Why is maya file so big?

Question

I'm modeling a character in maya 2013 and I'm saving the project as maya binary file. Well, at some point, the files became significantly larger (23MB). I compared the previous versions of the project I saved to the current and there aren't so many more polygons or anything else that would make the file suddenly that large. Then I tried to delete all polygons and history, and the file is still 18MB big, although there are no polygons in the scene. Where does this size come from if not from polygons?

Answer 1

Maya is a huge program and even if you save an empty scene it will save the environment. This is whats making your files so big. Besides, for Maya 23MB is not as big as you think. It's when it starts getting into the GB do you have to think about optimizing your scenes.



*Edit*

Even if you don't have hidden polys, the scene itself, blank or otherwise has data. This means it saves the state of the scene you have which includes the hidden camera that shows what you see in the viewports. Without the camera you wouldnt be able to see the blank screen in other words. There is no changing this either. Even the grid is data that is saved, this also includes the plugins that you have installed and the position of everything in the UI.

*Edit*

It seems although you have deleted everything from the scene the data is still there. You could easily fix that by resetting Maya if your going to start all over again on the project/scene. Rather than delete objects from your scene (Maya scene that is) to start on a blank area again, just start a new scene. It will save you space. It's obvious that Maya retains the data of all objects created even after their deletion. I have 2013 and just tried it to verify and my results are similar to yours. Maya must have a cache somewhere similar to 3DS Max. Not surprising since they are made from the same company.

Answer 2

URL

Answer 3

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