#R3 DXF Prob.
4 messages in this thread
If anyone could help w/ this….. I am using R3 on a system w/ 32MB
RAM and have never had any problems, even with huge models, etc..
However, w/ R3 and DXF imports, I've been having a strange problem:
With DXF files generally < 250k or so, no problems – converts in a
couple of minutes. But if the DXF file is > 250k or so, the converter
never gets to the welding phase (OR I give up after 20-30 minutes) –
OR – I get an error mssg. indicating not enough memory. After
checking memory stat's, only a fraction of the 32MB has been used. It
happens, no matter how objects are derived. I have tried to determine
if this "250k barrier" is really the problem, and all I can say is
that a 370k file of the same object(s) as a <250k (saved at greater
resolution), causes the error mssg. OR causes me to give up after a
long wait (there is still disk activity though, not hung apparently).
I'm sure that I have converted much larger DXF files than this with
previous versions of the software.
This info was derived from tests. The ACTUAL files I need to convert
are 1-4 MB in size each. Is it possible a DXF < 1MB could take > 30
minutes ? What about the error messages ? Any ideas or suggestions or
comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Bill – MEDIA MAGIC
If you're trying to import huge files by entity, and you've got
thousands of entities, it could theoretically take a huge amount of
time to process. What option are you using?
>> Is it possible a DXF < 1MB could take > 30 minutes ? What about
the error messages ?
Yes, it's possible, especially if you have a lot of blocks. A customer
of ours had a drawing with several hundred ballusters in it, and
dozens of other blocks that were each inserted several times, and it
brought a 48meg system to its knees! AutoCAD only stores one
definition of each block, but when they are opened from the file, all
these multiples become actual instances, and the opened size can
easily be very many times the size of the original model. Your best
bet is to simplify the original model, or break it into different
parts that can later be merged in 3DS.
This is why I've always thought it's a good idea to save your AutoCAD
DXF file *after* you've exploded all the blocks in the drawing. It
gives some idea of the complexity of the drawing.
Far too often, a drawing passes from engineer to engineer, from client
to 3D artist, and no one has a clear idea of what's in the file, in
terms of blocks, entities, etc. If you tell the client to explode
everything, and it turns into a 30 meg DXF, then they'll have some
notion of how difficult it will be to animate.