Sizer.Net

While working on a .NET project, you may occasionally need to explore the contents of an assembly in order to see how large the various constituent components are. If you’re looking for a quick way to go about it, this tiny utility may prove helpful.

Sizer.Net is a portable, open-source program that lets you instantly load a .NET assembly and analyze the dimensions of everything in it. It is very easy to use and can help you work more efficiently.

If this application has one thing going for it, it’s how little time it takes to set it up and actually analyze an assembly. Just unpack the archive, run the executable and browse to the location of the EXE or DLL file you wish to load.

Sizer.Net displays every component in a tree view and the accumulated size on the right. If you select an item, it will be highlighted along with the line that makes it easier to find its size in the second column.

As the developer clearly states, the application will not always show byte-accurate information, as it relies on inspection via .NET Framework’s built-in reflection.

The size of byte instructions of functions is accurate, but overhead from types, fields and other objects is estimated. While more accurate readings would be possible with a custom .NET metadata reader library, this has not been implemented.

Sizer.Net doesn’t need to be installed before it is launched, and its file size is almost negligible. It is, therefore, very easy to deploy, and users also have the option of running it directly from the command console.

In short, this is a useful tool for .NET programmers, but it does have its downsides. While it is very easy to use and extremely lightweight, it will not always display byte-accurate size readings.