FEDEVEL
Platform forum

Christopher , 01-26-2021, 07:40 AM

Hello,
during the design and after the generation of the output data via the output job file, many files are generated.
Some of these files are useless (in my opinion). Please correct me if not.

Is there any reason, I should't delete any of the following files or folders. And if so, why?

Folder:
-Previews
-EcoLog
-History

Files:
*.PrjPcbStructure
Status Report.Txt
*.DRR
*.EXTREP
*.LDP
*.REP
*.RUL
*.APR_LIB

Best Regards,
Christopher

WhoKnewKnows , 01-26-2021, 03:43 PM

It seems like the biggest benefit to deleting stuff is to free up drive space. This was particularly important at the turn of the century when most computers used mechanical drives, un-optomised drives or insufficient space significantly slowed computers down, and drive space was much more expensive.

If you're doing frequent commits to a VCS, you could probably cut out some of the history data. Or, if there's a lot of old exports from release attempts, that stuff could be deleted. Other than that, I'd just let it go. I recommend to just archive in a zip file and move on to the next project.

If you're interested in freeing up drive space, Windirstat is a great utility for assessing what's taking up capacity.

Christopher , 01-26-2021, 11:17 PM

It's not only about space.
Less data increases clarity, it's more important than storage.

But the major intention for this post is:
I dont konw what the files used for. Even if i don't know and i don't need them, maybe someone else could use these files, e.g. the assembly house or the PCB-Fab?

robertferanec , 02-01-2021, 03:01 AM

This is what I normally ignore when I use github (this is may .gitignore file):

*/__Previews/
*/History/
* Logs*
Project Outputs *
*.DSNlck
*.PrjPcbStructure

When I transfer or upload projects somewhere (e.g. on a website or if I need to email it), I delete History and Previews directory (they are not necessary to open the design, but they can take a lot of space).