I am looking for a strategy of construction which will help me to export a low-polygon model after the design is finished. This is for a theater, so that the models can be rendered in a specialized lighting package. The program is different than most rendering packages because of the need to allow over 1,000 light fixtures. Needless to say, although it is optimized for a large number of light sources, a high polygon count certainly slows the process down.
I just went through a little testing with a utility that can export a 3DS file with adjustable complexity. However, the hollow tubing we commonly used is a problem. The inside of the tubing is useless for rendering, but not easy for this exporting program to automatically filter out when exporting.
I am thinking I can help the process by making it easy to suppress the interiors of the tubing by naming that feature something easy to suppress as a group. Perhaps something generic like "Suppress for Export" or to be shorter "S-f-E"? Anything I know I shouldn't export for rendering can have this in its feature name.
However, I can't picture how to do this with the weldment feature. Any suggestions?
Joe