One reason why your PDFs might be Huge

The difference between the 2 PDFs in this image? One fill

Left without vectorial fill = 12 KB. Right with vectorial fill = 1.6 MB.

This is one of those semi-secrets of ArchiCAD. 3D is better than 2D. We all know that. But more often than not, all the 3D elements take up less hard drive space than all the 2D ones. Stuff a project with tons of 2D details and watch what happens to your file size. I learned this by keeping tons of window manufacturers’ details in my template file. Yes on the larger scale, hard drive space is essentially free and unlimited. However from a memory and file performance standpoint, smaller files are still better. Cough cough. I’m looking at you Revit. And while I’m on this (not so brief) tangent, if you’re over 50 MB for a typical residential project, start paying attention to what might be causing your file to bloat. Anyone know the average file size for a typical medium or large project (beyond the scale of a large home)? Regardless of your project size if you have an ArchiCAD file that is approaching 1 GB, you are doing something wrong. Contact your trusted ArchiCAD Hero, mentor, trainer, or reseller and figure out what you’re doing. Because YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG.

Tangent Over

Now if for some reason you need to send smaller PDFs, before creating PDFs you can turn off all the fills via the Model Display Options rather than deleting the fills. By using the Override Fill Display settings, you’ll both save time and not obliterate data. Just save an MVO Combination with all the fills turned off (or just the ones you want). While fills associated with elements are automatically classified as cut or cover fills, when you place a 2D fill you can control what fill type it is (cut, cover, or drafting). I think most of us forget to classify 2D fills when we place them. Using Override Fill Display to show or hide fills will quickly remind you to pay attention. And paying attention is good practice because it’ll make other ways to mine the data in your project easier, more accurate, and more useful.

Here’s some advice on the BIM Engine blog regarding other PDF tricks that I recently learned about… while attending a User Group.

Thanks to Mattijs Walkot for sharing the image that spawned this post.

14 Responses to "One reason why your PDFs might be Huge"

Ken Huggins, AIA says:

August 15, 2012 at 8:31 am

Jared, this is an excellent point about fill bloat. Keep passing on the good stuff they don’t tell you in the manuals.

Reply
1. Jared Banks says:
  
  August 15, 2012 at 8:37 am
  
  Will do! Thanks.
  
  Reply
  1. Jared Banks says:
    
    August 15, 2012 at 8:37 am
    
    And… let me know if you have any great tips to share as well.
Djordje says:

August 15, 2012 at 12:06 pm

There is also an issue with placed images … ArchiCADs PDF generator does not compress them, so you should open the created PDF in Adobe Pro or some other application that can reprocess the PDF and reduce the size.

It is very easy to get fill happy in ArchiCAD, as it handles them efortlessly. Then try saving a PDF … or a DWG.

Another bloat factor are image fills (another topic, Jared?) I have a 200MB PDF with the floor layout, where each tile is an actual scan of an actual sample. Overkill? Naaah … But you need pro equipment to print it.

Details, worksheets and imported DWGs – if not cleaned up mostly of duplicates – are also great and efficient file bloaters.

On the other side of the fence, nothing bloats like the unruly families, you know, the ones that are soooo much easier to create than ArchiCADs lib parts? How easy is it to crash twice per hour?

Being nasty, I should stop. Our BIM brethren dont know better.

Reply
1. Jared Banks says:
  
  August 15, 2012 at 12:46 pm
  
  Great comments, Djordje. Have I ever told you that you’re one of my Heroes!
  
  I haven’t used the image fills much, but I think I will be doing some experimenting this fall in preparation for some talks I’m giving.
  200 MB PDF?! Yikes.
  
  We need to treat everyone kindly, but we’re not perfect, right? Did you see this: http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=207096#207096
  
  Very interest PDF about Understanding_Real_World_Hardware_Requirements_For_Revit, posted to that thread on August 15th. Worth a peek. And some amazement.
  
  Reply
s2art says:

August 15, 2012 at 4:13 pm

Another thing to watch out for regarding fills – I once had a simple site plan with a vectorial fill (“hexagonal” I think, from memory) to define a particular area. With the view placed at normal orientation the PDF file was fine. When I had to rotate the view on the layout to get it to fit a particular sheet size the PDF file became huge!
ps. I wondered why we hadn’t heard much from you lately, Djordje

Reply
Djordje says:

August 15, 2012 at 10:22 pm

Well …

… you all had more than enough of me for years, didn’t want to bore you all to death

Reply
Chris Grantham says:

August 16, 2012 at 9:43 am

“We need to treat everyone kindly, but we’re not perfect, right? Did you see this: http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=207096#207096”

16GB of RAM as a BENCH MARK!??

Thanks for the insight guys! File bloat is something we have been struggling with for the past several years.

Reply
Alan Cook says:

August 17, 2012 at 8:29 am

Jared,

I appreciate the tips about PDF size. Have you written anything more generally about managing the ArchiCAD file sizes? You say, “if you’re over 50 MB for a typical residential project, start paying attention to what might be causing your file to bloat. . . . Regardless of your project size if you have an ArchiCAD file that is approaching 1 GB, you are doing something wrong.” What are some common drivers for increasing file sizes- worksheets, large numbers of section cuts, etc?

Thanks,
Alan

Reply
1. Jared Banks says:
  
  August 17, 2012 at 8:37 am
  
  Alan, I haven’t yet written specifically about file sizes. But that’s a great topic. I’ve just added it to my ‘to write’ list, which to be honest sits around 150 started posts (some are just titles, some mostly written). I think though this will go to the top of the list, assuming I can find enough concrete things to write about! In general, a lot of size has to do with unnecessary clutter, overly clever templates (ie, putting way more than you need in), huge layout books, lots of 2D details, large amounts of external content (pdfs, jpgs, dwgs, etc.), non-gdl 3d party objects embedded into the file, etc. I’ll think more and try to write something in September. Glad you enjoyed the tips on the PDFs and thanks for the great suggestion!
  
  Reply
Grant says:

October 30, 2012 at 10:50 am

What about fonts ?

In Autocad for mac, when you use the mac’s native PDF save, it appears that it converts all the text rather than embedding the font or hoping the other computer has it (googling tells me this is a native OSX thing not CAD specific)
So all that lovely Arial text all over the drawing gets converted into outlines and fills which dramatically increases PDF file size.
In Autocad when I changed all the text to a .SHX font (isocp.shx) it dropped the PDF size down to a much more manageable size though it could be argued that they arent as pretty to a client.
Blank A1 page with nothing but title block = 400kb PDF (Arial fonts)
Blank A1 page with title block but fonts all changed to .SHX = 38kb
Full A1 page with plan/rcp/details and notes = 4mb PDF (Arial fonts)
Full A1 page with plan/rcp/details and notes = 900kb (.SHX font)

The file size difference is too big to ignore.

I question whether this also applies to Archicad ? Does it use the native OSX pdf creator which converts text to outlines and fills and therefore increases PDF size ?
Does Archicad have equivalent .SHX fonts to use ?
Would ponying up the $800 for Acrobat Pro make any difference in the way that fonts are handled in PDF’s ? (in my own experience with my work machine this doesnt seem to make much of a difference at all but I am open to comments)

Sorry for all the questions and digging this post back up from the grave.

Reply
1. Jared Banks says:
  
  October 30, 2012 at 11:11 am
  
  I did a few quick tests and ArchiCAD doesn’t suffer from this problem. An 8 1/2 x 11 sheet with one line of text was a few KB (say 15 KB). If I changed it to 30 lines of text it bulged to 16 KB. Font had a slight effect, but just another few KB.
  
  Reply
Alan Gillard says:

March 8, 2013 at 2:45 am

I’m fine with the 2D v 3D thing…but we use Archicad for publishing design and access statements – text, photos, plans, etc – its perfect but the file sizes are enormous even if we reduce image sizes before importing. Any ideas on controlling resolution?

Reply
1. Jared Banks says:
  
  March 8, 2013 at 9:21 am
  
  That’s a good question, but I don’t have a good answer. You could take the final files and then process them in another program. But I don’t know… I just tend to live with it and use large-file transfer services (that are free).
  
  Reply

The difference between the 2 PDFs in this image? One fill

Tangent Over

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