How do I export a site without it's Node data? I have a site with very high volumes of data (1000+ nodes per day * 3+ years and growing each day). When we need to create a development snapshot of this database it takes FOREVER to import it.

I know this is a long shot, but is there a way to export this database without our node data? Specifically which tables can we excise?

I know as we add more and more custom modules, more and more things will break when we do something like this. But let's say we are just using Drupal 6 core modules with CCK. Would it be possible then? If not, what would we break by doing this and could breaking it be fixed?
Could you just export the db in a typical fashion?  Via PHPmyadmin or command line?

Also, Backup and Migrate lets you choose to export table structure without data.