I Draw a line of 10 tubes
I draw a line of 70 tubes perpendicular

Union All maybe 15-30 seconds
Cut by a line above the line of 10 tubes

Select all
Draw a line of 6 copy of the "selection"

Select all
Boolean Union - 2 minutes

Total times elapsed 2.15 minutes or maybe 2.30 (i7 - 2014 windows 10)
so 4900 tubes intersections / Unions as result

155 megas (3dm): Challenge is open! :)

Hi,

I selected all, then clicked join,
then I selected all, clicked boolean union and about a minute later it was done,
worked like a charm.
Win 10, 16 GB memory, Intel I7-4820 MoI V3 trial

Hi All, thanks to all for your various insights extremely helpful - as always the MOI forum a gold mine full of talent.

best regards
Alex.

@death

wow that's interesting. i will have to remember that trick if i run into an issue like this. i never would have thought to try just joining surfaces before a boolean op.

Join actually has no effect on objects that are already solids.

- Michael

Well, whatever the side effect is, it works for me, 52 seconds flat!