File save resulting in huge file size

marble

Odd thing - never had this happen before.

I was working on an animation and saving the scene at various stages along the timeline. All fine for a while - I had file_a and file_b which were normal saves - the same scene with only posing changed along the timeline. Then I did the same again - changed the poses and saved file_c ... but this time it stalled on "Writing Assets" and took several minutes to complete. When I compared the file sizes, file_a and file_b (.duf files) were 777 KB each while file_c was over 700 MB. Loading and saving again made no difference so I ended up deleting file_c and starting over with the posing. This time it saved as normal.

I have seen other reports of huge file sizes but can see nothing that would explain my experience. I'm just mentioning it in case anyone has an explanation in case it happens again or in case anyone else has the same problem.

Leana

Did you maybe use dForm, mesh grabber or geometry editor? Those would result in big files since all the geometry changes are saved in the scene.

marble

So it all went fine with a new file_c but then when I tried to save file_d I got the huge file again. No idea what is causing this but the only thing I am doing is extending the timeline by 20 or 30 frames and changing poses. No content is being added or removed.

charles

When you get big files like that, it's usually because it's decided geometry verts need to be packaged along with the save. Like Leana said if you use something like say dform or mesh grabber it's creating new geometry and saving it. It does the same with any 3rd party OBJ/FBX you include in the scene. One thing you can do is save it uncompressed and open in an editor and look for the start of a huge vert group listing and it should give you a clue to what asset in the scene that's for and so may help figure out what's going on.

 

marble

Leana said:

Did you maybe use dForm, mesh grabber or geometry editor? Those would result in big files since all the geometry changes are saved in the scene.

No, no geometry maniplulation. When I started over with the same scene, it saved normally - less than 1MB. 

marble

What I did notice is that an object in the scene was reported as a missing file as I opened the scene. The file was not missing and was in precisely the place it was supposed to be according to the "missing file" message. Nor did the so-called missing file seem to affect the scene in any way - the item apparently missing was present and correct in the scene. I suspect that the two issues are related.