Increment and Save vs. Cache

I ran some tests, but the result were not fully conclusive…

My environment:

macOS 14.7.1 (23H222)

AAE 25.1.0 (Build 68)

From what I saw it seems more like the cache contents are linked to specific elements inside a document and not to specific documents. So each element (comp/layer/etc.) has cache items associated with it and that association is created whenever a parameter of that element is changed. So, as long as no parameter is changed, you can save the document under any name – the link to its cache item will stay intact and it will not be duplicated. Only as you change some parameter a new cache item will be created. Old ones do not seem to be removed, though - just overwritten by new ones, once the cache hits its max size.

I tested by creating a comp with some layers and some random animations in them. I then played through the comp, closed AAE, re-opened AAE and the project, and again played through the comp. I did this multiple times and then started to make changes (very slightly resize the layers - just enough to constitute a change), save under different names, Increment and Save, etc. – after each step checking the current space occupied by the AAE cache.

The cache space mainly increased when making changes, not when doing an "Increment and Save" or saving under a different name.

But I also had strange behaviours:

For exampe when playing through a more complex comp the cache size increased each time also without applying any changes. I played through once, closed, re-opened, played through again and so on. Each time the cache grew bigger until reaching its max. I have no explanation for that…

So my conclusion is: Increment and Save does not seem to fill up the cache more than saving under the same filename each time. But AAE fills the cache in difficult to predict ways and it's a good idea to empty it often…

That's a really good question and I imagine your conclusion is correct, but I'd be interested to learn if that is the case.