The limitation is based to a great extent on the types of geometry needed to be included in a Drawing view so that things like Hidden-Line-Removal, selection of edges for annotation, creation of section views, etc work as expected. This is the area where we feel the maximum benefit can be achieved and it's where were are working at the moment.
Much of this requires that we make fundamental changes to the way so-called 'lightweight' representations of a model are stored and used by the system when displaying and interacting with models during a session of NX.
Anyone currently running NX 7.5, if you used the OOTB box settings, should have noticed that the display performance for assemblies, when working in many of the non-Drafting modules, is now much better. This is the result of work done at the very lowest levels of NX to assure that not only are we using the these lightweight representations for display of your models, but also that we can work with them in a manner such that you do not have to worry about whether you have an exact versus a 'lightweight' representation available when you need to perform some sore of in-context modeling operation. This is what we would like to have when working in a Drawing as well, being able to leverage as lightweight a representation as possible without having to fully load an exact model to perform everyday Drafting operations as mentioned above.
But getting back to what can be done today, as mentioned by
Toost, not including every small or minor part in every view, particularly if you are performing a full hidden-line-removal (NO dashed hidden edges) on your Drawing views. To this end, the judicious use of the...
Assemblies -> Context Control -> Hide Components in View...
...can pay significant dividends when it comes to the time needed to compute the hidden-edge views of large and/or complex assemblies.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.