Is there a MAX file size? Critical Error

[PNeuendorf]

I'm very excited to find this program, and am trying out the trial of 5.0. I successfully converted a shape file of index contours, but have hit a roadblock with the intermediate contours. The .shp file is 820 MB; .dbf, 11 MB; .sbn, 3 MB; .shx, 2.5 MB. At 51%, it stops with the error "CRITICAL ERROR 2, AD error 223 (can't allocate vm structure), terminating". I'm running XP Pro, have 1.4 GB RAM, and have set my VM to the max (4 GB). Is the file simply too big? Is there anything else I can try out? It's so frustrating having valuable information (2-ft contours for our county) that I can't get to. I've tried both DWG and DXF format for AutoCAD Rel 2000. I've also tried running in safe mode - same error. Any help would be appreciated.

[GuthCAD Software Support]

Hi,

The .shp file is 820 MB ... Is the file simply too big?Basically yes, unfortunately the DXF/DWG formats are very bulky compared to shapefiles (typically 5 to 10 times the size) and the memory requirement for translation is thus significant.

However there are strategies that can be used:

- use the Arcv2CAD Region filter to do partial translations.
- use Class Ranges to do partial translations (refer to the user manual topic 'Miscellaneous Notes | How to Translate Just Part of a Shapefile'.)
- minimize the selected options (especially don't use 'Feature Attributes', use 'Text Labels' instead, and even better don't select either. 'Text Labels' can be done as a separate translation using the option 'Only Output Text Labels by themselves')
- select the output format to be 'AutoCAD 2000 DWG' or 'AutoCAD 14 DXF', these formats require the least amount of memory (for Arcv2CAD that is.)

As a general method for success with very large files, start with the least amount of options selected, and a tiny subset of data (i.e. using Region of Class Range filters.) After a successful translation, work up from there.

Finally, in about a month we hope to provide a free shapefile splitter utility that will help with with this type of problem.


Best of luck!
Software Support