Can I load Nested components only when needed?

woodster · 1 Aug 2010, 15:08

I am currently building a dynamic component of a storefront glazing system. you can set the overall size, decide if you want vertical mullions and the number of them, horizontal Mullions and set the heights. so far everything seems to work great Visually. (as far as I've taken it)
what I have a problem with is, If I have a punched opening with no mullions, say 4' square, and generate a report for length and quanity of peices, the mullions (both vertical and horizontal) still show up in the report. This does make sense because they really do exist in the parent component, just hidden. Can they be loaded only if required? I thought I might be able to use the "choose" function or an "If" statement to load these Individual components, but the function tutorials on the 3dwarehouse are not quite sinking in. I did asked this question before in the Newbie section, but thought I'd give this forum a try.
Thanks for any help.

pyroluna · 16 Aug 2010, 00:34

Eh. I don't think so... if you would use subcomponents that would not be in use at all times, they would get deleted if the user purges his model, and your DC would be broken. Same story as with the materials that need a swatch if you don't use them permanently. Each component should have at least one instance.
You could maybe use copies instead of show/hide? or in addition to it?

Good luck with it... let know when you've found a solution

woodster · 16 Aug 2010, 20:09

Pyroluna.. thank you for your response.
The hidden / nested components won't purge because the main component is being used in the model.
I have also tried using different layers to turn things on and off, but they (meaning various hidden mullions) still show up in the report I generate even though they're not visually shown.
The only way I've been able to get around this, is to go into the outliner window and manually delete any nested component that is hidden (or greyed out) then if I run a report, the hidden nested components will not be included in the newly generated report. It's just a manual way of doing something I thought I could/should be able to control automatically.
thanks again..