Forum Discussion
PBIX file size problem
Got it!
Open the Layout 'file' in Notepad++ and you will see large swathes of image information, which looks like the scatter.jpg and other image artifacts that were actually in your Static Resources folder are actually baked into the Layout 'file' as well.
You should be able to avoid the issue if you start from scratch and are very selective about the images that you introduce. Alternatively, you may well be able to compare the Layout 'file' for a new blank pbix with the one you have, and scrape out the jpg and png junk that you don't want.
e.g
"scatter.jpg","name":"scatter.jpg","content":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABAAAAAJACAIAAACc94OCAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAARnQU1BAACxjwv8YQUAAAAJcEhZcwAACxIAAAsSAdLdfvwAAP+lSURBVHhe7J0FfBy38sfXSdM2Tdo0VKb3+l77ysxNm1IaZmZmZuaGmZmhScPM0DAzg0NOYmam/29mtLq989k+U5r2f9+PrZNGo9FIq9VKe3t3RqIbNw+W+HgJCXlFyDkpEZ8YhzCBkQiL00LaS2Qc+BkXR55PmLTw1u178RDEUWO5Ha46hC6CcnhE1IQlWyoNmF6iy7jb93wgiUlQpkRNQ6YTlBxhbBwLULNkpx2UVbGUUAdR6lK4WtYpttaxrQT0Q2w8GhHv7x9I44a7xaEKjqGgciZZLE5JlEyxHTle9wJDnusw59xtP5gCoiBZB8...
You can save 1.7MB if you delete out the icons in under the Static Resources directory. You save a bit more by removing the custom visualisations that are there as well.
I see what you mean about the Layout, it's large compared to a new file. I've tried deleting the page and adding a new one as I'm sure you have, to no effect.
It's interesting to look at the impact of various artifacts, can I ask why you need such a small file?
my problem started while i was still using the Beta version of Power BI Embedded, where i was hitting a timeout everytime i try to Import my pbix file to my web app, so i tried to figure out what is causing that time out and found that its related to the size of the file which didn't mean to me logical,,then i started removing items 1 by 1 from my reports to find out which item is that big size .. to find out that nothing there is causing that file size.. as you saw in my empty file.
Now because of my problem i discovered that there is a new release for Power BI embedded which allows to increase the timout period and you work around or solve that problem.
But i'm still curious to know how to reduce my PBIX file size so as when this file really grows it grows in a logical behavior.
Got it!
Open the Layout 'file' in Notepad++ and you will see large swathes of image information, which looks like the scatter.jpg and other image artifacts that were actually in your Static Resources folder are actually baked into the Layout 'file' as well.
You should be able to avoid the issue if you start from scratch and are very selective about the images that you introduce. Alternatively, you may well be able to compare the Layout 'file' for a new blank pbix with the one you have, and scrape out the jpg and png junk that you don't want.
e.g
"scatter.jpg","name":"scatter.jpg","content":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABAAAAAJACAIAAACc94OCAAAAAXNSR0IArs4c6QAAAARnQU1BAACxjwv8YQUAAAAJcEhZcwAACxIAAAsSAdLdfvwAAP+lSURBVHhe7J0FfBy38sfXSdM2Tdo0VKb3+l77ysxNm1IaZmZmZuaGmZmhScPM0DAzg0NOYmam/29mtLq989k+U5r2f9+PrZNGo9FIq9VKe3t3RqIbNw+W+HgJCXlFyDkpEZ8YhzCBkQiL00LaS2Qc+BkXR55PmLTw1u178RDEUWO5Ha46hC6CcnhE1IQlWyoNmF6iy7jb93wgiUlQpkRNQ6YTlBxhbBwLULNkpx2UVbGUUAdR6lK4WtYpttaxrQT0Q2w8GhHv7x9I44a7xaEKjqGgciZZLE5JlEyxHTle9wJDnusw59xtP5gCoiBZB8...
A 'blank' Layout only has the following
{"id":0,"sections":[{"id":0,"name":"ReportSection","displayName":"Page 1","ordinal":0,"visualContainers":[],"displayOption":1,"width":1280,"height":720,"config":"{}"}],"config":"{\"version\":\"2.1\",\"activeSectionIndex\":0}"}
Thanks Brian, this seems to be a good and fast workaround.
Do you think there should be a tool that should regenerate the layout file based on what the report has actually rather than keeps hold of all history?
The PBI Desktop tool should probably handle this more effectively itself, unless there's some gotcha's that aren't evident to you and I. I'll send some feedback through to the product team.
I have the same problem.......where do I find the layout file?