purging and file size

[sami]

My project is still in schematic design (attached image); the file is currently 40MB
After purging the file size barely changed. I have no raster images, no imported DWG line work (well, very little)
Shouldn’t my file size dramatically decrease after purging?

What house-cleaning measures should I be doing other than purging to maintain a small file size?

[patricks]

You can also do Compact File, but that just keeps file size low when it's not in use. While open it will inflate back up again.

[Dwane Lindsey]

Shouldn’t my file size dramatically decrease after purging?
Not necessarily. Since you are early on in the design process, you probably haven't accumulated too many families in the project. So purging mainly the wall types and such isn't going to affect your file size greatly. And, a 40MB file size is not that large considering your dealing with a 30+ story building (from the looks of it).


What house-cleaning measures should I be doing other than purging to maintain a small file size?
Check to see if you have any warnings in the project and take care of them if you do. Are you using Design Options? If so, they take up space since there is that much more geometry in the project. And until you accept an option and delete the other(s), your file size won't go down.

[sami]

Thanks for the replies. I just noticed that if I “save as” to a new file name the size automatically drops from 40 to 28 MB!
Somehow when it does a “save as” it consolidates things better than with a regular purge.

On a side note I have always used this trick to make PDF files smaller; that is if you create a PDF file and then you want to make it smaller you can simply open it with Acrobat professional and do a save as, you don’t need to change any compression settings.

[dhurtubise]

Are you using worksets? If so there's a compact file option when doing a Save to Central for the File menu.

[Dwane Lindsey]

Are you using worksets? If so there's a compact file option when doing a Save to Central for the File menu.

To go a little further with a file that is using worksets...when opening the central file, check the "Detach from central" box and essentially re-create your central file. !!Make sure everyone has saved to central (and relinquished) and closed out of their local files before doing this!! Once the central is re-created, then everyone MUST re-create their local file. The more local files that are made, the larger the central file becomes.

And if your not using worksets yet on this project...good info for the future :)

[dhurtubise]

To go a little further with a file that is using worksets...when opening the central file, check the "Detach from central" box and essentially re-create your central file. !!Make sure everyone has saved to central (and relinquished) and closed out of their local files before doing this!! Once the central is re-created, then everyone MUST re-create their local file. The more local files that are made, the larger the central file becomes.

And if your not using worksets yet on this project...good info for the future :)
There really is no need to recreate the central file

[Dwane Lindsey]

There really is no need to recreate the central file

Understand, but detaching the central does decrease the file size. By re-creating, I really mean save the detached file over the existing central file.

[dhurtubise]

It's the same process as compacting it.

[sami]

I am not using work sets, also when I do a "save as" the "compact File (slow)" button is unchecked.

thanks for all the input..

[dhurtubise]

I am not using work sets, also when I do a "save as" the "compact File (slow)" button is unchecked.

thanks for all the input..
It's greyed out because you aren't using Worksets. Then you can use the save as option and overwrite the file.
I strongly suggest that you look into worksets though

[patricks]

Everything that has been mentioned here all uses the Compact File function. When you detach from Central and save a new file, or do a Save As and save as a different file name, Compact File is automatically used.

There is really no need to save different files or new files. If the file is not in worksets, then do a Save As, turn on Compact File, and just keep the same file name.