Reduce file size after deleting elements

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to reduce the file size of a DGN file that contains the city of Toronto. I need to create smaller separate files in order to import them in another software. I was able to delete elements and keep only a small fraction of the model but the filesize stills the same...

Could you help me?

Thank you!

  • Might be best if you are responding to queries that are off topic to send a private message. This may be interesting to some people but the post was placed in the MicroStation forums to answer specific questions.

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

  • Unknown said:

    Lorys, I think talking about the cost of storage is going a little off subject here.

    Not really as Gerad made the  following statement  and I was responding to it not the  original post.

    quote "...... it is probably one of the huge perpetual sources of income for the digital storage hardware industry "

    Plus I enjoyed showing the contrast between the technology costs  from less than 25 years ago... most youngens  have no idea of what it was like for us users in late 80's

    We needed to compress whole network ( clix/ unix)  directories daily to stop IT departments moving folders around to make more room .. in my instance messing up reference  paths....

     

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • Lorys, I think talking about the cost of storage is going a little off subject here.

    What Phil says is correct in that once you delete elements in a design file they are not marked as deleted but are immediately removed which should reduce the file size straight away.

    Compressing the file will get rid of any unnecessary details within a file but only if this information is no longer required.

    I think the better option would be to reduce the file size by extracting only the required detail out to a separate file using the FENCE FILE command.

    FENCE FILE (FF=)

    Used to copy the contents of a fence to a new DGN file.

    Using a Key-in to Copy the Contents of a Fence to a New DGN File

    1. In the Key-in window, key in FENCE FILE or FF=.
    2. The Save Fence Contents As dialog opens.
    3. Key in the name of the new file and set the directory in which it is to be created.
    4. Click OK.
    5. Accept the copy.

    Regards
    Andrew Bell
    Technical Support
    Bentley Systems

  • but it has gotten cheaper and  cheaper..

    My flash or thumb drive 16Gb cost me $15 ( 2014)  my first  hard drive ( amiga Scusi late 1980's)  300Mb cost me  $300  we used to get  $15 /hr pay in late 1980's

    Today internal 3 Tb hdrive  cost <$150  yes servers space is a little more but per Mb its tiny ( 0.005cents /Mb= 15000c/3000x1000 Mb)

    just using the thumb drive  16gb is approx 1/2 hour pay  so 16000Mb  for 1/2  ( or 32,000 Mb /1 hours pay, )  old drive  300Mb for 20 hours pay = 15Mb for 1 hr pay

    so 32000/15 = 2133 times cheaper  mb for mb today  or another way  if you could buy todays 16Gb drive back in the 80s with 80's 'money  
    $1/Mb would have been $16000  ( but in todays money  would still be $4000... yet today  it costs only $15 or  9 cents / Mb in todays money for thumb drive)

    or if 3 Tb intern HD equivalent was  in 1980s  tech and money even then at $1/Mb  would be  $3 million  or  $12 million in todays money not $150 (0.005cents/Mb) which also shows thumb drives are very expensive per mb compared with HDs

    so today storage space is so cheap today who cares about space...  so much that a lot of my  friends now have refurbished  their old slow laptops instead of getting new faster ones have opted to put small solid state hds for windows and programs to load on and get  very big improved performance... I'm thinking of doing the same on my desktop...

    Lorys

    Started msnt work 1990 - Retired  Nov 2022 ( oh boy am I old )

    But was long time user V8iss10 (8.11.09.919) dabbler CE  update 16 (10.16.00.80) 

    MicroStation user since 1990 Melbourne Australia.
    click link to PM me 

  • The common way of "creating" new files by copying existing files and deleting the not required content (opposite to creating new files from "clean" templates/seeds) causes - also probably with the most software packages - in a lot of burden regarding filesize, bandwidth and ultimately time wasted. On the positive ;) side it is probably one of the huge perpetual sources of income for the digital storage hardware industry...