File size

I just saw a very simple design explode to 27MB and would like to understand why.

It's a simple injection molded plastic spacer.

Flat rectangular extrusion, about 0.150in thick, 2 in x 14 in. About sixty holes. Rounded rectangles. Point driven pattern with sketch located in a different part file. Shelled to 0.050in A dozen ribs added. Drafted to 1 degree.

That's it. 27MB.

I used Ecosqueeze and got it down to 13MB. Still, how is this possible?

-Martin

Reply to
m
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What version?

Reply to
Chris

Martin,

SW 2007 2.2 and prior (and even 2006) had issues. Saving would bloat file sizes. Problem was mostly fixed in SP3.0 of 2007. Upgrade to

2007 SP4.0 (but not to SP5.0) if you haven't done so already. Or just install 2008.

Also, Ecoqueeze works to skrink file size as they are stored on the harddrive. File size will bloat back up when the file is again saved within SolidWorks. Ecosqueeze is mostly good if you are archiving files or emailing them.

Matt Lorono

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Reply to
fcsuper

just curious -why not sp5?

Reply to
neil

Sorry.

2007 SP2.2

-Martin

Reply to
m

I guess I may have found a reason to install my 2008 disk.

Why not SP5.0?

-Martin

Reply to
m

Martin,

To understand Ecosqueeze and SolidWorks files you have to get your head around a couple of important concepts. SW, like Word, Excel and many other applications uses a technology called structured storage for it's files. MicroSoft uses structured storage to implement OLE, the ability to embed the output of one application in another. In a nutshell, what structured storage does is to create a file that acts like a mini-hard drive with files and folders implemented inside the file. In this way an Excel spreadsheet can be embedded into a Word document or another Excel spreadsheet or a SW document. The second thing you have to get your head around is that a SW document is made up of several parts that can to a certain extent be treated independently. The feature tree is one such part. The solid body (parasolid) is another. The display list is another and so on.

Taking these two things together you come to some conclusions:

  1. Just like a hard drive, a structured storage file can become fragmented.
  2. Because there are several streams of SW information put into a file that are independent of one another that information can be left out of the file without destroying the intent of the model.

The part of the SW model that is always needed is the feature tree information. The parasolid is not needed because it can be reconstructed. The display list likewise is not needed because it can be reconstructed. So Ecosqueeze will remove the solids and the display list if told to do so leaving only the feature tree and some other bits. When you have configurations and the model has lots of solid bodies stored to represent each configuration the space saving can be huge.

So, why have this extra information in the SW file if it is not needed? It is needed for a couple reasons. One is performance. If the solid body is up to date it doesn't need a rebuild to use it. If you need to make a drawing, that works off the solid body, not the part feature tree so again you don't have to reconstruct it.

So a utility like Ecosqueeze is good for archiving and for prepping files to be sent over limited bandwidth networks like email. It used to be a lot more important when a 5GB hard drive was considered a big drive.

In addition SW has, over the years added more and more information to their files to the point where a 100 mb part file might be the fare of the day for many people.

I hope this helps you understand the concepts a little better. You can search the NG. In the past there was a lot of discussion of this topic.

TOP

BTW, it is probably the multitude of small holes that drives up your file size. Suppress them and see what happens. Also, do a SaveAs and see what happens.

m wrote:

Reply to
TOP

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