I am converting a dgn file with lightweight polylines to an autocad file. The input dgn file has a size of 70 MB and when I am converting to a dwg the size becomes roughly 97 MB. The dng consists thus of lightweight polylines and during conversion to autocad there is automatically a z component in the autocad file. Based on the following page FME Creates Large AutoCAD DXF Files (safe.com) I included an autocad_original_entity_type attribute in the attributemanager with the following value autocad_lwpolyline . The size becomes then 95 MB. I would like to make the dwg much smaller, how can I make the file much smaller than 95 mb by changing somethign in the autocad writer or doing some kind of transformation.
+13- Safer
- 485 replies
Typically DGN files are more efficient than DWG files in terms of storage space. If you have a lot of cells/blocks, then that will increase the storage in the DWG file. You could potentially not explode the cells and then map them to DWG blocks. Additionally, I recommend taking a look at the Curvefitter transformer which can reduce the amount of line segments to reduce file sizes.
Hope this helps!
+15- Enthusiast
- 88 replies
Typically DGN files are more efficient than DWG files in terms of storage space. If you have a lot of cells/blocks, then that will increase the storage in the DWG file. You could potentially not explode the cells and then map them to DWG blocks. Additionally, I recommend taking a look at the Curvefitter transformer which can reduce the amount of line segments to reduce file sizes.
Hope this helps!
The first option with not exploding and mapping them to autocad blocks, I have done beforehand (which thus results in a file size of 95). In regards to the CurveFitter I tried using the CurveFitter, but for some reason the file size became bigger (140 mb). It might have something to do with the default settings. I didn't change the default values. Do you know by any chance if there certain attributes that I can change that have a tremendous effect on the file size, while not changing the geometry at the same time?
Myself, I managed with the Generalizer transformer when using the thin no point algorithm and with a tolerance of 0.001 to bring down the file size from 95 to 90. I have a feeling that it will be difficult to bring the file size more down without changing the geometry of the lines. 😅
+13- Safer
- 485 replies
The first option with not exploding and mapping them to autocad blocks, I have done beforehand (which thus results in a file size of 95). In regards to the CurveFitter I tried using the CurveFitter, but for some reason the file size became bigger (140 mb). It might have something to do with the default settings. I didn't change the default values. Do you know by any chance if there certain attributes that I can change that have a tremendous effect on the file size, while not changing the geometry at the same time?
Myself, I managed with the Generalizer transformer when using the thin no point algorithm and with a tolerance of 0.001 to bring down the file size from 95 to 90. I have a feeling that it will be difficult to bring the file size more down without changing the geometry of the lines. 😅
@joy Great trick with the Generalizer to reduce your file size a bit! It might be a struggle to reduce the file size even more since we can expect that DWG files will be a bit bulkier than the original DGN file as the format is not as efficient. I'd be interested in taking a look at your workspace/data to test out the Curvefitter if you're able to share those with us. If you'd like to share them properly you can upload them to our Safe Support FTP.
I'm surprised the Curvefitter increased your file size by so much. We also have some example documentation on how to setup the Curvefitter for different scenarios, which may help: https://docs.safe.com/fme/html/FME_Desktop_Documentation/FME_Transformers/Understanding_the_Curvefitter.htm
I suggest taking a look under the 'More Compression Please' header and see if this helps reduce the file size at all.