How to flatten a very complex object in Illustrator?

Question

I have this design I'm working on, I reached this point where the main object is like I want but it got really really complex.

Now, I want to keep only visible parts of it (what I see only), and discard everything else. (by flattening shapes layers, and keeping them in one layer of adjacent shapes)

I tried all I know to achieve this but I can't seem to do it without ruining transparencies, colors and clipping masks.

What I see (what I want to keep):

What it looks like without the white circle in the middle:

How complex it is in outline mode:

Is there a way to achieve this??

EDIT: As requested, here is the Ai file: https://goo.gl/Us3Vil

Thanks to everyone for the help!

EDIT 2

Thanks your everyone for your help, all of your solutions are helpful in different aspects.

I chose wch1zpink's answer because my work is Illustrator based and it really enhanced the performance in a noticeable way.

-I hope someone would find a more accurate solution to this problem, and post it, which would help us all in the future if we wanted to achieve the same thing.

Answer 1

If you want a quick and dirty solution to the performance issue, you could simply:

1. Import to Photoshop as a Smart Object;
2. Add a vector layer mask;
3. Continue working on Photoshop.

This way you keep your object as a vector, and you can always go back to edit it in Illustrator if you need to. The downside is that you leave Illustrator behind.

Answer 2

I deleted all my previous solutions after realizing that the easiest solution would actually be.

1. for convenience purposes, select that topmost circle in the image and go to your layers panel and create a new layer for the circle only and place that circle in the new layer.
2. toggle the visibility off on that circle layer so all you see is the art work with all the gradients. Copy that circle artwork to your clipboard

3. size the artboard to "fit to artwork bounds"

4. save and close that document
5. create a new illustrator document
6. go to menu item File/Place then select your original file you just closed and saved. Be sure to check the "Link" option.

Now your original gradient vector is placed as one solid object in your new file.

7. paste the circle artwork above the placed image in that new file (I colored it light gray just so we can see it)

8. select both objects on your art board. In your transparency panel, click "Make Mask" with invert mask option selected

Using the "place" with "link" option selected, at any time the original vector gradient Image can be edited and saved. These edits will update and appear in your new current document you are working in. The result is a much smaller file size in your working document with much less processor resources being used

Answer 3

If you want to keep the colours that are a product of overlapping, without actually having and overlapping of shapes, then: 1. Use the pathfinder tool and chop the illustration into all the overlapping intersections. Then take a screen shot of the image and place it in the .ai file, erase all unnecessary shapes and apply the colours from the screen shot (by using the eyedropper tool) to the remaining pieces.

Personally, however, I would keep the overlapping, because I am afraid, you might get weird white lines between the different shapes at certain sizes or file formats. The way I would approach this, is by only deleting everything below the white circle. I would use the Pathfinder tool for that. (1) copy the white circle, (2) select it with the shape you want to modify, (3) use pathfinder. Then paste in place the white circle and do the same for the next shape.

Answer 4

Can you first copy the Circle object, then with everything selected, use Object > Path > Divide Objects Below with the circle on top. It would chop everything up, then using your circle as a selection area (past in place the circle layer copy and lock that layer) then just manually delete all the inner chunks...

There's probably an easier way but this might work?