@calypsoart said:
I'm working on a project that has a lot of metal and truss work. I may have put in too much detail, and the model is bogging down my machine. I'd like to reduce the load. I was wondering if there is some way to remove all instances of a component. E.g I put in rivets for the joints in the steelwork. In reality, these are invisible for most views unless zoomed way in. I could remove these rivets/components and it would not be noticed. Is there a plugin that might remove or allow me to swap out a complex component for a simpler one?
Component swapping is built-in - no need for a plugin.
Select the component and right-click. Select Save As... from the menu and save it a place where you'll find it (like where your scene is?).
Then you could "rebuild" your rivet to a single line (that could even be invisible), or some simple shape.
If/when you later find out that you need the rivets again, you just select one of the stand-ins, right-click and Reload... it. But before you do, save your simple rivet as Rivet_simple or something, so it is easy to get it back later.
Very convenient when building complex scenes - like with hundreds of 3D trees, cars, rivets or similar..
Just model very simple components and Reload more complex versions later when needed.