In the Preferences dialog and Files tab, there is the option to compress on save.  I’ve always done this since the files turn out very small compared to the uncompressed state.  Also, I’ve had problems loading the uncompressed version.

So I’m wondering, what is the drawback to compressing?

I recall people having problems compressing files in the past.  This is several versions ago, however, and Autodesk has probably improved the process.  Without doing some testing on it, I can’t say for certain but I would imagine that the time to save and open a compressed file would likely be longer than an uncompressed file.  Myself, I save about every 10 to 20 minutes as I’m working, and save incrementally.  Adding time to the saving process, especially in large files, gets annoying.

Also, the more complex a process, the more likely it is to fail.  I like to adhere to the KISS rule as much as possible.  Keep It Simple, Stupid!  Compressing the file is one more thing that could possibly go wrong when working in Viz.  And I save to our server, which has over 300 GB free, so file size is not really much of a concern when it comes to storage.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA

I just did a quick test using a file I’m working on now.  The file size (uncompressed) is 2775 KB, and opens rather quickly.  I saved a compressed version, restarted Viz, and it opened with no noticeable change in time.  The compressed file size, however, was only 344KB.  That’s about 12% of the original file size.  I’m impressed.  I did another test with a 5659 KB file that takes about 50 seconds to open.  The compressed version took about the same amount of time to open, and the size is down to 720 KB.  Again, just over 12% of the original. 

So I may be wrong about saving and opening compressed files.  I don’t have any really large files to try it on, though.

3DS Max Design 2011 64-bit - Advantage Pack
Dell Precision T5500, Dual Six Core Xeon X5650 @ 2.67GHz, nVidia Quadro 5000, 24 GB RAM, Win 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Thank you for taking a look at this.  I’ve been using files that save uncompressed to about 600+ mb.  Astonishingly big.  We have limited space on our server, so attempted to use the compressed format which saved it down to a couple of megabits, quite a bit more than 12% difference.  I’ve had problems opening the larger files in the past, but not recently.  Compressed files seem to come up faster to me, but I should do some timed tests like you did.

I wonder if my files compress smaller because I am file linking all geometry in?  Or substituting/xreffing objects in?

I see your point about additional things going wrong with compression though, I was having a rendering problem before I posted this and was curious if that was partly to blame.  The problem I was having was an object rendered black when it’s material is white in the xref file.