I wonder whether there is some way to suppress sub components (inside a master component) to show up in the component browser? This would preferably be done through the API, but manual tricks (if possible) are welcome as well.
To clarify, I have file containing some face me components. This file is loaded as a component in a model file. What I want is for the component browser to only show the outer component in order to avoid clutter.
At present, no. That’s because all components are able to have additional instances placed anywhere in the model; there is no setting to constrain them to be allowed only inside a specific parent component. Unless you need the functionality of components (edit one affects all), you could use groups for the nested bits instead. Groups aren’t shown in the component window.
Well, I need the face me behavior for the nested parts, so I guess I’m out of luck…Thank’s for the quick response.
That might be so, but you should be able to ‘show nested components’ like in Model Info->Statistics.
Or:
In the Generate report, you have the ability to show a range of levels, eg. 2-4
This will only report the (nested) components and groups that are on these levels!
It would be nice if you could filter in the component browser, too (but definitively in Outliner)
If the parent component is linked to an external file, the sub components are by default hidden (unless they are also used outside the linked parent component). This is a quite handy way to get rid of clutter when composing large models from external sources.
There is also a hack-ish approach by adding a specific attribute to the dynamic components dictionary (because as we all know Dynamic Components is a weed with roots stretching far into the SU core) but I can’t remember the exact name.
You could also try using groups.
As things turned out, always_face_camera is an option for groups as well contrary to my initial beliefs, so the problem was solved by using groups.