Assembly file is large in 1.4Gig what is the config option

[rrich]

What is the config option that causes part files to be stored internal to the .asm file. We have an assembly.asm that is 1.4Gig as stored It should be much much smaller as it should only be a meta data file pointing to all the parts and how they are located, not how they are mathematically made up. I am just drawing a blank.

save_model_display may be what I want but I really think it was something else.

Ron

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[aakolkar]

Hi Ron,
I understand you are looking for a config option but was wondering if Simplified Representation can help you in this scenario.

Thanks,
Amol


Amol S. Akolkar
PhD Student-PLM Lab
COT-Computer Graphics Technology
Purdue University, West Lafayette-IN

[dandersonjr]

Are you sure there are none of the following:

1) features in the assembly that are copy geom of one or more parts (not in the
parts)?
2) features that are imported at the assembly level (not in the parts)
3) and I forgot what the third one was that can add to the file size

Hope this helps,
Don Anderson

[rrich]

All,

Well it is not 100% solved yet but I have learned a few other things. First I miss represented the file size. It is 1.14 Gig not 1.4 Gig. Second it may be tied into windchill somehow. I open the assembly and then do a backup and boom it creates all my files in a new directory totaling 1.108Gig with 40 something parts. With the main.asm only at 400K this is exactly what I would expect. However some of my parts are 100-150Meg in size which is odd, (more on that later)

I can take the 1.14G file from windchill local cache and rename it then open it outside of WC in a directory and it will recreate every one of the parts in session. This takes some time. And this is what I would like to try and stop. I believe this is a windchill defense mechanism and may not be able to be changed so we will try and control file size by the information below in the interim.

Further inspection of the suspects I found some strange things. I have a part when backed up it created a 143Meg part file, same file backed up on a different machine makes a 3.4Meg file. Some searching we discovered that the computer that made the 143Meg part file had the shade_quality set to 50 the other had it set to 3. This scale use to only go to 10 and I did not think it ever effected the size of a save file. Tested further leaving the shade_quality set to 50 and changing save_model_display to wireframe reduced the file down to 1.7Meg.

HUGE NOTE: To keep file sizes down keep your shade_quality at 3 or less or better yet set your save_model_dispay to wireframe and leave your quality were ever you want it. This will solve 99 percent of my problem. I do not see any downside to this as of yet. This setting took my 1.1Gig of items in the directory down to a mere 23Meg after applying this setting and saving.

So this means I can control some form of my problem but I still need to work on the 1.14 gig file that is in the windchill local file directory. It is there along with all of the other parts so I am using 2.28gig of hard drive to store my assembly locally. And this was crazy slow to bring across from our server. Imagine transferring 2.28 gig from Oregon to Ohio. Just to change a color of a part. (not that we would normally do this but it could happen)


No there are no assembly features causing the file size build up.

Ron

[TomU]

Did you ever find a solution?

I recently did some testing on single part file size and was blown away by the impact of "save_model_display" coupled with "shade_quality". Parts could go from less than 1 MB to over 46 MB just by changing these two values. I have not had a chance yet to test the effect on assemblies. Below is part of whatI posted over on the PTC community.

---

I just finished extensive testing of several different model display settings and their effect on file size using WF5 M120, WF5 M160 and Creo 2 M050. Here is a summary.

• "Shade Small Surfaces" no effect on file size.
• 
  
• "Edge Quality" has some effect on file size.
• 
  
• "Shade Quality" has a
  

• 
  
• WF5 M120 & M160
  
  • 
    
  • "shading_low", "shading_high", and "shading_lod" all create the same size files.
  • 
    
  • Basically the "low" and "high" versions seem broken are track to display settings instead.
  • 
    
  • Setting "save_model_display" to "wireframe" works as documented and creates consistently small files.
  • 
    
  
  
• 
  
• Creo 2 M050
  
  • 
    
  • "shading_low" seems to be working correctly now. File size is small and consistent regardless of display settings.
  • 
    
  • "shading_high" seems still broken since the files sizes sizes change with different display settings.
  • 
    
  • Setting "save_model_display" to "wireframe" works as documented and creates consistently small files.
  • 
    
  
  
• 
  

I have attached a PDF copy of the test data. What becomes quickly apparent is that, depending on config and display settings, file size can range from less than 1 MB to over 46 MB for the exact same file.

Something else that may not be obvious. If "save_model_display" is set to wireframe, when the file is previewed in Pro/e or opened in Product View (Creo View) it will only be visible in wireframe mode. If the file was saved with "save_model_display" set to anything else, then preview and Product View can display the model all four ways (shaded, no hidden, hidden, and wireframe). Also, the active display mode when the file is saved has no bearing on what is stored in the file.

[rrich]

We have edited our master config.pro to add - Setting "save_model_display" to "wireframe" that way the shade value has no effect on file size.

Funny how the shade quality when it was limited to 10 (WF4) had no file size effect. But now ptc must own a hard drive manufacture and they are using this as a revenue stream. Make big files, fill up drives, sell more drives, this is what is in there companies financial plan.

Ron