making a cad file smaller

[fresh]

hello ladies, im trying to make a dxf file that is 171kb smaller so i can send it to a mac which doesnt seem to want to open this large file!

is there anyway i can do this (using 2008)

cheers

chris

[Alan Cullen]

try purging it before you write it out to a dxf.

171 kb is pretty small to start with.

[Hedgehog]

1st stage... purge it... 2nd stage... zip it.

Make sure you purge all of the unused blocks, dim & text styles off the drawing. Zipping modern CAD files doesn't compress them half as much as it used to 'cos they've become more efficient in the way they save now. You can use progs such as Winrar or Winzip to do this.

[mahahaavaaha]

Hi,

what program are you trying to open the file with in the Mac? And how does the "too big" feature come about? Any errors etc.? Maybe the program doesn't like your coordinate values? Try scaling the drawing way down and then opening. 171 kB isn't really that big... actually rather small.

/Petr

[fresh]

trying to open it in freehand but it keeps coming up with file to big...... i dunno maybe the computers busted or something.

thanks

[mahahaavaaha]

Try the scalingsuggestion and in addition when saving the dxf, do it using the ENTITIES only option...

/Petri

[Alan Cullen]

I don't believe rescaling will affect it at all. Try selecting all text, using FILTER, and changing all text to "standard", then purge all text styles. See if that reduces the file size, but backup first. I don't know that there is much more can be done to reduce it below 171 kb. Short of bringing it in a series of small blocks.

Try blocking out a very small part of the drawing, then writing that out to dxf, and see if your software will accept thast small dxf file.

[CADken]

hello ladies, im trying to make a dxf file that is 171kb smaller so i can send it to a mac which doesnt seem to want to open this large file!

is there anyway i can do this (using 2008)

cheers

chris

you mean the MAC can't open the file in an email? if not, then host the file on www.box.net

[SLW210]

_WBLOCK it out or Copy and Paste into a new drawing.

[Cad64]

Could it be that the actual drawing itself is too large to be opened in Freehand? Have you tried scaling the drawing entities down, as was suggested before? I seriously doubt that the program is having trouble with a 171kb file size.

[mahahaavaaha]

Hi,

also make sure that you are saving as r12 dxf as Freehand probably won't take in anything newer. (Check that the $ACADVER value in the DXF-file is AC1009)

/Petri

[chrisdarmanin]

maybe you could try to remove the layer filters...