Open or extract parts of a very large .blend file

Question

I accidentally saved a large research project in a single .blend file and closed it. It is 304.4MB and it crashes blender every time I try to open it on several different windows 64-bit and 32-bit machines with relatively powerful GPUs (Quadro 4000, GTX 670, GTX 690).

Is there a way to extract anything out of this file and/or break-up the file perhaps as a way to work around this?

See How can I reuse existing materials, objects, etc from an existing .blend?. TL;DR Just append stuff out bit by bit. — iKlsR, Oct 17 '13 at 19:50
Do you have VBO enabled? 300 MB is not thaaat large, I wonder why it crashes... — CodeManX, Oct 18 '13 at 00:32
Don't know what VBO is. I have been vexed by this for a couple weeks. Still don't know why it is crashing. Last changed the file in 2.4 when I added rigging to a vertebrate skeleton — DistractedProf, Oct 18 '13 at 01:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:57

Borrowing an extract from RolandiXor's answer, you can create several new files and append pieces out of the large.blend file.

Appending

This creates a full copy of the existing data, which you can modify without issue and include in the file you are editing. You do not need to keep both files together. You are also fully able to edit the appended data (such as an object, material, or scene) without affecting the original file from which you appended.

Appended objects have an orange outline when first appended (with the default theme), but once you deselect them, then select them again, they show as normal objects do.

When you enter the blend file, you will be shown several directories, these are the categories in which a general scene is grouped. I would suggest moving large models (located in Objects) into their own files (and adjusting any modifiers that might be on them such as subsurf) and if you need to recreate the scene again, use the other technique which is Linking which will allow you can attend to specific models without all the overhead of a cluttered scene.

It is a very good idea not to keep large scenes that consist of several models, multiple textures and effect systems in one file but to rather distribute these over several files and then link these into one file. The advantages of doing this are numerous.

To efficiently work with a heavy scene or dense meshes, you can find several tips here.

Can this (appending) be done without opening the monsterous file I accidentally created? Or am I SOL with the existing file and just learn better workflow in the future? — DistractedProf, Oct 17 '13 at 21:07
@DistractedProf You don't really 'open' the file, you browse through it as you would a filesystem. Press Shift + F1, find the file and select it. See the answer for more details. — iKlsR, Oct 17 '13 at 21:09
Thank you for teaching me something new. I will try this out. — DistractedProf, Oct 18 '13 at 01:33

Open or extract parts of a very large .blend file

1 Answers1

Appending