If I want to export hundreds of mode shapes to small animation files what is the best way to do that considering speed of creation and small file sizes?
@AKD-Scripting-Team probably has some ideas here.
ACT solution: Time to save 200000 element model with 100 animations = 496.898170471 not very fast (and with transaction(clicks=True) won't work for updating animation).
A better idea would be to use pydpf. This could be via an IDE or, if you have everything set up correctly (python in PATH) you could create a ACT button that creates an input file that runs in cpython to run pydpf. https://dpf.docs.pyansys.com/version/stable/examples/02-modal_analyses/01-plot_and_animate_modes.html