Hi there!I'm new to this forum, Just looking for help on an AutoCAD query!Background - I am an offshore surveyor and we use autocad in our software as background drawings for navigation purposes.We currently have a working file from autocad which is around 5meg - too large for our software to handle.  So we have been editing, purging and deleting and my file size is now 12 meg!!!  There is a lot of detail on this - i.e nuts and bolts on subsea structures - and we have literally just left outlines of these structures...still the file gets bigger.  I have exploded all the blocks and purged, reduced to data to just what we need to be working on (we would rather have it all due to there being lots of subsea assets)...again the file still gets bigger.Anyone have any Ideas on how to "solve" this unknown problem?Cheers

Check if there is hiden layers and get ride of some of the useless layers.
Try to save the drawing as latest ACAD version, if you save it as an earler version, the file size will be much larger.
Hope this helps.
 
Sean
http://www.autodwg.com/
 SeanFtS2009-06-08 08:41:59

Also try to purge possible excessive layer filters and annotation scales - see the Tips section.

[QUOTE=SeanFtS]Check if there is hiden layers and get ride of some of the useless layers.
Try to save the drawing as latest ACAD version, if you save it as an earler version, the file size will be much larger.
Hope this helps.[/QUOTE]
 
It does....untill we have to load it into our software - which for some unknown reason only takes 2000 or earlier!
 
I have managed to get it down to 1.3meg but thats in 2008 format......I have yet to save it in 2000 or earlier!!!
 
 

Different ACAD versions have different compression ratios, normally they are gradually increasing form the earlest to the latest, and it is definitely the compression ratios of future releases autocad will be much stronger.
If the draiwng file size is 5MB in AutoCAD 2008 version, and you purged and did everthing to reduce the size and saved it still into 2008, now check the file size, it will be much smallar, 4MB for instance and you succeed, you did a good job. It means if the original 5MB is in 2008, it must be larger than 5MB if saved as 2000 even if you just saveas it, it will be even larger if saved in 2000 version.
All is because of the different compression ratios of different AutoCAD versions.
blah blah...
 
Sean
http://www.autodwg.com/
 SeanFtS2009-06-08 08:42:21