[Bf-python] efficient way to remove faces and edges from a mesh with python?

[wim van hoydonck]

Hi all,

I need to remove all faces and edges from a large mesh with python (see 
example
script below). But it seems to be extremely time-inefficient for large 
meshes. I
thought the time would increase linearly with the number of faces that has 
to be
removed, instead the time needed increases exponentially.
The little table below shows some results for a UV-sphere.
The last one even gave a negative time?

I hope somebody can tell me what I do wrong, or give a better solution for 
this
problem.

Kind regards,
Wim Van Hoydonck

-----------------------------------------------------------
number of faces(approx)       time [sec]
256                               0.01
1024                              0.04
4020                              0.86
6872                              3.5
9572                              8.1
38512                           141.4
154592                        -2033.847
------------------------------------------------------------
import Blender
from Blender import Object
import time

m = Object.GetSelected()[0].getData()

idx = []
for i in range(len(m.faces)):
	idx.append(i)

idx.reverse()

start = time.clock()
for i in idx:
	fa = m.faces[i]
	m.faces.remove(fa)
end = time.clock()

print end - start

m.update()

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