Making Component Unique or Shared

Components in the 3D world with the same VCID can share identical feature trees. This is indicated by a feature selection and has an added benefit in terms of memory. Identical means the components are exact copies of one another. Generally, this occurs when you copy and paste or clone a component.

By default, if you drag and drop a component in the 3D world the component will not share its feature trees. You can override this by editing the <add key="FeatureTreeAutoSharing" value="False" /> element in the VisualComponents.Engine.exe.config file.

Auto Sharing

You can try to make a component share its features with as many components as possible.

1. Click the MODELING tab.
2. In the 3D world, right-click and then point to Tools and then click Auto share. This will evaluate all components in the 3D world and try to share as much as possible.
3. In the 3D world, select a feature to confirm if it is being shared with features in other components.

Make Unique

Generally, it is not recommended to remodel components with shared features. That is, make a component unique before editing its features.

1. Select a component or one of its features.
2. In the 3D world, right-click and then point to Tools and then click Make component unique.