Compressing/zipping a file

[fwharris]

I've got a couple of patterns I would like to post that are a large file size (1M) and have tried the put them into a compressed folder but the size stays the same.

What am I missing?? What is the trick??

[dbfletcher]

Is it just one file or do you have several in a folder and you are compressing the whole folder? If it is the latter, once the files is compressed... it becomes a file. If you look at the size of that file, it will nromally be less that the combined contents of the folder before compression. However.. if you double click on the file... XP knows how to view zipped folders so it lets you "look" inside the compressed folder and shows you the orginal file sizes... so it may be you are just confusing yourself. Also... not all files are compressable. If you have ever tried to compress a bunch of jpegs, you will notice that either they dont compress at all... or actually get a little bit bigger. I dont think ptns fit in this catagory, but I could be mistaken. I also have a feeling my explaination is probably about as clear as mud too. Can you attache some screenshots so we have a better idea of waht you are doing and how you are determining they are not getting smaller at all?

[fwharris]

Doug,
What I tried is, select the file, right click and select "send to compressed/zip folder". When I look at the folder and file the size stays the same as original..

I also just looked at the file properties and see there is an option to "compress" to save disk space. Is that the same?

[dbfletcher]

Doug,
What I tried is, select the file, right click and select "send to compressed/zip folder". When I look at the folder and file the size stays the same as original..

I also just looked at the file properties and see there is an option to "compress" to save disk space. Is that the same?

No.. the one under file properties is doing soemthing all together different.... and also not what you want. I'm not at home right now, but perhaps ptn are already internally compressed. If that is the case, like I mentioned.. you cant really compress and already compressed file (not entirely true... but for our purposes pretty much the case). I'll look when i get home. There is also and opensource addon called 7zip. It uses better compression algorithms than standard zip... it probalby wont do a lot better if you are seeing no compression now, but it does have a lot of other options than make it a worthwhile download. I'll let you knwo what I find when I get home in 30-40 mins or so.

[cnsranch]

Mr, H. -

Zipping a file doesn't really make it smaller, but it does allow sending the files in a different form - i.e., you can't send a "folder", as an attachment to someone, only the "files" in a "folder - but, if you "zip" a "folder" with "files" in that "folder", you can send it as one attachment. Then, the person getting it can unzip it, and see the entire "folder", open it, and get to the "files".

Make sense??

[dbfletcher]

Mr, H. -

Zipping a file doesn't really make it smaller, but it does allow sending the files in a different form - i.e., you can't send a "folder", as an attachment to someone, only the "files" in a "folder - but, if you "zip" a "folder" with "files" in that "folder", you can send it as one attachment. Then, the person getting it can unzip it, and see the entire "folder", open it, and get to the "files".

Make sense??

I really depends on the contents of the file. Generally you can expect the resulting zip file to be 1/2 to 3/4 smaller than the orginal file. However, it does appear the PTN are already compressed so you wont see any further reduction in file size. And like Jerry states, it does allow you to send a bunch of files in one large "container" file.

[brouv]

In the past, I was using winrar to compress (when I needed to compress and make it fit on floppy disk). You could tell it to split the compress file in different files. You just had to tell it how big you wanted the files.
I didn;t use it for year
Benoit

[www.carvenow.com]

Use jzip at jzip.com or winrar at rarlab.com. It will compact your files to almost half.
HT

[fwharris]

Update on the zip for files..

Just had a bit of recall (found my film for the old camera) and realized I (we) do have another resource for uploading files that are to big for the forum. The CNCARTGUILDFORUM (http://cncartguild.forumotion.net/forum.htm) and the file sharing feature.....

Hey but I now have 2 different zip programs to figure out......

Thanks for all of the input/help!