Problem exporting a design to STL

[Desertrunner]

Not sure if everyone is aware there is a filament material called PolyCast. so you can do a design export it to a printer. print then send to the foundry. This will massively speed up pro typing.
My problem
I have Alibre Design V22,
The 3D software I use is Ideamaker,
When I export the below file to STL I some times can get it into the IdeaMaker software but it is so large the software crashes, (500 meg). I have trried the suggested setting in a different thread and it didn't work. I only can assume the issue is the Lofting.
Given that we were planing on doing Engine blocks etc this way I hope you guys can offer some advise.

 

[MikeHenry]

What do you have set for Units, Faceting Parameters, Surface Deviation, and Maximum Cell Size in your STL export dialog box? Making the middle two parameters too small can drastically increase the STL files size and the time it takes to prepare the file for export.

 

[Desertrunner]

was mm, 0.5, default, default
Now mm, 0.75, default, default which reduced the file size in half but the Ideamaker could load and save the file just couldn't slice it as it ran out of memory

 

[Desertrunner]

I have taken your advise Mike and cut it back, what worked was mm, 1.25, default, default. even the Ideamaker managed to complete the job with support added.

 

[DavidJ]

Binary rather than ASCII also cuts file size. Most (but not all) slicing software will accept Binary files.

 

[bigseb]

was mm, 0.5, default, default
Now mm, 0.75, default, default which reduced the file size in half but the Ideamaker could load and save the file just couldn't slice it as it ran out of memory

Just gotta ask so its been asked... x86 or x64?

 

[Desertrunner]

64

 

[bigseb]

Can you upload a screeshot of your export settings?

 

[bigseb]

I only can assume the issue is the Lofting.

Its not. The fact that these are tubes simply means there is a lot more surface area (a bad thing with triangle files). this is all about fettling the export settings.

I assume the polycast print will be packed and then melt away during casting? If so an alternative would be to print in sections and glue together.

 

[Desertrunner]

I have got it sorted now but yes I can when I go to the computer that has Alibre. I need to get all the bugs sorted as we want to get to the point of printing prototype 4 pot cylinder heads as well as later doing whole 8 cylinder engine blocks.