Hi SW Forums

We currently have a few customers complaining that the Step-files we supply for them to import for layout purpose, is too big. Now the complaint has went all the way to direction-level.

The step file is typically around 300mb - it's made from an assembly with hundreds of components and a few sub assemblies - some of our parts have a lot of configurations (design tables), not of all of those is used in each asm, I'm unaware if these will affect size of step.

Some of the components are imported geometry from step files (e.g. compressors with multiple visible bolts and similar) used in our assemblies are heavy in details. Some of our imported geometry is surface (we simply don't have the time or experience to knit things together) - also unaware if this affects file size of exported step.

I'm trying to tell our salespeople and directors that a 300mb step made from a complete product, is very normal (I've worked past 3 years with similar size product and resulting size of step). But they cannot accept it, and actually compare filesize with Easm of similar product that only take up 10mb space.

In my opinion, step contains a lot of data, and with so many sub-components, 300mb should be acceptable.

Is there any way to reduce the size of step significantly? I've tried deselecting "Export face/edge properties" in the options during export, this did not affect file size, but reduced export time greatly (we normally use a standalone pc for export, because it can take hours).

Of course we could suppress most components, but that seems to be unacceptable - and we (engineering dept.) don't have much time for additional manual work.

Br, Martin