Does anyone know how to identify components that are exactly the same and combine them? I have a model with 1000s of components, but many are exact copies of each other. At one point they were made unique but I would like them to be connected again. Is there an extension out there that can do this?
For example, say you have
Component#1
Component#2
Component#3
They are all the same but unique. Is there a plugin that can find them all and replace them all with the same component? I understand I could do this manually, but is there another way?
In the Components browser right click on the component you want to replace and click Select Instances. Then right click on the one you want to replace them with and choose Replace Selected.
If you have a component and you make 5 unique copies, how do you undo that. Make 5 unique components, that are actually identical, 5 copies of the same component.
Select the ones that shouldn’t be unique. You can do that in the model space or Outliner if you want. Then right click on the one you want to replace them with in Components and choose Replace Selected.
@djoseph@thomthom Thank you so much! I import truss models from a truss manufacturer and all of their trusses import as unique components, even though there are a ton of duplicate, identical trusses. Their technician had no solution for keeping their component definition intact.
I ran thomthom’s Component Comparison tool on this small building and it took less than 2 seconds! I went from 79 unique component definitions down to 13. This tool works perfectly for this.
Alright, I tried a bigger one. This was 330Mb DXF import of trusses with 1,367 unique component definitions. I ran the Component Comparison tool and it took about 30 seconds to reduce it down to 98 unique components. Amazing!
I used this on an IFC import of the steel shop drawings for a large school. IFC imports are full of unique components that have identical geometry, which is very frustrating. CC reduced the file size from 180mb to 20mb, and increased performance by about the same ratio. This is a very useful extension!
Note: SU said this extension wasn’t signed, and there was no feedback at all while it was running - which I left it to do overnight. When I came back in the morning it was done, but one suggestion for the future would be to give some kind of progress bar.
Thanks TT! I use your extensions pretty much every day. Cleanup - Solid Inspector - Selection Toys.
