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FPE Library Size

Printed From: PCB Libraries Forum
Category: PCB Footprint Expert
Forum Name: Questions & Answers
Forum Description: issues and technical support
URL: https://www.PCBLibraries.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3212
Printed Date: 17 Oct 2024 at 2:45pm


Topic: FPE Library Size
Posted By: jayfrancis
Subject: FPE Library Size
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2023 at 1:22pm
Hi,

Going from Library Expert to Footprint Expert, my library size has dramatically increased (roughly 50K-ish to over 150M).

Is this correct, or is something wrong with my library?

I use GitHub to save/track my changes (I know - the fpx isn't optimized for that, but at least I can match it up with other files I change).  Unfortunately, GitHub has a 100MB size limit :-(

--Jay


Replies:
Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2023 at 1:59pm
When your FPX library grows in size, it's mostly due to "Special Characters" as the FPX file is 100% ASCII. 

Open your old FPX file in Excel spreadsheet and find out where the issues are. 

If you clean up your FPX file in Excel, you need to copy the contents to Notepad.exe to convert the data back to ASCII. But we can do that for you. 

Send us your old FPX file and we'll check it.



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Posted By: jayfrancis
Date Posted: 19 Jan 2023 at 6:33pm
Thanks for your help Tom!

If anyone finds this thread - the culprit was a special character (TM symbol) in a component field.  Tom was able to clear the error and bring the library back to a healthy state.

--Jay

Posted By: Ian S
Date Posted: 20 Jan 2023 at 4:22am
Any chance you can add some code to check for special characters to prevent the FPX exponentially growing in size?

I've seen the issue a couple of times and ended up with an FPX of >250 MB.

Posted By: Jeff.M
Date Posted: 20 Jan 2023 at 9:45am
There is already code that's supposed to prevent that.
If you can provide an example of some text you've added to your fpx file that has caused your problem, we'll review the prevent code.
Thanks for the report...


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Posted By: Ian S
Date Posted: 20 Jan 2023 at 10:11am
Hi Jeff,

I believe that my last issue was caused by file corruption, where a part with no special characters when added to the FPX has subsequently changed.

If it happens again, I'll provide an example.

Can the code be expanded to check the FPX file for the existence of non-ascii characters when it's opened, and capture potential corruption, rather than just at data entry?

Ian
 

Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 17 Jul 2023 at 12:11pm
The FPX file is ASCII. 

"Symbol Characters" are not allowed in an ASCII database. 

Do not use any special Symbols like these: 

® © ™ µ  ± 



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