Stencil file size

[Peter J]

We have created stencils from Autocad files from some suppliers. They are
nice looking but are very slow when trying edit them in any way. Is there a
way to easily modify the Autocad files to simplify them without removing
detail to decrease the files size associated with the stencils? Are there
attirbutes or underlying details that can be deleted?

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Peter,

A few questions for you:

When you say stencils, do you mean you've actually created .vss files rather
than straight diagrams (.vsd)?

How many Masters does your stencil contain and what is the size of the file?

Also, what version of Visio are you working with?

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[Paul Herber]

On Tue, 6 Nov 2007 08:51:03 -0800, Peter J <Peter

We have created stencils from Autocad files from some suppliers. They are
nice looking but are very slow when trying edit them in any way. Is there a
way to easily modify the Autocad files to simplify them without removing
detail to decrease the files size associated with the stencils? Are there
attirbutes or underlying details that can be deleted?

Hi Peter, the Autocad converted to Visio shapes that I've worked with
in the past have tended to be very complex. Ideal for zooming in to
very fine detail, e.g. a close up view of a control panel dial showing
each digit and 0-100 gradation exactly and zooming out to show a whole
control panel. But this complexity in Visio shapes creates very large
objects. What sort of size are the stencil files (in kilobytes) and
how many shapes?

 

[Peter J]

John,

They are the .vss files. They are getting rather large, approximately 750k
each. When you copy them multiple times on a drawing, the size of our .vsd
files is getting to nearly 10M when you include all the other data.

I am using Visio Professional 2003. If there are benefits to 2007, I will
have to see if we can all get upgraded.

Peter

 

[Peter J]

Paul,

The individual stencils or shapes are 500k to 750k. They are of electrical
panel components and can be complex, such as for I/O cards, relays, etc.
Some of them, such as GE I/O cards, etc are made of multiple little pieces,
lines, etc. You are correct, if you zoom in, the detail is great, but we are
paying a price in terms of memory and sluggishness.

I was hoping for a quick-fix so that we can still base our parts on Autocad
drawings from vendors but that doesn't seem feasible right now.

Peter

 

[Paul Herber]

Paul,

The individual stencils or shapes are 500k to 750k. They are of electrical
panel components and can be complex, such as for I/O cards, relays, etc.
Some of them, such as GE I/O cards, etc are made of multiple little pieces,
lines, etc. You are correct, if you zoom in, the detail is great, but we are
paying a price in terms of memory and sluggishness.

I was hoping for a quick-fix so that we can still base our parts on Autocad
drawings from vendors but that doesn't seem feasible right now.

Unless Autocad can save in a less detailed format ....

But, I would take a guess that 10-15 minutes work with each shape
could reduce its complexity by a large amount, maybe a factor of 10.
You might find that worth while.
On the other hand, it has give me an idea ...

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Peter,

2007 has many benefits, but I think you'd be unlikely to see any size
reduction in moving from 2003 to 2007.

My assumption is that the import process makes extravagant use of geometry
sections and or grouping, but I'd be happy to take a look a sample shape if
you like to send one over:

FirstName
AddADotInTheMiddle
LastName
@visualsignals.co.uk

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

The problem is not that the information is too detailed, it is that it is
not rendered efficiently. The conversion tends to create very primative
shapes. What appears as a box will in fact be four shapes representing the
four sides.

The file size can be used by using some of the Visio operations to join the
many component shapes into fewer shapes, but it can be time consuming.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm

 

[Paul Herber]

Paul,

The individual stencils or shapes are 500k to 750k. They are of electrical
panel components and can be complex, such as for I/O cards, relays, etc.
Some of them, such as GE I/O cards, etc are made of multiple little pieces,
lines, etc. You are correct, if you zoom in, the detail is great, but we are
paying a price in terms of memory and sluggishness.

I was hoping for a quick-fix so that we can still base our parts on Autocad
drawings from vendors but that doesn't seem feasible right now.

Right, I have a quick fix you can try out.
http://www.visio-utilities.sandrila.co.uk/

and in the new menu
Shapes -> Remove small details from shape

I've tried it on some shapes imported from diagrams of control panels
from AutoCad and it reduced the file size by a factor of 5.

 

[Peter J]

Paul,

This utility might be the ticket. I have tried it and can reduce the file
size by 3x to 5x and still have reasonable quality graphics.

John,

I will look into Autocad to see if there is a utility available there too.
These were made by others and I don't have Autocad personally, so I'll have
to get more help here.

Thanks to you both for you help!!

Peter

 

[Michel LAPLANE \(MVP\)]

I'm a bit late, i arrive after the battle but :
i have made a converter of my own that is more efficient than the visio
converter. It also can use DWG 2007 format.
what can be useful for you is that we have noticed for some drawing that the
size of the file could be 50% smaller than the same file obtained with visio
native converter. If you want i can try for one of your file.
It has also an interesting feature of filtering block that have more than x
entities (x can be changed by the user).

You can contact me on my personal email.

Enjoy with visio.