How do I hide all Axis Systems WITHOUT expanding the tree?

I've seen this problem many times. Not sure about V6, but here's what to do with V5. With the assembly open you can do a Edit + Search to Find and Select all the Axis Systems in all the parts, and then Hide them all in one operation. (Let me know if you need the specific steps)

Since Hide/Show is a "toggle" operation, the first time you do this will probably Show all the Axis Systems. So, you will have to repeat the steps.

Depending on how complex the assembly is, this might take awhile.

(I teach all of my students to always Hide all Planes and all Axis Systems before they save each part - then this situation never happens)

You could try using a macro like:

Sub CATMain()
Set productDocument1 = CATIA.ActiveDocument

If Not (Right(productDocument1.Name, (Len(productDocument1.Name) - InStrRev(productDocument1.Name, "."))) = "CATProduct") Then
Dim Error As Integer
Error = MsgBox("This Script only works with .CATProduct Files" & vbNewLine & "Please Open a .CATProduct to use this script", vbCritical)
Exit Sub
End If

Set product1 = productDocument1.Product

Set productDocument1 = CATIA.ActiveDocument

Set selection1 = productDocument1.Selection

selection1.Search "CatPrtSearch.AxisSystem,All"

Set visPropertySet1 = selection1.VisProperties

visPropertySet1.SetShow catVisPropertyNoShowAttr

selection1.Clear
End Sub

Or you could just use the search option, search by element and then select all elements that are found and toggle hide.