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dwg file size

dwg file size

dwg file size

(OP)
Just wondering what a reasonable size would be for a dwg file.
Ive got one at the moment about 20Mb, not causing me a problem but Im wondering is it too big for its brichess ?

RE: dwg file size

What sort of drawing? Building? 3-D model? Mechanical with GD&T?

I receive drawings from architects all the time that are 15- to 30 MB, and they have hundreds of layers with unintelligible names. I have to lay out electrical, controls, and some parts of air distribution. My computers are very fast and have very fast GPUs, so it's not noticably different from a small file.

I got a HUGE one once, 200 MB, and I had to work with it on a laptop for a few days while out of town. I wasn't drawing, I was doing a takeoff. I found that for most purposes, DraftSight was sufficient and probably 10X faster than AutoCAD in loading, rendering, and panning around. Another fast way for read-only work is to plot the drawing to a pdf, then load it with Foxit reader. That's even faster than DraftSight.

Most of mine that I do from scratch are much smaller, in the 20- to 100 kB range.

7-zip crunches a 20 MB file down to about 5 MB is storage is getting out of hand.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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RE: dwg file size

Save the drawing as a Wblock then explode it.

RE: dwg file size

Yes, many purges. Then many explodes. Then purges again. Then bind xrefs. Then purges again. Then manual deletion of many unused layers.

That takes some time, but I do it if I have to draw. If I'm just reviewing or taking off material quantities, I use the DraftSight or Foxit pdf reader methods.

Best to you,

Goober Dave

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