I am trying to save an assembly as an STL for 3D printing. I can save the file but when I open it up in my 3D printing software it shows bodies that I had hidden in my part files. The hidden bodies are crucial to the way the part was constructed so I cannot delete or suppress them. I was wondering if this issue of seeing the hidden bodies occurred when I saved the STL, or if it is happening in my 3D printing software.
Can you open the STL back in SW and check if you're still seeing those bodies. If yes then better export the assembly as Parasolid/STEP, open that file in SW. Now delete all unwanted stuff/bodies and save as STL. The only downside would be that all appearance and material information would lost.