File size increases also if stencils are deleted

[Luna]

Hello, I am using Visio 2003.
When I start a new drawing and I drag some graphics from my stencil to
this drawing, save the drawing, and delete the graphics again, the
file size is still as big as with drawings. Can I avoid this?

For the reason that I want to offer templates where people only have
to drag and drop graphics, I now face the problem that the file size
of these templates is becoming bigger and bigger by changing, deleting
and adding the graphics. (From originally 6,5 KB with 15 graphics up
to 40 KB with perhaps only 4 of these same graphics - all happend by
changing and adding)

So in the end a complete empty drawing has 10 MB filesize. Can this be
true? Is there any solution? Or is this a Bug?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

When you drag a shape into the drawing, Visio makes a local copy of the
shape in your document. This copy is called the master. The shape you see
on the page is called an instance. It is an instance of the master shape.
Because the shape instance derives most of its properties from the master,
it is very lightweight. On the other hand the master has lots of
information to store. Deleting all the shape instances from your page does
not remove the master from the document. This probably explains why an
empty drawing is about the same size as a drawing with shapes.

Overall, masters actually save space because they allow you to have many
shape instances at a very small incremental cost to file size. Only when
the masters go unused do they become deadweight in the file. They can be
deleted by opening the Document Stencil found under File > Shapes.

 

[Luna]

Thanks a lot for your help. Now it works fine!