More than one year after the last reply. I am assuming no one found a solution?
I just started using dynamic components and I was starting to be happy of the possibilities they allow, but now I came across the same problem you guys have (it's what lead me to this thread).
It is very frustrating that I cannot seem to identify a rule as to why and when SketchUp decides to make a unique component. For example I have a pipe and users can input the lenght. The component works perfect, no renaming no unique copies, no problems.. no matter what kind of copy/move operation I do.
Now I designed a component a bit more complex. It includes 3 groups and one sub-component. The position of that sub-component plus the size of the groups change according to what the user chooses (drop-down list)
If I just insert the component and move it/copy it NO new instances are created. But If I go to attributes and select the second configuration, right after I press APPLY, a new instance is created #1. Now, copying this new component does not create a #2, BUT if I dare to change one of these copies back to the first configuration, it creates a new instance.
This really ruins the whole purpose of having dynamic components....
At least if we had control over the renaming, for example appending at the end of the initial name, the label of the attribute changed.