Large file size for small part

[waltermcleod]

Hello all,
I've created a thin panel 148 x 56 mm with extruded text on it. The file size is over 22Mb and causes slowing down of my system when I open the assembly and detail drawing it is part of. I noticed too that Alibre is using nearly 1Gb of memory even when I only open 1 detail drawing. Any ideas what might cause this?
Thanks,

 

[DavidJ]

If you have edited the file a lot over time - file size can grow. You can get rid of 'excess baggage' by exporting as alibre.stp then re-importing (you'll still have the design tree).

Another point, make sure you close Alibre completely between sessions - the memory is only fully released when the program (including the home window) is closed. If you leave the home window open between sessions the memory used can accumulate.

 

[waltermcleod]

Thanks for the reply David.
I tried the export/import but the file is still the same size. I wonder if it's the text font I've used, Arial. Maybe Alibre breaks the characters up into lines and arcs to extrude them.

I learned very quickly to close and re-open Alibre on a regular basis, bit of a pain really but I do it whenever I leave my machine, coffee lunch etc...

 

[NateLiquidGravity]

See this recent topic on file size. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10605

To sum it up Alibre saves the model geometry parametrically and also a 3d mesh for preview purposes. If you roll back the design tree to the first part before saving or encapsulate the part in a cube then the mesh data is much smaller. This is only really a benefit when transferring files between computers.

 

[BernardK]

I have noticed that extruded text dramatically increases file size and affects performance. You could suppress the text feature when editing to recover performance. To check the file size, save a copy of the part and delete the text feature in the copy.