File Bloat?

Michael,

The size doubling is a result of using the MS file format. It's called a compound file and has something to do with OLE functionality.

There are a couple of utilities for stripping the redundant data from SW files. One of these is Ecosqueeze

This is what we use, and we haven't experienced any problems as a result. SW Corp. discourages using it, don't really know why.

Use at your own risk. your milage may vary.

Regards

Mark

If your part contains several configurations, my best guess ist that the increase in filesize is pure useless bitmap information which SWX03 ->

creates when you activate your configurations. Apparently these configuration specific preview bitmaps are intended for Add-ins like PDM-works etc... but like most of the 'new fancy features' it ends up effecting SWX performance... which isn't so great to start with....

You can actually check if my assumptions are right by closing your part, use open command to browse your part and check the preview window and the configuration window beneath it. If you get different preview images when selecting a new configuration then SWX has obviously saved these pictures to your file, and thus the bigger file size. By doing a SaveAs SWX will erase these configuration specific preview bitmaps, which you also should be able to check in the same way...

I've contacted my VAR and according to him, today there is no way to prevent SWX from saveing these preview images when you activate your configurations... only thing that works is doing a SaveAs afterwards... I've made an enhancement request at SWX-homepage (-> I think configuration specific bitmap previews should be optional) and I hope that anyone else reading this will do the same...

And NO: Unfrag won't remove these conf. specific bitmaps. Apparently the newest Ecosqeeze version should be able to do this but I've made tests and the decrease in filesize is not nearly as good as when doing a SaveAs...

One might say that storage space is cheap, BUT:

At my work we use different kind of prefabricated parts like "Hollow section.sldprt" which ususally consists of ~100 configurations (different tube sizes). I'd say we have about 50 different parts like this "Hollow section.sldprt" an we copy them to the project we are working in, renaming them and perhaps changes the length or ad some drilled holes etc... In SWX01 the filesize was 355kb but after saving it with SWX03 it had bloated to

4,6Mb.... Normally we have 100-200 parts originating from these prefabricated parts in one project and doing a little math shows how much more storage space (>400Mb) we'd need for IMO useless bitmap information.... Keep in mind we save our work over a network connection so every increase in filesize will have an effect on performance...

so.... if you also feel that the raw performance (not the fancy features and widgets but loading and saveing time +filesize) of SWX is constantly decreasing please make an enhancement request to SWX-corp that bitmap previews should be optional...

KimSky

functionality.

Exactly right. Office-compatible documents use this 'storage' to store not only the properties you see when right-clicking, say, an Excel file while in windows explorer, but sometimes more. With the case of Solidworks, it is much more.

Its not just the preview bitmaps, but previews from older versions of SW, feature create/modification information, and even a parasolid model for each configuration.

The 'squeeze' programs will remove a lot of this stuff, especially if it is 'dead' info: information related to deleted features/configurations, paths, etc, but once you re-save the document, SW will put some of the data back in.