topic Re: File Size - what is normal? in Modeling

File Size - what is normal?

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 02:35:37 GMT

Trying to figure out what a reasonable file size is for a single family home structure fully modeled with furniture and plants. I currently have a model that is 250MB in size. Seems large...
I created a few objects from low polygon Sketchup models, such as furniture, bamboo, etc etc. and suspect that those objects are contributing to the file size.
Is there a way to find out what is contributing to the file size and what should be reasonable for a detailed, modeled single family home?

Thx,
Marc

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Stress Co_ — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 02:53:26 GMT

I'm not 100% sure this will answer your question..., but download the "Polycount" tool.

Archicad Downloads (from the help menu)> Add ons> Goodies

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Anonymous — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 03:21:38 GMT

A recent discussion was started IN THIS THREAD

I'm not sure that model (polygon) size is the main factor. I have a renovation project with a fully modelled house, roof coverings, renovation filters, 24 A3 size layouts (plus leftover layouts from template) and the file size is 195MB. Whereas another project with NO model, some large images and only 8 relevant layouts (plus those leftover from template waiting for future use) and the file is 371MB

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Zoltan Fuchs — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 10:04:02 GMT

My experiences for the file size:
-large images and/or pdf greatly increase the size. AC store the original image in pln
-layout book with detailed drawings could increase size as well (especially using consultant DWGs)

If you want to find the problematic area try :
-delete all images from project and save. Watch the size after save
-publish all the placed drawings to PMK and se the size of PMKs

Anyway don't bother about file size, my biggest pln size is 1.7GB (without compression) and works well.

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Erwin Edel — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 12:46:36 GMT

Interesting read: http://blog.graphisoftus.com/archicad-education/tips-and-tricks/understanding-what-contributes-to-archicad-file-size

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Feb 2016 15:47:29 GMT

Erwin;
Thx very much for posting the link to the blog post. Very insightful ! Everyone should read this. I just found out why my file sizes are so large... too many layouts!

Marc

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 08:48:31 GMT

Thanks Erwin.

Re: File Size - what is normal?

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:50:10 GMT

Aside from obviously valid point of the bigger building taking up more disk space, it all comes down to:

1. Generic ArchiCAD template organization. (Useless items saved in templates, especially commercially marketed ones, are a HUGE size hog). I know I am about to start a flame war here, but my template — is a blank file.
2. Large images attached. (People, nowadays, completely lost track of what digital image is or was. Everybody is so spoiled by the amount of hard drive space and RAM, that it is hard to find a person who knows the functional difference between GIF, PNG, JPG, TIFF or BMP image formats/compressions and why/how you should use one or another).
3. Unconsolidated 2D drawings from consultants included directly into an ArchiCAD project file.
4. PDF files added directly to the ArchiCAD project file.
5. Unnecessarily complex meshing. (This was touched on above by Marc Corney, and yes, Polycount is an excellent goodie).

This is about it.

p.s. By the way, it has nothing to do with the amount of items inside the project if all the items are the same parametric object. You can have a million columns or walls and still have a small project file, as only a few variables would be stored for each instance on an object.