Template file size

[boofredlay]

I am setting up a new template; adding title blocks, specific families etc.

I started with one I used in the past and modified it. Then I started removing families that I did not want loaded unfortunately the file size is still growing. For example I removed 8 bathroom partition families just now and then saved and the file size grew by 1.5 MB. I have no idea why. It seems like the more I strip the file the larger it gets. I am removing these families by deleting them from the project browser (right click/delete).

I can purge unused but I would like to know what is impacting the size so greatly. I did a test and purged all unused and that brought the file size down by half which is acceptable, but I want to be more selective about what I delete.
Is there a way to do query the template to show the size of each "unused" item?

Thanks for any help.

[david_peterson]

I guess you could export all your families in your template and look at the file size of each family. That's where I'd start. As for the file growing are you comparing apples to apples? Are you compacting the file every time you save? Just some thoughts.

[boofredlay]

I never noticed the compact option until now. Thank you Dave, that reduced the file size significantly.

[david_peterson]

Just curious, how big is your template file.
We've been making some changes to how we do things based on our users complaints about to much stuff in the template and people couldn't find stuff.
Most of the content will be placed into "warehouse" files so you can just copy what you need and paste it into your new model.
When I was working more on the structural side we had just about everything you'd need to start a project except member sizes, those you had to add. But just about everything you needed was in the template so you didn't spend all your time loading families and stuff in.

[boofredlay]

I started with an old one I used at a previous job, it was 36MB. I added some stuff, modified titleblocks and then started removing unwanted families. Like you said, we have a library "warehouse" of a ton of stuff. The file size got to 49MB when I posted this. After compacting the file (THANKS AGAIN) it went to 26MB.

[jsteinhauer]

Eric,

You can go three routes for your project templates. First, have nothing in it. This means it is really small, but you're project teams are going to be spending a lot of time loading in the same content for every project. Second, you could load in every family in your library. This means that you don't really need a family library, but you'll also have a lot of unnecessary content. Third, load in a limited amount of content that will be used on your projects. This is what we currently have tried to do, but it means teams will still have to load in content. You can't please all the people all of the time...

Cheers,
Jeff S.

[boofredlay]

True Jeff. We are doing the latter as well.
Thanks.