Why is the size of my analysis file, containing only linked or external data, so large?

Why is the size of my analysis file, containing only linked or external data, so large?

A Spotfire analysis file (.dxp) containing only linked or external data, i.e. no embedded data, is larger than expected. When extracting it, unexpectedly large data table files can be found in underlying data table folder.

One possible reason for this could be that the analysis contains large amounts of data consisting of cached calculated columns. Having this cached can help speed up the loading time of the analysis, but at the expense of making the analysis file size larger.  If so desired, caching of calculated columns can be disabled for an analysis file, in the following way:

For TIBCO Spotfire Analyst version 10.0 and higher:
Go to Data menu  > Data table properties > In the General tab, uncheck "Cache calculated columns"

For TIBCO Spotfire Analyst version 7.14 and lower:
Go to Edit menu > Data table properties > In the General tab, uncheck "Cache calculated columns"

After changing this, save the analysis again to save it without cached calculated columns.  Keywords: linked, external, data table file, extract file