Smart optimisev1

The other tools in this group each do one job. Smart optimise runs them for you, one after another, on the whole scene. Use it when you want a lighter model and do not want to choose the order yourself.

It is lossy: it removes parts and triangles. The whole run is one undo step, so one CtrlZ takes everything back.

Steps

1. Open a model.
2. Open the card Smart optimise: press CtrlK and type Smart optimise, or choose it in the … list. It opens over the viewport.
3. Choose how far to go: Auto, Light, Balanced or Strong. Auto is the default.
4. Look at Target. Type another number if you need one, for example 300k or 1.5m.
5. Read the line under the controls. It spells out what the run will do, in order. With Auto it also says which level was chosen, for example “Auto picked Balanced for 1,103,373 triangles in 43 parts”.
6. Press Optimise.
7. When it is done, a message gives the triangles before and after and how many parts were removed.
8. Look at the model. If it lost too much, press CtrlZ once and try a lighter level.

In the card, Enter runs it, like Optimise, and Esc puts the card away.

Scan first

Press Scan to look through the model before anything is changed. The list under it says what each look found: empty parts, exact copies, hidden parts, fasteners (with their share of the triangles), small parts (for the percentage in the card) and holes. A line with nothing to do says none. Highlight (the crosshair) selects the parts of a finding so they are outlined in the view; Isolate shows only them, and pressing it again shows everything. The scan changes nothing and leaves your selection as it was. When the number of triangles or parts changes afterwards the list dims and Rescan comes back. A big model takes a little while: the hidden-parts look draws the scene from many sides.

The levels

A level is a starting point. It sets the switches under Steps and the triangle target.

Auto

Chooses from how heavy the scene is: under 200,000 triangles it uses Light, under 2 million it uses Balanced, and above that Strong. The line under the controls says what it chose.

Light

Only tidies. It removes empty parts, parts whose triangles have no area, empty groups and exact copies. No triangles are reduced.

Balanced

Also removes parts hidden inside the model, turns bolts, nuts and washers into plain cylinders, removes parts smaller than 1% of the model, and reduces the scene to half its triangles.

Strong

Like Balanced, but it removes parts smaller than 2%, also closes holes in flat faces, and reduces the scene to a quarter of its triangles.

The steps

Open Steps in the card to see each switch. If you change one, no level is lit any more: the settings are yours. Each step is the same tool you could run by hand.

Empty parts

Parts with no triangles, parts whose triangles have no area, and groups with nothing left in them. See Quick fixes and tidying up.

Hidden parts

Parts that cannot be seen from outside, from any direction. See Select hidden parts.

Fasteners

Found by their shape, up to a thread of M30, as in Fasteners. Keep leaves them alone. Simplify turns each into a plain cylinder. Delete removes them.

Small parts

Parts whose box, measured from corner to corner, is shorter than this share of the whole model. 0 leaves small parts alone. See Delete small parts.

Holes

Closes holes in flat faces, with the settings and the size limit of the Remove holes panel. See Remove holes.

Exact copies

The same part twice in the same place: only the second copy goes, and parts that merely share a shape stay. It is the removal that Duplicates does in Quick fixes and tidying up. It is on at every level.

Tolerance

Takes triangles out of each part for as long as no point of its surface moves by more than this many millimetres. 0, the default, leaves it out. It runs before the triangle target.

Reduce triangles

A switch of its own. On: the densest meshes are reduced until the whole scene has the number of triangles in Target, as in Fit to budget. Off: the run only removes and tidies, and every mesh that stays keeps all its triangles. If the target is not lower than the scene has now, nothing is reduced.

Target

How many triangles the whole scene may have after the run. You can write 150000, 150k or 1.5m. Choosing a level sets it from the scene you have now. A number you type is kept.

The steps always run in this order: tidy up, exact copies, hidden parts, fasteners, small parts, holes, tolerance, then the reduction. Removing comes before reducing on purpose, so no effort goes into thinning a part that is deleted a moment later.

Recipes

Open Recipes in the card to keep the settings under a name with Save these…, and run them again later with Apply and run, for example on the next revision of the model. Export and Import move saved recipes between computers as a small file, and Delete removes one.

While it runs

A progress card names the step that is running. Cancel stops the run before the next step and keeps what has already been done. Each step writes a line to the Console (the button at the bottom of the window), and one summary is shown at the end.

Undo

The whole run is one undo step. CtrlZ takes all of it back, and redo does all of it again.