Delete history increases file size

[Anonymous]

On delete history/delete all by type history..Maya file size increases

For example 

I create a square.. Boolean it with a circle and torus..and retopo it...smooth it.

Save the file as it is..its almost 70kb

But save the file after deleting history...it's about 800kb..

I have done clean up too..no use..I have done clean uninstall/reinstall...I have setup new pref folder...none of it seems to be working..

On delete history inputs disappear from channel box... hypergraph looks clean. But the problem stays.

It's in both 2018 and 2019..

It's in any fresh scene.

This issue has happened  before...it goes away on its own in a day..

But this time it's been more than two days...my work keeps getting stalled and it's getting on my nerves now.

[mspeer]

Hi!

That's normal.

History commands don't need as much space as saving the complete mesh data.

Compare this short command:

polySphere -r 1 -sx 100 -sy 100 -ax 0 1 0 -cuv 2 -ch 1;

against a list of tens of thousands individual component and UV data which are needed for such a sphere.

Even this does not need more space with history.

polySphere -r 1 -sx 1000 -sy 1000 -ax 0 1 0 -cuv 2 -ch 1;

but will be much larger without.

[Anonymous]

But in larger scene files it can go up to 30gb.  On normal days I can save the same for probably 30mb or so..

this happens once in a while because of which I stalled the project.

Can you suggest any workaround so that I can normally carry on my work?

[Anonymous]

And the whole purpose of delete history is to make things fast and small..

If it is doing the opposite...then what's the purpose?

This much of history buildup is only making things irritating..

[mspeer]

Hi!

Deleting history...

- improves overview and reduces the possibility for errors.

- makes the scene faster IF calculating the edits takes more time than loading the data from disk.

- does not make the scene smaller (in most cases). You need really a lot of unnecessary history nodes to see an improvement on file size, also don't forget to use Optimize Scene Size too to remove all unneeded nodes.

[Anonymous]

Hmm..well it's always helped me in removing history and keeping my file size optimal..

But is it normal for a,say,60 kb file to jump to almost a gb after using delete history?

In my experience I have seen it on few occasions and it rectifies itself in a day

If it is the usual...then it must happen all the time and Maya should be okay with it and not corrupt file or crash.

Can you please let me know where can I look and effectively delete unwanted/ hidden nodes?A Mel script also would be great.

Thankyou for your time.

[mspeer]

Hi!

"But is it normal for a,say,60 kb file to jump to almost a gb after using delete history?"

- This is highly scene-dependent as can be seen in my previous examples, but it can happen.

Without knowing more about your scene setup, content and workflow, i can't say more.

"Can you please let me know where can I look and effectively delete unwanted/ hidden nodes?"

- This is dependent on scene setup and user preferences. The most common tools are Delete History and Optimize Scene Size.

[Anonymous]

For example I create a square.. Boolean it with a circle and torus..and retopo it...smooth it. Save the file as it is..its almost 70kb But save the file after deleting history...it's about 800kb..

This is the scene .

I found out at which step this issue occurs.

When I use remesh and retopo mel command and then delete history .

It is after this that the file size increases.

[Anonymous]

I tried duplicate copy to have nil history and deleted the original with history...but it's the same,huge file size

[mspeer]

Hi

"...smooth it..."

- Smooth takes only some bytes as history node (command), but it will increase object size easily by a factor > 100 or even multiple 1000.

If you bake the information which is what delete history does, your file size will be substantially larger, but this is nothing unusual and of course not a bug.

A very very (very) simplified example:

1. Procedural version, simple cube subdivided 5 times (which ends up with about 1 000 000 faces per side):

1. Create cube
2. Subdivide by 5

Now as raw data:

cube with vertices at those positions (x y z)
1. (0 0 0.001)
2. (0 0 0.002)
...
1000. (0 0.001 0)
1001. (0 0.001 0.001 )
...
6000000  (1.000 1.000 1.000)

As baked information with all individual vertex position this needs 6 million lines in opposite to the procedural version which only needs 2 lines.

"I tried duplicate copy to have nil history and deleted the original with history...but it's the same,huge file size"

- Yes of course.

I suggest to read more about procedural generation and procedural modeling .

I also suggest to read more about 3D data formats and how the data will be handled.

[Anonymous]

Well..hmm

I have done a lot of modelling this way without issues...and this kind of problem has happened only few times...

I will read more

Thankyou for your time

[Anonymous]

i just tested it now on few simple models..it worked fine with few..but others it saved with huge file size..

1. I am used to waiting for one day within which Maya corrects itself but now have to wait a little longer I guess...

[mspeer]

Hi!

What should be corrected, i can't see a problem caused by Maya here.

All other software (not only 3D software) will show the same behavior for the issue i mentioned (without exception).

Please provide a scene-file with the steps how to reproduce this to check if there is maybe really a problem caused by Maya, at best a scene before deleting history, then i can delete history here and check what happens.