I have a few objects that I am merging (20,000 tris) and just before the merge I have a transform node to position the part. When I move the object like this I get very slow viewport updates, maybe 1-5 fps. When I disconnect that transform from the merge I can still see the other parts ghosted in wireframe and I can move the object smoothly now, but the wireframe is very difficult to use for positioning in perspective. That and the fact that it hides itself when moving the object I am trying to position.

Is there something I can do to get better viewport updates when merging objects or is there a way to get an xray ghost for other objects rather than the white wireframe?

Thanks a lot.

Edit: Some of the other objects are copied with Copy and Transform a few dozen times, but nothing crazy. If I enable “pack and instance” I get viewport responsiveness back, but now my booleans on those objects dont work because they are packed objects.

The Merge generates new geometry, which is a slow operation.
I tend to transform the object before plugging it into the Merge. You can Ctrl-click on the template flag of your merge to see the shaded result while you're working on the Transform node. Once your Transform is good, you can hook it into the merge and untemplate.

Ah, I get it. The Ctrl-click on the template flag helps a lot. That's what I needed, thanks a lot man.