FLA File Size

[rd7625]

I have a fairly basic FLA/AS2 file that I'm working on. I use a few basic scripts, everything is movie clips (even my buttons). I have a lot of images, but they are all loading externally, even the thumbnails. There are not any images imported or embedded into the file. I mostly just use a basic visibility script and load movie script.

For some reason the FLA file is 6.7MB!! Wow! I have done another site pretty similar and it was only 916KB.

Obviously, I'm missing something, but can't figure out what! It's been a while since I've worked with flash, so I'm just getting back into the swing of things.

[CyanBlue]

Howdy and Welcome... :)

Do Save and Compact or Save As from the File menu to remove the unnecessary stuff from the FLA file... It won't remove all the unused stuff, but it will shed some file size for you... ;)

[rd7625]

hello! thank you : )

That makes a lot of sense, it's amazing what little things you forget over time. I'm using CS3, but AS2. (the lapse of 2 yrs has depleted a lot of knowledge, so I'm trying to grasp that before moving onto CS3).

So when I go to "Save and compact" it wants to convert it to CS3. I have my old computer set up with CS2/Flash8, so I'm going to give that a try, but I'm sure it will work!

thanks again!

[cjx3711]

Another trick I learned, even thouth it actually requries images to be imported. All you do is copy all the frames and paste it into a new document. That way, any unused graphics in the library will be deleted and your file size will be reduced. May not be too helpful in your case but you may want it for future refrence.

[kkbbcute]

Another trick I learned, even thouth it actually requries images to be imported. All you do is copy all the frames and paste it into a new document. That way, any unused graphics in the library will be deleted and your file size will be reduced. May not be too helpful in your case but you may want it for future refrence.

You know, there is a button in the library called "Select all unused" so you can select and delete any MC/Graphic/Button that you don't use without copying and pasting everything.

[CyanBlue]

I don't trust that feature at all... I often times find that selecting what I have left with the linkage identifier so that I can attach it later... It does not happen all the time, but yes it did happen often enough... So, I simply delete what I don't need whenever I recognize that...

[Noct]

I couldn't agree more with CyanBlue; that feature has smacked me in both directions and I don't trust it one bit...

If you do use it, I would suggest saving the file right before hand, and then saving the compacted version to a different name. I've had it delete items that were on the Stage, and even more often I've seen it leave behind objects that are not in use at all.

I typically just browse through the fla and look for garbage (if fla size is even an issue), then do a save and compact.

If I did want to be absolutely sure I got rid of all my junk, I'd copy and paste as mentioned above.

[CyanBlue]

Huh, Noct agreeing with me??? What's happening here??? :p

Yeah.. Come to think of it, I had an occasion where I was using that demonic option once, not even thinking about the consequence... It did look okay in the first place, so I saved the file, published the new SWF... It looked okay in the first place, so it went back to the server... A couple of weeks later, a client of mine contacted me and said that some of the features were not working at all which turned out that it was those missing assets... I had trouble with the hard disk during the time, so I had no access to the source file... I ended up digging through many many library items to see what was missing and whatever hell has broken out...

Just use that option to get the list of a filtered out version of deletable candidate, and go from there... and like Noct said, save the file before you delete the library item and check check and check... ;)

[kkbbcute]

Anyway a few extra MB of file size won't kill anyone, so just delete only when necessary.

[Noct]

It all depends on what you're doing; at my job, you will get an earful if you have flas over a meg or two. If you have a piece of software that loads hundreds of content swfs, those flas will pile up pretty fast.

Storage space costs money, suits get mad when money is wasted...

[kkbbcute]

Fine, but it all depends on how much work you are doing. For example, I can't even use up 500GB of my 1TB, and thats with like 20 games installed, each about 7GBs in size! The flas take up a negligible amount of space, thats why I do most of my work in vector if possible.