Scenes with referenced geometry can increase in size if deformers are added to referenced geometry. Adding a deformer to referenced mesh creates a new local shape with the name suffix "shapeDeformed".
The actual referenced shape becomes a pre-deformed intermediate shape. Because Maya cannot rename the reference shape to what you typically might see renamed as "shapeOrig", it instead adds the shapeDeformed name to the new local deformed shape. Because this new shape is a duplicate of the reference, it exists in your scene now and maybe the culprit of your problem. If this is the case there are several things to be aware of when working with shapeDeformed mesh. First, and best practice, is to avoid deforming referenced assets where possible. Second, if you need to work with deformers on reference objects, apply all deformers before end of chain. This will instead keep the visible shape (end of chain) as the reference shape and create local intermediate shapeOrig's instead. This will still increase your file size, but it avoids several problems that can manifest from the visible shape no longer being referenced. It seems likely that this is the cause of your file size increasing. However, it can also depend what is in those reference files. I have seen instances where referencing files with Alembics and VDB files in them caused the creation of thousands of nodes and connections under specific conditions. Take care, Chad Fox On Thu., Mar. 12, 2020, 8:07 a.m. Tim Fowler, <tim.fow...@gmail.com> wrote: > .ma files are just text files that you can open with any editor. Have > you taken a look at what exactly is in there when it gets large? When > you mention reference edits it sounds like you're still guessing as to > what might be in there. > > On Thu, Mar 12, 2020 at 7:51 AM Juan Moraga <juanmoragamar...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > > > > Hello all, > > > > I usually try to find answers in already created posts, but this has > been giving me a massive headache for a long time now and I don't know how > to look for the answer, so maybe you guys can help me out or point me into > the right direction. > > > > At my animation studio we work with maya ascii files that contain other > referenced maya ascii files. > > So imagine this reference hieachy: > > > > MayaAsciiSceneA.ma (20Mb) > > | > > |___MayaAsciiReferenceA.ma (500Mb) > > | > > |___MayaAsciiReferenceB.ma (250Mb) > > | > > |___MayaAsciiReferenceC.ma (250Mb) > > > > Sometimes when we save MayaAsciiSceneA after working a little bit in it, > we save the file and everything looks fine and it weights 20Mb, so no > problems. > > Some other times instead of doing that, Maya seems to parse the info > within MayaAsciiReferenceA into MayaAsciiSceneA.ma and it ends up weighting > 520Mb. > > > > Our current work around is to remove that reference > (MayaAsciiReferenceA.ma) and import it again, and it seems to work just > fine. > > > > I understand that if when working on MayaAsciiSceneA.ma, the artist does > many reference edits, the file can get heavier, but there is no way they do > as many reference edits as those. > > We do have scripts that automatize loading and unloading references, but > this has been happening only recently and I don't think our scripts trigger > this, but it could be the case. > > > > Do you have any idea about why this could be happening or how can I spot > this? > > > > Right now I have added a callback that checks weights of files before > and after saving, but again, this only show that this error seems to be > random. > > > > > > Kind regards, > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Python Programming for Autodesk Maya" group. > > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send > an email to python_inside_maya+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/python_inside_maya/164f1612-3c50-4833-b883-060819bbc185%40googlegroups.com > . > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Python Programming for Autodesk Maya" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to python_inside_maya+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/python_inside_maya/CALKD2WrWMTo7czV-u%2BwQ-JC154FMq6bXTUxJL5wMY3vyqhhL2A%40mail.gmail.com > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Python Programming for Autodesk Maya" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to python_inside_maya+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/python_inside_maya/CAJ4oLs6eXK9z8WMfOofvXdYpU5T_YKtp55sO86bXTdS7UjQjrQ%40mail.gmail.com.
