The Bloc file is now 2.43 GB (!)

Welcome to Blocs, @Erwin!

Are you and @Jerry embedding assets within your Blocs documents, or you do link to assets?

I ask because I always link. I never embed. And so far, none of my large Blocs 4 documents have grown beyond 33MB in size. I link to well over 200 images and the total size of all those images comes to about 13.8MB.

I am wondering if your unusually large Blocs document filesize problem might be a bug pertaining to embedded assets. I also don’t know if OS is related, but I myself am on High Sierra.

–James

Silly question, but I remember something like this happening on another app when the project file was on a google drive, iCloud Drive, etc. Is your blocs file on a “cloud” drive?

Hi @JDW, all files are embedded. @Norm is on it, Its just a weird behaviour.

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I have embedded assets since using Blocs 4 but not prior to that.

Why do you never embed? I thought that’s a nice feature. What are the Pros/ Cons for just linking or embedding?
(besides the bug now when embedding)

Im investigating the file size issues. Hopefully more info later in the week.

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I dont think the bug is related to embedding assets.

When you embed you’re “bundling” the assets into your actual project file. When you distribute that project, those assets go with it.

If you don’t embed, basically when you open that project file on another Mac you’ll need to use Blocs feature that finds the images which you’ll have placed somewhere on that machine.

many people don’t need to open projects on different machines I suppose. I’m curious other users reasoning for not embedding?

Embedded assets do not show refresh or show in finder options with the asset manager. Also, does the asset have a link symbol? that means it’s externally linked and embedded assets do not have any symbol.

I have used embedded assets once and once only, then went straight back to the old way. The assets are either stored remotely on the server or in a nearby resources folder. If the project needs to be sent with assets it can be generated as a package.

As an afterthought if you store the projects in iCloud all the resources are automatically available to your other computers alongside the project files.

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Thanks for that explanation @Flashman. Templates typically non-embedded then I suppose?

I guess. I’ve never used templates. My draft projects I use as a starting point don’t use embedded assets.

From memory I struggled with changing embedded assets, yet keeping the same name, because it continued to show the old image and I couldn’t refresh them in the asset manager. I just remember that it all became rather frustrating.

I keep working or recent projects inside iCloud on the system hard drive with various backups. Legacy projects with assets can then be zipped, locked and placed on external drives again with backups.

Mainly habit. Prior to using Blocs I used SoftPress Freeway and linked all graphics. I still link graphics when using Illustrator and preparing CMYK files for professional printing. Linked graphics have been the mainstay of the DTP world for a very long time. Even modern apps like Affinity Publisher allow you to either link or embed.

Embedding files make your primary document much larger, while linking keeps that document slim.

Updating linked graphics with Adobe apps is more of an automated process than Blocs in that I can use Photoshop to edit a graphic linked in an open Illustrator file and Illustrator will automatically note the linked image file has been changed and ask me if I want to update the display of it in Illustrator. So it’s theoretically much easier to edit/update linked images than embedded.

Blocs allows you to externally edit linked images too, but if you are using Blocs at the same time you edit a linked image, Blocs doesn’t notice the change and forces you to manually find the changed image and Refresh it. Because of that, you lose a little advantage of having linked graphics.

@Ms_Sun I should add one comment about my Blocs workflow…

Sometimes when I am designing a page in Blocs, I don’t know what size or proportions of an image I should put on the page. Should it be 16x9? 4x3? 1028px wide? To figure that out, I place an image box on the page and then import a high resolution image into the 1x slot. That graphic is linked. My original graphic is usually a Photoshop or Affinity Photo file that I will export to JPEG or PNG, such that the JPEG or PNG is linked in Blocs. When I then modify my image and reserve the JPG/PNG, I then return to Blocs and right-click that asset to Refresh it. I wish Blocs did auto-refresh like Illustrator, but maybe someday! :slight_smile: I then repeat that process until I get the image in the shape and size I like. When done, I create a 1x image and put that in the 1x slot in the right sidebar in Blocs, and then put my 2x image in its slot. I forgo the 3x images because I no longer deem them necessary. So this is yet another reason why I stick with linked graphics. When you update or swap out a lot, linked graphics is a bit nicer, in my opinion.

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Hello Norm,

I hope you can find something, my project is now 7,93 Gb !

Menno

Im looking into the issue at the moment for 4.0.2. Did you import any assets into Blocs v4?

For me the problem predates v4

Yeah I have also patched v3 with the potential fix. Are you using Big Sur?

Catalina 10.15.7

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Hello Norm,

My project increase with every simpel adjustment.
At the moment the file is 16,09 Gb and it won’t start anymore so I can’t can no longer reach it at all

Also Catalina 10.15.7
Work now with Blocs V4 (but was also under V3)

The issue is caused by duplicate embedded assets. I’ll be releasing a new version of Blocs today (4.0.2 beta 1) in this version the issue is fixed but it also has a temp feature that allows users to remove embedded asset duplicates.

More info soon. When you use it make sure you backup.

By the way Blocs will open a 16gb file it just takes ages, so I recommend waiting until this version comes out, open your project in it and run the cleaning function.

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Hello Norm,

That’s great news !!
I will indeed wait for your new version 4.0.2 and then perform this action.
Thank you very much for your help and have a nice weekend

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