So I made a steel beam (parent component) with a hole (child component) with cutting properties through the web of the beam, when i scale the parent, the child copies at 32" intervals. BUT the copies are not cutting. how can i get the copies to also cut?
That is unfortunately a bug that has been there since the dynamic components feature was introduced many versions ago.
Anssi
First I am not a sketchup team member, but have looked at DCs for the last 3 years, so I only relate some of my experiments
You will find when you copy any hole, it does the same thing. Its not something unique to DCs. The “cutter” is not copied. However if you repeat the copy the cutter is copied but inside faces are formed, which then need deleting. Maybe the coders will be able to write some thing to fix this, but at this stage we have to work with it
There is a way to form and populate holes in DCs, at first it may sound complicated and very clunky.
However as you build DCs you will find this will be the case anyway. So I suggest that the approach to all DCs is to build them such that the first children are containers for either explosion or solid outer shelling or both. The idea being that after such operations one is left with a component that has the relevant data contain raw geometry. (Please note that the remaining component can be replace with its original or another that is built from the same definition, and its attributes will update)
Thus after purging the drawing one can reduce the file size, also it will help to protect some of your intellectual property.
When creating a family of objects, like beams it is best to derive them from the same definition, that way when they are swapped the common attributes will “update” to the current values
DC holes can be created, but they are required to be exploded to effect the raw geometry. Basically a DC hole is created by combining a bottom “cut face” hole DC with in a rim and hole with the upper “cut face”.
I have uploaded a hole cutter, which will create an array to give you an insight. Hole Cutter 2 (1).skp (34.4 KB)
Philip
Where would it be the best place to adress that in order to be fixed?
I think that by now the SketchUp developers should be aware of the problem.
Anssi