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Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:44 pm
by George W. Burns CPBD
I seem to have had this problem before (past versions 8.05 and older), but anyway, as a file gets larger toward the end of a project (floorplans and elevations finished, site plan done, and I'm starting to draw details - sections - etc. I use clipit COPY with layersearch toggled ON to grab what I want to detail and drag it over into a 1/2" or larger scaled titleblock to then erase certain lines and add others to complete section details. At some point in the growth of these Cad files, the box I draw around the area does nothing. If I toggle OFF layersearch, it captures what I draw around, the message says "enter point to drag from", and I can move it over to the new title block. Of course, the only thing that gets clipped and copied are the lines that are on the current layer. That ain't good enough... Try the same move with layersearch toggled ON, and the message says "enter first corner of Clipit rectangle." Meaning, "yeah... we didn't get that...."

I've tried to copy the file and paste it into the same folder and open "joe's houseplan - copy" and it does the same thing in that file as well.

The file I'm working on at the moment has a little north of 45,000 entries. File size is 2.75MB.

If it makes any difference I have about 30,000 entries in hatched rubble in my EB layer (elevation brick)

Does this sound like a software (datacad) glitch, or am I asking too much of my HP PropBook 4720s with 8 Gigs of RAM, or is this a legit limit on what Datacad can do?

I've got a lot of notes and details to go. I don't need this kind of thing slowing me down. Any help would be appreciated.

George

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:06 pm
by George W. Burns CPBD
Okay, so I went back and deleted all my rubble hatch and redrew it "associated" and it cut down the size of the file from 2.75MB to 1.03MB, the EB layer dropped from 30K entries to 1500 +/-, and now the Clipit Copy works with layersearch toggled on. So it is def. related to file size or number of entries. My question remains: is this normal for Datacad? What if I get a big commercial project? Can I expect this to be an issue on large files or is this something that needs a fix?
George

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:26 am
by Neil Blanchard
Some hatch patterns are massively complex, and you should always use associative hatch. You can use voids, and / or a polyline outline to make associative to look like you need it to.

Remember too, that the AEC file is compressed, so when you are working on it, it is much larger. How much RAM in your system?

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:59 pm
by George W. Burns CPBD
Neil Blanchard wrote:Some hatch patterns are massively complex, and you should always use associative hatch. You can use voids, and / or a polyline outline to make associative to look like you need it to.

Remember too, that the AEC file is compressed, so when you are working on it, it is much larger. How much RAM in your system?


In my first post I said I have 8MB of RAM. Which seems to be a TON better than when I was working in 8.05 on a desktop machine that had 4MB.

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:47 pm
by joshhuggins
Hoping that's GB's and not MB's :wink:

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Fri Oct 20, 2017 1:19 pm
by George W. Burns CPBD
joshhuggins wrote:Hoping that's GB's and not MB's :wink:


Haha... Yes. GBs

Duh..... I'm toopid...

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 3:50 pm
by Neil Blanchard
Can you talk about the situation where you are using ClipIt? I have not used it in over a decade, and then only once. There is probably another way to do it?

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:42 pm
by David A. Giesselman
George W. Burns CPBD wrote:Okay, so I went back and deleted all my rubble hatch and redrew it "associated" and it cut down the size of the file from 2.75MB to 1.03MB, the EB layer dropped from 30K entries to 1500 +/-, and now the Clipit Copy works with layersearch toggled on. So it is def. related to file size or number of entries. My question remains: is this normal for Datacad? What if I get a big commercial project? Can I expect this to be an issue on large files or is this something that needs a fix?
George

George,

As I recall (I haven't even looked at it in 10+ years), the upper-limit of entities ClipIt can process is 32,767 (the maximum value of a 2-byte integer). We have no plans of updating old DCAL macros. The original source for the ClipIt macro is posted as Open Source on our website should anyone care attempting to update it.

Dave

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 11:41 am
by George W. Burns CPBD
Neil Blanchard wrote:Can you talk about the situation where you are using ClipIt? I have not used it in over a decade, and then only once. There is probably another way to do it?


I described what I use it for in the first part of my opening post. Second sentence. What would you like to know?

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:30 pm
by joshhuggins
We used to use clipit exclusively for details like this as well, but I think as newer entity types like xrefs and the newer DSF symbols which are not supported during the clip we kind of just stopped using it and use copy drag or the clipboard with area+crossing and then manually clip the boundary. I think your best bet to continue trying to use clipit is to continue using associated hatch and then you should be able to continue to use clipit as the number of affected entities should be substantially lower. As I recall, clipit won't work with the associated hatch though so you would have to either manually copy it over to your new detail or add back in a new hatch for what is missing.

Edit: After testing it again right now I've decided to go ahead and remove it from our macro Toolbox since it really isn't something that will work for us anymore. A moment of silence please. RIP ClipIt. :cry:

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:12 pm
by George W. Burns CPBD
Well, just speaking for myself, it is probably the single most productive aspect of DataCad to me.

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Tue Oct 24, 2017 2:25 pm
by Roger D
Instead of copying to detail, I typically will xref or self-xref the area, draw a polyline to define a clip cube for the xref and start adding the detail info on new layer(s). This way if the base drawing changes, the detail is updated automatically.

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 12:08 pm
by Neil Blanchard
I use Control E to Copy things to the clipboard, and then paste.

Or, better yet, I set up a self reference and use X-Clip. This saves you from changing something in 2 places, because it updates the detail automatically when you change the original.

Re: Clipit stops working when file gets too big???

PostPosted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 3:47 pm
by artmanvt2000
George,

Do you do all of your drawings in the same file? You may want to consider doing "groups" in separate files with the use of xref's.

We separate everything. Site Plans, Floor Plans, Ceiling Plans, Elevations, Details, Interior Elevations are all separate files. There are several plusses to doing it this way.
1) The files are smaller and quicker.
2) If a file becomes corrupt or is accidentally deleted, it is less of a tragedy.
3) It allows multiple people to work on the project.

I hope this is helpful.