Does anyone have any suggestions on how …
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to save out Solidworks assemblies to send out to customers? I am looking at saving them to a part file and then format as needed. The problem is that the file size is getting very large on some of these. Any suggestions would be great here!
cbergman, 
admin 7:39 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
Are you trying to keep some things away from the customer like the guts of a gearbox but want them to be able to use your mounting pattern?
I would start with stripping down the assembly to the bare minimum that the customer needs as far as 3d information. Next do like you said save this stripped down version as a part. Then use a zip utility like what is built into Windows, winzip, 7zip, winrar… there are a ton of compression utilities out there.
One other thing to note is that there is new pack and go functionality in the file menu to take a assembly bring it into one place and zip it up. I believe this works with parts as well.
cbergman 8:07 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
I am trying to have a simplified model. I have tried as you said to suppress all of the things that I don’t want to include and save it out. The problem is that some of these files are still pretty large (30MB). I was just seeing if anyone had a way to make these smaller without a ton of work.
admin 8:32 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
Ok, I will have to do some research (By research I mean for anyone watching to chime in) There were some utilities I remember that would strip out useless info from a solidworks file I cannot remember what it was called, it would help in sometimes 60% reduction in file size. Wait! it was called unfragment …. google… google…. google… got it! At Lennys site there is a section on unfragment. Lenny’s Web Page
Once you do that then zip and see what you get.
Also for large files I use Drop.io a free upload download site that is free up to 100mb files, you can password protect and it can be completely anonymous with added things like you get a fax number with the drop, you can make a webcast based off the files in the drop etc etc I highly recomend you check it out. Great service. But I digress you put the file there and send a link to the customer or on your webpage for people to download….
Hope that helps
brian 8:43 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
You can drag the end of part (EOP) marker up under the Origin and save and that should reduce the file size dramatically. This effectively reduces the file to its “DNA”. You will need to inform your customer that they will have to move it back down to rebuild the geometry. (I would be sure to test that everything rebuilds correctly before sending.)
This should be a good solution for you, depending on the number of very large files you have.
As Ben mentioned there are utilities for reducing file sizes, but I don’t know how useful they are now. SolidWorks supposedly changed the file structure a few versions or so back to remove a lot of the Windows shadow data that was bloating the files. It probably wouldn’t hurt to try them to see…
The utility I used to use was called EcoSqueeze (http://www.ecocom.com/eng/EcoSqueeze/ecosqueeze01.htm) and I always got pretty good results with that. Haven’t used it since SW2006 or so.
gol10dr 9:06 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
When you save as a part you can save as surfaces which will bring the file size way down. What are the parties that you are sharing the data with need off the solidmodel. If they are doing machining then sometimes shops would rather have the solid but it depends. If it is simply to be able to email them then services like Ben mentioned are great alternatives.
cbergman 9:20 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
Good information everyone! I guess I should have explained that I am trying to setup a way to save any of our models out to email or have downloaded off the web. I am sure that I will need several file types to offer and just want a starting point for them so they are all the same.
admin 9:24 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
I have found that for mechanical stuff that STL or IGES are the most universally compatible file formats (My opinion but no supporting facts) Try saving the models out as that format after what Lou said making surfaces out of the model and it will likely be the best bang for the buck
gol10dr 10:06 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
If you are sending out for machining, STL is probably not the best but STEP or Parasolid are probably the best. IGES (or I Guess) can have some issue with other programs due to different builds of the translator so repairing of models seems more common among IGES.
admin 10:21 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
Gahh when I wrote STL I meant STEP…
Lou is right thanks Lou
cbergman 11:10 am on May 22, 2009 Permalink
I will try this and see what I can come up with. Thanks everyone for your inputs!