Topics created by Torontoww

That's a good method. I used something similar when I did an animation of a sewing machine making a lock stitch. This is the first frame:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7093/7155097606_c0c1cc4f05.jpg

And part of it when you zoom in and use Perspective mode.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8160/7155097396_7060a07715.jpg

Everything but the tensioning knob is drawn flat but they are at different distances from the camera so some things are partially hidden behind others.

Let's say you have an instance of Component#1 that contains 'default-material' faces within it.
You apply Material#1 to that Instance#1 and it displays with Material#1.
If you select Instance#1 and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as Material#1.
If you edit Instance#1 and select a face and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'. It's just the display that is changed not the internal faces' material.
Then you have an instance of Component#2 that contains 'default-material' faces within it.
You apply Material#2 to that Instance#2 and it displays with Material#2.
If you select Instance#2 and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as Material#2.
If you edit Instance#2 and select a face and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'. It's just the display that is changed not the internal faces' material.
Now make a Component#3 which is made containing Instance#1 and Instance#2.
Its instance is Instance#3.
At this point Instance#3 has no material, as can be seen if you select it and use 'Entity Info', it shows its material as 'default-material'.
Instance#1 and Instance#2 inside Instance#3 will still display using their assigned materials.
You can check this too by editing Instance#3 ans using 'Entity Info' on the nested instances and the default material faces within them - which all remain as set out in the first couple of paragraphs above.
Now make a copy of Instance#3 - as Instance#4 - and another copy as Instance#5.
Give Instance#4 a new material - Material#666 - its appearance is not changed [as there is nothing within it using the default-material for that material to 'display' on]; although if you use 'Entity Info' on it it will say its material is Material#666.
Now explode Instance#4, the two previously nested instances are now separated again and display the exact same materials as before and their internal faces' default-material as before when queried with 'Entity Info'.
Now give Instance#5 Material#666 - it looks just like the last one...
Now edit Instance#5 and change the material of one of the nested instances to the 'default-material'.
They will now display with Material#666 because a container's material is used for any contents that use the default-material - be they faces or instances/groups...
Explode Instance#5, the two previously nested instances are now separated again, one will display the exact same material as before, BUT the one that has the default-material will now show it has Material#666 when you use 'Entity Info' - this is because when you Explode any container its material [if any] is passed on to any of its contents that have the default-material - be they faces or instances/groups...
This is perfectly logical.
If you don't want it to happen, then don't leave nested objects without materials and then explode them. 😕

Another way, but a bit more complex, is to open the file with the "wrong" components in it.
Then bring in the proper component from your library, just one copy is needed.

Move it close to one "wrong" component or a copy of it.
Copy the proper component to the clipboard.
Open to edit the "wrong" component and delete all its entities. Basically you want an empty bounding box, but you may elect to keep 1 or 2 lines of the old entities for alignment purposes.

Paste-in-place the proper component and move it into its correct position, now inside the "wrong" components bounding box. Then explode the proper component. The "wrong" component is now fixed, retaining the old name and attributes. Close the component and delete the copy you brought in.

Thanks. I have to say though that it seems odd and unintuitive for the screen not to go back to your original drawing and layers, etc, if you click View|Scenes to hide the scenes. One accidental click of View|Scenes (if you haven't created a 'WIP' layer, as you suggest) and you lose what the drawing you were working on looked like and have to do a lot of work to get it back to where it was before (albeit no actual redrawing).

Thanks. I understand. Someone on here kindly and generously gave me a long online tutorial on geometry vs components and now I fully understand the many things I was not understanding properly. You have been a help too. All my questions (so far) are answered. Thanks.

I'm not having this '/" issue - both work fine Scaling 'upfront' for me...
Also the '/" keys are in different places on a USA keyboard so the problem might occur for you differently - e.g. 'backwards'...