Reducing the size of drawing files

Solidworks files seem to balloon every time you save it - lots of empty space. I use a program called UNFRAG and it gets rid of the empty spaces. Haven't had any problems with the files either.

I second that. I use Unfrag many time a day. Have for years without problems. It nearly cuts the file sizes in half. It's really neat to Unfrag the entire engineering drive and see that you actually gained 4 gig of free space. I did that when I first started using it.

Back to the point. I have found in the past that section views seem to bloat the file size the most. I have only recently started using shaded views in my drawings. They too seem to bloat the file size an astronomic amount. So I would say it is a toss-up between these 2 drawing features that might make the difference.

In addition to Unfrag, I would also recommend EcoSqueeze. Couldn't tell you the diff, except to say that I heard somewhere that SW doesn't recommend Unfrag anymore.

Try them both and see which one you like better.

HTH, Muggs

I've noticed if you do a "saveas" with a new name, the file is much smaller. This is just with standard solidworks. I then use windows delete the original and rename the smaller file as the original file if used in an assembly. I believe one of the things which is not saved with the newly named file is no preview of multiple configurations, just the current one.

Hope this helps!

Keith

Cheers Keith!

Tried doing as 'save as' this morning and the file size reduced from 29 to 9 Mb!

Thanks,

Actually, SW is paranoid about EcoSqueeze too. Apparently there is some possibility that bad things could happen when you throw out the duplicated data, although I have never heard of anyone actually having a problem. It might also be possible that SW could use the duplicated data to help out when you send them a problem file, but I think that might be an urban myth.

EcoSqueeze is nice because it doesn't change the time stamp on your part. It also gives you some additional ways to reduce the file size, such as removing the preview display, removing the pixel data, and removing all of the parasolid data.

Jerry Steiger Tripod Data Systems "take the garbage out, dear"

Just opened an assembly that I've been working on which is 3600kb in size (per windows explorer). After a "save as" it drops to 876kb and stay there when opened. After saving the "save as" it pops back up to

1756kb and seems happy there after several open and closes. Bottom line is the save as technique works.

Thanks aga> I've noticed if you do a "saveas" with a new name, the file is much smaller.

Actually the problem is not SW but rather within M$. SW is M$ compatiable so M$ puts information into the file. That information balloons the file and it continues to grow. There isn't much you can do about it, other then don't save Edrawing data in the file - Tools\Options - Option

Just curious - being a user since 97plus, file size has always had this issue. And each version seems to get worse. Has anyone ever submitted an enhancement request on this? Say, an option to auto-compact filesize built into Solidworks? I mean, I know hard drives are pretty big these days, but backups often still require limited media capacity.

Can we perhaps rally this into a multi-user group enhancement request?

Mark

It has been discussed in this group and went no where. (not to say it couldn't go somewhere) And, there was a company or two which sold a add-on for just this purpose but I don't remember who they were?

As was mentioned, it's mainly the M$ format SW uses which includes redundant information but it also is the result of saved 2d/3d graphical data. There are settings which you can change in your prt files or templates which will help reduce the file size, such as turning off,.. Save Tessellation with part document Save eDrawings data in SolidWorks document

Matt Lombard has a Tools/Options settings which suggest good settings.

Otherwise, as you probably know, EcoSqueeze (I still use it, no problems) is probably one of the best utilities for reducing the bloat in prt/drw/asm's, as well, M$ doc's. ..

Qwerx wrote:

Ecosqueeze it with the caveat that if it becomes corrupt (Ecosqueeze of course won't corrupt it) there won't be the shadow information necessary for SW to reconstruct the document.

I had some programs that allowed UG to work with compressed files ..... and a cron (like a batch file, sort of, but set to execute at times) job that compressed files that had not been accessed for X days. Compressed, gzipped, zipoed, etc. IIRC "Compact" had a bug (at least on HP-UX 9) that caused it to fail or produce corrupt files if they were over X MB in size to begin with.