it will plot fine.


Hmm. Odd.

[scott.wilcox]

Why would z values have much impact on file size? Each contour would be a plane figure, just at different elevations.

:confused:
Lots of programs make contours as 3D polylines, even though the plines are at the same elevation. This does make for mush larger files. When contours are turned to splines, the files get even larger.

If you have Map, you can clean up the 3D polylines to optimized polylines. To get rid of the splines, I think you can save to DXF R12, and import back into AutoCAD. If you had the DTM data or TIN, you could regenerate the contours.

There is a product called GeoTools by Four Dimensions Technologies that have some handy cleanup routines. It's free for a month, and may be worth a look.

Scott

[jaberwok]

Lots of programs make contours as 3D polylines, even though the plines are at the same elevation.

A bit poinless really (for the user).
After all, a contour that isn't planar isn't going to be a lot use.

[Hammer.John.J]

This option might not be a possibility but if you explode your polylines the file size will shrink considerably

don't do that! weed contour verticies through the terrain model explorer you can determine the spacing of the nodes on polylines or contours with this command.

terrain->contourutilities->weed contour verticies

it's like removing nodes from contours, you can cut the files size by 1/100 if there are millions of nodes on 1000's of contours!

[Hammer.John.J]

the reason the drawing is probably so large is because the contours have 3 dimensional characteristics to them. You might want to do a search for a flatten lisp, and isolate the contours, and flatten them (unless they need the 3d contours to remain 3d). It sometimes takes a few run throughs to get all the lines to flatten down. If that doesn't work, you might need to trace over the contours, and then set those lines back to a delta Z of 0".

Hope this helps!

the 3d polyline yes, would be an issue, a 2d polyline with an elevation has zero impact on file size, it is no different have a pl on elevation 0 or 340 for example. LDT has tools to fix 3d contours...

terrain->3d polylines->convert 3dpolylines to 2d

[jamie.casile80054]

I am not sure if a DWF would be an option. We have sub-contractors that request working cad files. We send them the entire set of DWGs that coorelate with the sheet they need. If they need Sheet C-406 then we send that sheet along with the xrefs that are attached. The only thing that is causing the file size to be huge is the massive amount of contours. I really don't think that layer filters is an issue either. I am talking about 40+ acres of contours. They are all splined polylines. 2 layers. 1 C-topo-xist 2 c-topo-new

There are many points along one pline. That I feel can make a file size bigger. I just need to find a way reduce things down without re drawing.

John
hi john,
i'm not sure if you ever got an answer to your issue. But I receive a lot of site plans that I use simply as a "background". There are a few things that help reduce the file size... the layer filter. i dump them all. of course audit and purge everything, and then flatten. in most cases this works. although, i change my viewres to something low like 10. and i flatten in parts.
hope this helps.
aloha,
jamie

[sinc]

hi john,
There are a few things that help reduce the file size... the layer filter. i dump them all. of course audit and purge everything, and then flatten. in most cases this works. although, i change my viewres to something low like 10. and i flatten in parts.
hope this helps.
aloha,
jamie

Viewres doesn't affect file size. Neither does flatten.

But don't forget the stupid REGAPPS (2005 and later). They don't get purged by PURGE ALL. You must run the command line version ("-PURGE"), and specifically purge the Regapps. I regularly purge 10,000 or more of the things. They keep coming back, so it's necessary to purge them all right before you archive something or send it off. I'm not really sure where they all come from, or what they do, because purging them doesn't seem to change anything, but they are truly annoying.

[jamie.casile80054]

Viewres doesn't affect file size. Neither does flatten.

you're right. viewres doesn't reduce file size, but it helps on regen and opening. the flatten on the other hand, does help for me. (the elimination of 3d stuff in the file reduces my file sizes.)
regards,
jamie