With the LDraw Boxer utilities, you can scan for all non-transparent parts that has their studs and bottoms covered with other non-transparent parts. Then the program replaces them with plain boxes, relieving POV from parsing studs and bottom tubes that can't possibly be seen anyway.

There are two versions of LDraw Boxer, the old not even semi-automatic but with lots of user options, and the new, fully automatic that only replaces those parts that should be absolutely safe to replace.

But you should read the information first...

Needed boxed parts and info files b.zip (12-Feb-2003, 34 kb)
New, fully automatic version p_ld1.zip (12-Feb-2003, 170 kb)
Old version with lots of user options ldbox02a.zip (12-Jun-2002, 185 kb)

Important! First you need to download this file archive, b.zip, create a folder named B into your LDraw\Parts folder and unpack the files into your LDraw\Parts\B. Don't overwrite your original parts in the LDraw\Parts folder - you'll regret it!

Let's try this very simple sample file:

It looks like this in L3Lab

The green one can't be replaced because its bottom tubes can be viewed from below or reflected.
The red one obviously can't be replaced as the top studs are very visible and it would look strange without them.
But the yellow one can be replaced.

Let's see if LDBoxer agrees on that! Run the automatic LDBoxer, open test.ldr, and click on the AutoCheck button.

Yes! The yellow brick in the middle is checkboxed, which means the LDBoxer thinks it's ok to replace it. If you think it's ok to replace the green one, too, just checkbox that one. If you for some reason think that a part shouldn't be replaced, just uncheck that line.

If you click on the Replace Button, the referenced parts in the checked lines will be replaced with B\*.dat if there exists a boxed version in the Parts\B folder. You also get a report at the end of the file on how many parts have been replaced:

Just click on the Save and Exit buttons if you want to keep the changes.