Project data & BIM
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Reduce project file size

Anonymous
Not applicable
what are the ways i can reduce my project file size?

1)delete unused layers
2)delete unused favorites
3)delete unused materials
4)replace 3d trees with bitmaps

will the above methods help? if yes,
then what is the best method to identify & delete unused favorites,layers & materials?

thanks
22 REPLIES 22
Srinivas
Booster
You can purge unused fills, layers etc. through Attribute Manager

you can acess it via Options > Element Attributes > Attribute Manager.

Did you check the compress file option in the Save options dialog? What is your project file size?
2010-05-25_File_Size.png
ArchiCAD Services
ArchiCAD since v9 to latest
iMac, Windows 10
Anonymous
Not applicable
My file size is 28 mb.Will a compressed file help in faster generation of view?
Erika Epstein
Booster
Purging unused attributes, that should be a last resort. Your file is not that large.

What are your computer specs?
Erika
Architect, Consultant
MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch Yosemite 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Mac OSX 10.11.1
AC5-18
Onuma System

"Implementing Successful Building Information Modeling"
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
I'm with Erika: file isn't that big. Sounds more like an underpowered computer on the speed thing.

As for size, another option to reduce file size is to clear the checkbox for storing Navigator Preview data with the file - see attached.

Karl
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Karl Ottenstein
Moderator
And yet another save space thing is to clear the checkbox for "Store Drawing in the Project File" in the Drawing settings for each placed drawing (and the Tool itself for subsequent drawings). See attached.
Screen shot 2010-05-25 at 11.39.10 AM.png
One of the forum moderators
AC 27 USA and earlier   •   macOS Ventura 13.6.6, MacBook Pro M2 Max 12CPU/30GPU cores, 32GB
Anonymous
Not applicable
This sounds more like a question about the 3D model complexity than the base file size. The two are only very slightly related. You can have a tiny file that generates a huge model, and a small simple model with lots of detailed drawings can result in a large file.

If the model is too complex for the computer to manage whole you can use the marquee to reduce the extents of the model and layers to reduce how much of it is modeled. You can also reduce complexity by simplifying complex items like trees and such.
Anonymous
Not applicable
I find that layouts can make the file very heavy.

If there are unused/unnecessary layouts in the project, try deleting them.
Anonymous
Not applicable
"I find that layouts can make the file very heavy."
Are you sure it's the layouts, not excess images/pdf's placed on them?
Anyway that's the way it seems here.
lec
Anonymous
Not applicable
When I mentioned "layouts", I naturally meant having layouts with either views placed on them, or images (JPG/PDF/whatever).

Often during the working process, we may use layouts to set-up quick prints, and may forget about them after we have printed these layouts?