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Thread: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

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    Default 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    Thank you for looking at my thread, and thanks in advance to any who may be able to help me.

    We started a large project using 2005 ABS. This is an Electrical project, with Electric, Lighting, Fire Alarm, Access Control, Etc.. A few months ago we switched to 2008 MEP. We have noticed a problem with this project (that we haven't seen with any of our smaller projects). We have a Master Electrical file that contains our Electrical Circuit Database. All of our Model files X-Ref in this Master Electrical file. Our Model files were all about 300-700K when we first converted to 2008. Our ME file was about 1.5M. All that we have been doing to this project since a couple of months before the switch is Design Memo changes, add an outlet here, remove a light there. Nothing major. After a few weeks of working in 2008 we noticed that the drawings were taking a really long time to load and save. I looked into it and found that our Model files had all grown to 6-8M and our Master Electrical file was over 14M. After purging and auditing the ME file, I was able to get it down to 8M. Then when I would open and save a Model file it woudl shrink down to about 3M. I'm not sure what is causing this exponetial file growth, or what I can do to reduce the size. I can't wblock out the ME file because then we lose all of the Circuiting information. I can wblock out each of the model files and the will reduce their size back to about 500-700K. Until I open them once and save them. As soon as I save them, the file size grows back to about 3M.

    Does anybody have any ideas?

    Thanks

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    Super Moderator david_peterson's Avatar
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    Default Re: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    Well to start congrats on your first post.
    Not sure if how much help I'll be, but here's a 2 cent suggestion.
    First off, start by cleaning all the drawings that are x-reffed into the ME drawing and any drawing that was x-reffed into those. Note that if you use the purge command from he dialog box, you will not get the option to remove reg apps. Use the -purge command and choose R for Reg app. You may also want to check for "duplicate" blocks. Those things you can't see, but somehow may get into your drawings and start to duplicate themselves. I seem to remember someone else having a issue similar to this were every time he saved the file, the size would about double. I'll stress that I'd test this on a copy before doing it to the originals. This has the potential to screw stuff up, but is usually Ok.

    Once you have all of those Parent & grand parent drawings cleaned, you can move on to the ME drawing. Do the same process.

    You can also check for layer filters, but these should have all been deleted by now assuming you've ever gone into the layer dialog box.

    Just some thoughts.

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    Super Moderator dkoch's Avatar
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    Default Re: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    Totally wild stab in the dark here, so my apologies if it is not the issue. In 2008, are you saving proxygraphics with the file? (PROXYGRAPHICS is set to 1, rather than 0.) That can baloon the size of a file, so if you do not have downstream users that need to have proxy graphics shown, you may want to check the value of PROXYGRAPHICS and, if 1, see if setting it to 0 helps any with your file size.

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    Default Re: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    Thanks Dave,

    I hadn't thought of purging the Regapps. that shrunk the file a little bit, but they are still huge. All the other things, I've already tried on these drawings, including the layer filters. I really appreciate your help.

    Thank you very much,
    Daniel Moritz

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    Default Re: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    David,

    Actually, I hadn't thought about the proxygraphics. They are alwasy supposed to be set to 0 here, so I didn't even think twice about them. I just checked and they are set to 0, so that didn't make a differance, but it was something I hadn't thought of checking. I really appreciate your help.

    Thank you very much,
    Daniel Moritz

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    Super Moderator david_peterson's Avatar
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    Default Re: 2008 MEP File Size Growing Larger

    Something else that you can try to do is to always save the drawing in a 2d flat un-shaded view. Also if you have the split screen model space viewports up, that will increase file size. Saving in any 3d view will create a file size bigger than the same drawing saved in a 2d flat top view.
    Just another thought.

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