We value your input!
Please participate in Archicad 28 Home Screen and Tooltips/Quick Tutorials survey

Documentation
About Archicad's documenting tools, views, model filtering, layouts, publishing, etc.

Bloated files: How to fix

Aurasphere
Expert

I noticed this project had been creeping up in file size but was so busy i ignored it.

Then when I was republishing I noticed a layout was missing and I def didnt delete it.

I realise you are meant to only link large bitmap images but in the heat of deadline I forgot to link them back out after placing...

Now the file size is over 450mg for a pretty simple house!

So I stripped out all the data, images, model etc...ie its empty and its still 81mg vs 20mg for a clean start file...

 

Where do you start with sorting this out?

 

Operating system used: Windows

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

20 REPLIES 20
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin

Here is a method you can try:

 

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Modeling/Awful-performance/m-p/610734/highlight/true#M172363

Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27

Thanks Laszlo

 

Shrunk it a bit 381mg>315 but this is still hugely bigger than it should be. Poly check at full 3d is pretty modest and nearly all of the bitmaps are linked. There is 

 

Aurasphere_0-1720397879430.png

 

I sttripped out all layout book and then all 3d geometry and the fill size is still 222mg with nothing in the file

I thern stripped out all stories, elevations, 3d etc ie it has nothing in it

vs

A clean template file of 20mg

Clean No LB = No layout book

Clean No LB No Model is all 3d removed

Clean stripped = everything stripped out of file

Clean template = new Australian Select Template

 

I then also used the clean template and reimported all the attributes from the working file and the file size dropped further to 18mg...this is what I would expect.

 

Previously typical sizes for a model of this type are around 40-50mg max

 

Aurasphere_1-1720398566264.png

 

And I still have these anomalies with bits of geometry disappearing when marquee vs normal F3 etc.

 

Cant actually work like this 😞

 

 

BTW; Whilst you can multi select almost everything in project treat for multiple deletion...all legacy listings cannot...I did not remove these because there are a lot with the attached libs bringing in their own

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Anything in the embedded library?

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

It said 5.5mg in embed lib but when I removed, it took file size down from 83 to 55mg...but still a long way off as its literally a shell

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

Any worksheets with imported documents from other parties clogging up your file ?

AC8.1 - AC28 ARM AUS + CI Tools
Apple Mac Studio M1 Max Chip 10C CPU
24C GPU 7.8TF 32GB RAM OS Sequoia

As mentioned...even with everything stripped out ie there is stuff going on

 

Aurasphere_0-1720416779467.png

 

 

 

 

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

There are lots of places extra information can hide, but I am not sure how much file size they make up - probably not much.

Classifications a Properties.

Graphic Overrides.

Renovation Filters

Favourites

Master layouts

Project info

Complex profiles

 

Probably a few other places as well.

Lots of attributes?

 

One thing I did find in our files that increased file size (30GB in our case) was 3D documents view points.

It might be only when you have an actual 3D model, I am not sure.

Some seem to have little impact on file size but one that was create for a top view shadow diagram added 30GB to our file.

 

Maybe also try the 'Open & Repair' option when you open the file from the FILE menu.

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

Thanks Barry

 

Needle in a haystack and Im just not paid to bugfix esp the asking price for AC in Australia. It can be a great tool...
c&P is only slightly larger than out of box atm

Graphic overrides are rough atm as Im doing a new template and its not very friendly for ogranising

Aurasphere_0-1720419451620.png

 

Reno...out of box...I dont use them atm

Favs a hand ful atm

Master layouts; about 4

Project info...really??? its text

 

Already tried repair on open

 

Anyway. 

Appreciate your efforts

 

This particular thing caused (not entirely but it put the nail in the coffin) of 55 seats quite a number of years ago at a major architect in sydney...large job, teams all working 24 hours with lots of hlm and the master file started bloating then it collapsed and days of work was lost. No real help from the Aus vendor and that was the end of that...of course they went to that other package. 

 

 

Mark Wesse
AC26 | Win10 | Since v6.5r
Architerion - Architectural Systems Developer
Aurasphere - Acoustics
Building Biology - Human Compatible Architecture
"--- Every time...do it better ---"

I am sure your computer specifications would be adequate because you don’t need to be too big just for residential houses. 

This link shows the minimum specifications even though the graphics need to be bumped up with redshift rendering.

 

https://graphisoft.com/resources-and-support/system-requirements

 

I am sure that other package would have a big list of things that customers are not happy with. That’s just the nature of CAD software as it develops. We can take it back to zero megabytes with a drawing board 😆.

AC8.1 - AC28 ARM AUS + CI Tools
Apple Mac Studio M1 Max Chip 10C CPU
24C GPU 7.8TF 32GB RAM OS Sequoia

Setup info provided by author