Why is my user library so large?

[dbur]

My MS user lib is 25MB even though it only has a handfull of parts.  My corp lib is 14MB with many hundreds, maybe thousands, of parts.  Why is it so big?

Is it bloated with space that has not been recovered?  Is there a way to rebuild it and get it back down to size?

Thanks.

[Tayyab_R]

Hi dbur,

You can try to copy over all the components from your User Database to the Corporate Database using the Database Manager (Tools -> Database -> Database Manager). Then you can find your current User Database by going to Options -> Global Preferences and then clicking on the Path next to the User Database. You can close Multisim and delete this database and Multisim should re-create it once you restart. You will then have an empty User Database which you can work with.

We would like to take a look at your User Database to see why it is so big. It would be great if you can send it to us.

[dbur]

My user lib is where I keep propiretary customer parts so I can't send it to you without an NDA.  I do have an NDA in process on another issue so when that is done I can send it to you.

I think the problem is that space that is freed up when parts are deleted is never reclaimed.  A database optimization utility would probably clear it up.

I can do what you said with moving the parts to the company lib and then creating a new user lib, but then I loose all the families and subcategories I have set up in the user lib (mirrors my corp lib structure).

Thanks,

David B

[JasonF · Accepted solution]

You can clean up your user database while preserving your structure using the merge database option (Tools > Database > Merge Database).

1) Close Multisim

2) Move your current user database to a new location

3) Start Multisim (this should generate a new clean user database in the directory where the old one was)

4) Merge the original database into the user database.

This should cleanup all the unlinked data while preserving all original formatting of your database.

However, ensure you doublecheck that all your data was properly transferred before removing the original database as this may update parts that were created in old versions.

[dbur]

This worked and reduced my UDB to ~1MB.

Does a similar process work on the corporate library?

Thanks.