Optimize Scene Size Options

Use these options to set what happens when you select File > Optimize Scene Size > . These options let you select which cleanup operations to perform on the file either when you select File > Optimize Scene Size from the main menu bar, or immediately, when you click Optimize Now. See also Optimize scene size.

Remove invalid
NURBS surfaces + curves
Deletes invalid NURBS surface and curve nodes. A node is considered invalid when it has no connections. Specifically, this operation removes the following invalid nodes:
  • stitchSrf
  • rebuildSurface
  • insertKnotSurface
  • avgNurbsSurfacePoints
Remove empty
Sets
Deletes unused (empty) sets. Certain default set nodes are not removed by this operation. These set nodes are:
  • defaultLightSet
  • defaultObjectSet
  • initialParticleSE
  • initialShadingGroup
Partitions

Deletes unused (empty) partitions. A partition is considered unused when it does not have any connections to nodes in the rest of the scene.

Transforms

Removes transform nodes that have no relatives or connections, and are not associated with any referenced nodes.

Display layers and Render layers

Deletes empty display or render layer nodes that are not locked and are not part of a referenced file. Default layers are not deleted by either the Display layers or the Reference layers operation.

Remove unused
Animation curves

Deletes animCurve nodes that have no connections to other nodes in the scene, are not locked, and are not from referenced files.

Animation clips

Deletes source animation clip and animation clip nodes that are not being used in the scene. An animation clip is considered unused when it is not associated with a character set in your scene, and when it is not connected to any other scene nodes. A source clip node is considered unused when there are no used animation clips in the scene linked to that source clip.

Poses

Deletes all animation poses that are not applied to a character in your scene.

NURBS curves

Deletes NURBS curves that have no connections to other nodes in the scene, that are not locked, not from referenced files, and whose parents are not in use. If the NURBS curve has a parent with connections to other scene nodes, then the curve will not be deleted.

NURBS Surfaces

Deletes NURBS surfaces that are identical to their respective input NURBS surfaces. When a NURBS surface’s only input connection is to create, when the surface is input connected to another NURBS surface with the same parent, and when the surface is the same shape as its input, this operation will remove the NURBS surface. For example, if you rebuilt a NURBS sphere, but the settings of the rebuilt surface were identical to the original input surface, the rebuilt sphere would be deleted.

Note that in order for this operation to remove a NURBS surface, the surface cannot be locked, or from a referenced file.

Cached data

Even though dependency graph values are computed or dirty, they may still occupy space temporarily within the nodes. This cleanup operation goes into all of the data that can be regenerated if required and removes it from the caches (datablocks), thus clearing up space in memory.

Deformers

Deletes unused deformers with no output connections, as well as intermediate objects with no output connections.

Unused skin influences

Removes any joints or influence objects that have no effect on the skin (i.e. all weights are 0.0).

Expressions

Deletes all expression nodes which have no direct connections to their output attributes. An expression with a direct connection creates a relationship between an output attribute and input attribute in the scene. In other words, an expression that is part of a connected group of nodes not linked to the rest of the scene will be deleted, because the expression does not reference output attributes associated with the scene. Unit nodes with nothing on the other side are not evaluated, and therefore, are not deleted by this operation.

This operation only deletes expression nodes, and not dynExpressions, which are built into particle shapes.

Attention: If you have an expression that executes MEL commands but has no direct connection to an output attribute (output connection), this operation will delete that expression.
GroupID nodes

Deletes all GroupID nodes that have no connections to other nodes in the scene, are not locked, and that are not from referenced files.

Rendering nodes
Deletes all unused Rendering nodes. This procedure progresses through three stages:

Stage 1

Deletes empty shading groups, as well as shading groups that have no connected surface, volume, or displacement shaders.

Stage 2

Deletes all material nodes (surface, volume, displacement shaders) whose outputs are not connected to anything. Output connections from message attributes do not indicate that the node is in use, so nodes with only this type of output connection will be deleted. Note that this stage will delete shaders that were feeding into empty shading groups. Stage 1 deleted the shadingEngine node for empty shading groups, which leaves the materials that were feeding into empty shading groups disconnected. These disconnected materials will now be deleted.

Stage 3

Deletes all unused texture and utility nodes. Nodes are unused if they have no relevant output connections. Note that the textures and utilities feeding into the deleted materials from stage 2 will now be deleted.

Locators

Deletes locator objects that do not have connections to their shapes or to their transform nodes. If the locator has a parent with connections, or if the locator has a parent node with more than one child, the locator will not be deleted. Only locators that are not locked and not from referenced files will be removed by this procedure.

Constraints

Deletes constraints that are not constraining any objects. In other words, this procedure removes constraints that are not driving anything, and that do not have any output connections. In order for a constraint to be deleted by this procedure, the constraint cannot be from a referenced file, and it cannot be locked.

Specifically, this procedure evaluates the following nodes in your scene to determine whether or not they should be removed:
  • pointConstraint
  • aimConstraint
  • orientConstrain
  • parentConstrain
  • scaleConstraint
  • normalConstraint
  • tangentConstraint
  • geometryConstraint
Pair blends

Deletes pairBlends that have no outputs, or pairBlends that have no connections to input2. A pairBlends node that is locked or from a referenced file will not be removed by this procedure.

Snapshot nodes

Deletes all Snapshot nodes that have one connection or fewer to the rest of the scene. A Snapshot node that is locked or from a referenced file will not be removed by this procedure.

Unit conversion nodes

Deletes all unit conversion nodes that have one connection or fewer to the rest of the scene. A unit conversion node that is locked or from a referenced file will not be removed by this procedure.

Referenced items

Deletes all referenced nodes not used by the scene or the scene’s references. This operation will not delete nodes that are read-only.

Brushes

Deletes all brushes that are not attached to any strokes. This can be used to clean up default brush nodes that may accumulate when doing a large number of import operations.

Remove
Unknown Nodes

Deletes all of the following node types:

  • unknown
  • unknownDag
  • unknownTransform
Remove duplicate
Shading networks

Compares each shading network to the other shading networks in the scene, and collapses duplicate shading networks into one. Duplicate shading networks will be deleted in alphabetical order, based on shadingEngine node name. To collapse all duplicate networks into a particular network, rename that network so that it is last in the alphabetical ordering of shading networks in the scene.

Related topics