Revit LT - Compacting Files?

[danbwall]

Hi All;

A number of the users in our office are working with Revit LT. I am setting up some standards for purging/archiving/file management to keep the bloating of data to a minimum. In full Revit, under Save As/Options we have the ability to compact and reduce file size during project workflow without doing a full purge of the file, as shown in the screenshot below.

I am unable to find any similar option/feature for Revit LT, and I don't want to have the LT users relying on others for this workflow. Any ideas? 

Thanks in advance,

[syman2000]

There is no option in Revit LT to compact the file. You can vote here and tell Autodesk we need this

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-ideas/add-compact-option-to-revit-lt-save-as-window/idi-p/80986...

Also if you want to keep the file as lean as possible, I would do the following some of the tips from this video https://www.autodesk.com/autodesk-university/class/Dr-Revits-Ultimate-Diet-and-Exercise-Guide-Keepin...

[ToanDN]

Compacting file is only available when worksharing is anlable, and useful when multiple users work on the same central file.  Revit LT has no worksharing capability so this feature is not applicable, nor useful even if they made it available.  

[RobDraw]

---

@ToanDN wrote:

Compacting file is only available when worksharing is anlable, and useful when multiple users work on the same central file.  Revit LT has no worksharing capability so this feature is not applicable, nor useful even if they made it available.  

---

I happen to be working on a non-workshared project and it has the ability to compact the file.

[danbwall]

Compacting files is available on non-workshared files, and definitely has a huge advantage in keeping the file size down as the project progresses. I imagine it would be even more useful in workshared environments (we work only in single-family residential so work-sharing is never required for such small projects.)

[danbwall]

Thanks. I presumed that was the case but thought just in case there was something I was missing.

[ToanDN]

---

@danbwall wrote:

Compacting files is available on non-workshared files, and definitely has a huge advantage in keeping the file size down as the project progresses. I imagine it would be even more useful in workshared environments (we work only in single-family residential so work-sharing is never required for such small projects.)

---

Yes that box is available for non-workshared files also.  My mistake.

However, I stand by my statement that it is not useful for non-workshared files.  When a single user works on a non-workshared file, Revit needs not bloat the database with index and history like with a multi-user work-shared file.  You can test it by compacting a non-workshared file and see how mane bytes difference before and after.  @RobDraw can test that too.

[Lance.Coffey]

From what I’m seeing on the documentation for this option “…Compact File. Reduces file sizes when saving workset-enabled files…” (emphasis added) this feature is supposed to be specific to workshared models.

I did some testing with resaving non-workshared sample files in Revit 2021, and I do see a small reduction in file size (Compact Option is turned on by default and cannot be turned off when I’m saving to a new name).

However, when testing similar Save As operations in Revit LT 2021, I see a similar reduction in file size, leading me to think that while this option is not visible in LT, similar behavior is occurring between Revit LT, and Revit when using the Save As option with non-workshared models.

@danbwall you should be able to confirm this behavior on your system by opening the same non-workshared model in Revit and Revit LT, then do a Save As and note the resulting file size.

[RobDraw]

---

@ToanDN wrote:@RobDraw can test that too. It was my understanding that compacting also does some reorganizing of the data base that makes the model run a bit smoother.

---

Too late, I already compacted it without checking file size. 

[danbwall]

Without knowing exactly the process it uses, the compact feature must reduce other features other than the index and multi-user history because it definitely reduces a non-workshared file's size (which is why I routinely use it.)

See screenshot below - I just saved-as with 'compact file' option and pulled out 57mb from a file I haven't compacted for a while.

As I said our workflow doesn't require workshared files so I can't compare the reduction.

[loboarch]

---

@Lance.Coffey wrote:

However, when testing similar Save As operations in Revit LT 2021, I see a similar reduction in file size, leading me to think that while this option is not visible in LT, similar behavior is occurring between Revit LT, and Revit when using the Save As option with non-workshared models.

---

I was going to suggest the "Save As" option as an alternate to using the "compact" check mark. "Save As" does a similar process. and often times will reduce file size.

In the age of terabyte SSD I don't think file size is as big of an issue as it was 15-20 year ago when this checkbox was added to the save dialog. I do however acknowledge there is a small amount of performance you might gain opening and saving a smaller sized file.

[danbwall]

Thanks Lance,  

I had a couple of our LT users test it on a file, there was a slight reduction in the file size, 3-4mb in one, 8mb in another, nothing to write home about.

I opened the same files in full Revit after the LT save-as reduction, saved-as/overwrote the file and saw a 41mb reduction in file size on one, and a 28mb reduction in another, see screenshot.  From those tests it appears that LT is not doing the same compacting/reduction that full Revit is. Again these are stand-alone files, not workshared.  Given that we work with 3 backup files per project file, and are paying for cloud storage via sharepoint, that's a large amount of data across our entire project list that could be reduced to keep our storage more manageable. 

I'm not necessarily looking for a solution if the file compaction isn't really the same in LT, just trying to understand the possibilities available within LT to make sure I'm not missing anything.