File Size Issues

[hughecchapman]

I am working on a large model of a 300m x 300m urban area:

A fair few elements are blocks (and blocks within blocks).The furniture in this pub garden for example -

I’m running Rhino 7 on a decent Windows PC - system info below.

The file size is now ~520MB and I’m experiencing issues:

• Rhino is generally running slow. I’m used to having this issue with this kind of large, complex model.

• I’m having issues importing/inserting some blocks, specifically mesh low poly people. I can still import nurbs geometry, but the low poly mesh people blocks are not visible when I import/insert them, nor can I select them, although the layer they are on does appear in my layers panel. Bit mysterious… I’ve played around with the same low poly people blocks in other Rhino files and all seems to be fine, so I’m deducing that this is something to do with the large file size of my big model.

So I’m hoping for some advice in terms of reducing the file size of my model. Or any tips for working with a model this large.

One specific question - I’ve run Audit3dmFile and I can see there are some large objects in the model. How can I select/identify which objects these are in my model using the object number? “Object[25638]” for example…? I haven’t named any objects in my model.

I’m wondering whether working off the cloud has any effect on the workability of a file this large…? I have the model file and inserted blocks saved on Onedrive. But afaik these are downloaded to the workstation when I’m working on them and then synced with the cloud…??

Any advice gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Hugh

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Rhino 7 SR19 2022-6-14 (Rhino 7, 7.19.22165.13001, Git hash:master @ 303aecd3f1907d87fe49f88f695c02fb790b1e31)
License type: Educational Lab License, build 2022-06-14
License details: LAN Zoo Network Node

Windows 10 (10.0.19044 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 64Gb)

Computer platform: DESKTOP

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display and OpenGL: NVIDIA Quadro P4000 (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 6-23-2022 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 516.59
> Accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0
- Secondary monitor attached to adapter port #1

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 6-23-2022
Driver Version: 31.0.15.1659
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 7.19.22165.13001
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 7.19.22165.13001
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Legacy Rhino Render”
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 7.19.22165.13001
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\rdk_ui.rhp “Renderer Development Kit UI”
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 7.19.22165.13001
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 7.19.22165.13001
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Institutions\Gre\Apps\Rhino7\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”

[martinsiegrist]

You can insert a file or create a worksession and attach another model.

[hughecchapman]

Hi Martin, thanks for your reply. Can you say a bit more about these suggestions?

As above, I am having an issue with inserting/importing the low-poly people blocks into my large model.

I can see that one possible strategy might be to create a new file and insert all the geometry that I don’t want to change as part of my design proposal as a large block (call this “site context”). Then I could import all the elements that I want to be able to modify as part of my design proposal. Do you have any experience with this strategy?

I need to look up worksessions - don’t have any experience with these.

[martinsiegrist]

@hughecchapman

I can see that one possible strategy might be to create a new file and insert all the geometry that I don’t want to change as part of my design proposal as a large block (call this “site context”). Then I could import all the elements that I want to be able to modify as part of my design proposal.

That’s exactly what I would attempt.

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Hugh -

@hughecchapman

How can I select/identify which objects these are in my model using the object number?

You can use the SelID command.

@hughecchapman

I’m having issues importing/inserting some blocks, specifically mesh low poly people.

One thing that is very important is the shear number of objects.
If a single “low poly” figure comes in as a block, you won’t notice right away how many objects it consists of. I’d check all blocks and make sure that they don’t consist of a bunch of single triangles. Objects like those benches/chairs:

If different meshes use the same material/color, it can be better to join those into a single mesh.
If you are not going to rearrange the furniture in that garden at all, you could explode all blocks and join meshes with the same material.

Apart from all that, you could upload the model on Rhino - Upload to Support so that we can take a closer look.
-wim

[hughecchapman]

Thanks Wim,

re:

@wim

SelID

not sure if I’m missing something here but this isn’t working for me.

Do I need to use a special format for the Object ID?

for e.g. this line in the Audit3dmFile output:
object[18817]: 590484 bytes, id = 4fad671e-13bc-4437-8e75-ffa3217734bc, name = “”

I’ve tried

SelID>object[18817]
and
SelID>18817

but neither works…

[wim (Wim Dekeyser)]

Hi Hugh -

@hughecchapman

not sure if I’m missing something here but this isn’t working for me.

SelID 4fad671e-13bc-4437-8e75-ffa3217734bc

-wim

[hughecchapman]

Ah thank you! All too obvious now you point it out!

[hughecchapman]

OK in case it’s of use to anyone in a similar situation -

I analysed my model using Audit3dmFile

It turns out that spheres add significantly to the file size. I added a lot of spheres yesterday!

Each of these is adding 250 - 350kb to the model -

I see I’m not the first person to encounter issues with spheres creating a massive file size.

I’m going to try some of the suggestions under this thread to get my file back under control - Why is my file size so large?

[Helvetosaur]

@hughecchapman

It turns out that spheres add significantly to the file size

Probably because your display mesh settings are forcing a too-fine mesh for each sphere… You could select all the spheres and apply a custom less dense display mesh in Properties and see if that helps any.

[hughecchapman]

Hi Helvetosaur yes I did exactly that which dropped the file size from 520MB to 460MB.

I still have a mystery issue importing/inserting these low poly mesh figures though…

[litwinaa (Andy)]

Hello Hughe,

If you have not gotten your “mystery issue” resolved yet and those on this thread and or you think it worthwhile to help solve the mystery we can try this: my hardware setup is similar enough to yours that we could see if I can try “importing/inserting these low poly mesh figures”. But I am not on a LAN Zoo Network Node if that matters?

Thank you,

Andy

p.s. I have no use for the content of the model- nor does anyone I work with- and would delete it all on my side once we are done.

[hughecchapman]

Thanks for the offer Andy. I never got to the bottom of the issue but found a (admittedly somewhat elaborate) workaround by doing pretty much as @martinsiegrist suggested above - defining all of the geometry that didn’t need to change as part of my design proposal as a new block in a new Rhino file and then copy-pasting in all of my other modelling.

As well as the spheres adding significantly to my file size - which I resolved by adjusting the Render Mesh Settings in Properties, the most significant learning to come out of all this has been that I’ve not been using the potential of converting NURBS elements to meshes before importing to help keep my file size under control.