Hello Dennis,
When executing the "Import Model Branch" function, EA makes a call to the version control system to update all files in the local working copy directory, immediately before it imports the root package of the model branch.
So, yes, this will potentially download all the files that belong in the local working copy directory associated with the Version Control Configuration controlling the model branch that is being imported.
This "update" is done because without it, we found that the status of package files was being incorrectly reported by certain VC products and the subsequent recursive import of child packages within the model branch was then failing.
You do actually need to download the package files associated with the model branch, so that EA can import them from the local working copy.
If you find that there are many unrelated files being downloaded as well, you should be able to alleviate this, by creating separate source control folders and corresponding workspaces within TFS, to contain only EA package files. (That is, you should be able to separate your program source code files from the EA package files.)
You could even separate package files specific to particular model branches and then, within EA, you can define multiple VC configurations, that make use of the separate workspaces.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Howard Britten.
