I was wondering if anyone out there knows of a way to suppress features in a part to reduce it's size in the computer memory and have it be a setting: kind of like when working with an assembly that has multiple levels of detail and you suppress specific parts by just selecting a given LOD and not searching for each part every time. Basically we are working on a very large overall assembly (submarine sails with structure, and many sub-systems) with thousands of individual pieces. With the many 3D surfaces the files get huge. I have been working on the cat-walk grating inside the sail, which is expanded metal, made by an extruding the diamond shape then arraying it across the panel. When i do it this way it looks pretty realistic (which the navy brass loves to see) but it's a very big file. I have also removed the diamond cuts and then applied the ExpandedMetal01 Document Appearance, which i can turn on and off using the Part view representation (View:) in the browser, this makes a smaller file but it's not as realistic. Basically what I want to do is have one "level of detail" with the cuts & array and a solid color applied for a more realistic look (close ups in Inventor Studio), then have another "level of detail" with the cuts & array suppressed and the ExpandedMetal01 appearance applied for a smaller file (wide shots in Inventor Studio). With many parts to work with a Level of Detail type set-up would make things faster and easier to change. Sorry it's so long winded. Thanks for any advice.
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