File impossibly slow. Is there anything that I can change to make it usable?

[edcasati]

The attached file became unusably slow. Are there any optimizations that anyone can see to make it usable again? What I want to do is remove a few of the hexagon tiles.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

in pattern 4 there are > 10k faces.
This is an order of magnitude that has reached the limit of what is feasible at least if not already exceeded.
Since you used the area option for the patterns, I cannot imagine a further optimisation.

günther

[edcasati]

I understand that processing and rendering 1000 little parts is going to take a lot of time.

If I were to place all those little parts all in one component, is there a way that the component can be 'turned off' so that it is completely ignored by the computer? That way I could do all the other work at a decent speed, and just turn the difficult component on  when actually needed.

Think of it this way: I model a building that has a brick covered façade. The bricks are too detailed  and the system grinds down to a crawl. So I disable the façade, the computer completely ignores it, but it still exists. The computer works again. At the end of the design process, I turn the façade back on, the computer starts calculating it again and slows down to a crawl, but at least I have been able to continue to work with the file in the interim.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

try this:

Rightclick feature & SUPPRESS

günther

[edcasati]

Aha! That seems to be a usable workaround.

I had to suppress the first 'extrude' command that generated the first part that became the array of >1000 parts. It caused a cascade of parts that disappeared due to the inexistence of the first element. 

Of course, that has consequences further down the line if there are any elements that depend on the existence of a suppressed element, such as distances, edges as plane references, etc.

The 'suppress' command only seems available on the timeline, and not on the browser. You can not suppress a part, you have to suppress the action that created a part, which ends up suppressing many parts if you are dealing with an array.

It sure would be nice to be able to suppress an entire component, which contains the sketch, the extrude and the elements of the array. 

So the practical answer to my original question is that if you have something that is creating many parts and slowing down the computer, suppress that something in the timeline, and turn it on only when needed to create the detailed design.

Thanks! I knew there had to be a way to work with the original file.

[g-andresen]

Hi,

I suppress such features  in the timeline (e.g create pattern) that causes a high computing effort. But if possible I put them at the end of the timeline.

günther

[edcasati · Accepted solution]

Follow up question.

Since I am basically plotting a grid of hexagons on the surface of a cylinder, I tried using a 'Bump Map' by applying an 'Appearance'. It works great for a render, looks good and is very fast. But I can't get an STL to include the bump map appearance. Is there a way to 'bake in' the appearance so it will be included in the STL export?

[jeff_strater]

No.  A bump map is not geometry, it is just graphics effects to make the model look correct.  STL only references model geometry, not graphics.

[daniel_lyall]

@edcasati You would have to use a program that converts hight maps to solids, like this