Component/Timeline Activation

[s.david.baxter]

Currently when you activate a Component the default positioning for the Timeline is at the beginning of the Timeline for that component.  Is there anyway to change the default from the beginning of the timeline to the end of the Timeline for that Component upon activation?

[jeff_strater]

can you record a video of what you are seeing, @s.david.baxter ?  Component activation actually does not reposition the timeline marker at all.  If you have "Hide all inactive features" checked in the little timeline gear icon:

Then, the timeline is filtered to show only features from the active component, but the end of design marker should not move as a result of activation.

[s.david.baxter]

Jeff thanks for the response.  I did a video on my phone about what my issue is, how is the best way to send this to you, it is probably too big for an email?

[chrisplyler]

What Jeff means is that, although the timeline only displays (at least by default) those entries that are associated with the activated component (and its sub-components), the timeline MARKER is still at the end of them. In other words, if you perform another action on the component, it will add another feature/event to the end of that timeline.

[s.david.baxter]

Yes, what you say is correct.  I will try to explain better.

Hypothetically, I am working in Component "A", I discover that I have made a mistake or want to edit a Feature, so I skip back down the timeline for Component "A".  I make the change at that point in the timeline.  Then, I activate Component "B" which also has a history some of which is dependent or related to features in Component "A".  The (I need a better word here but, will use ("timeline viewing position indicator" sits at the beginning of time.  At the end of time there are some features that are not active because they were impacted by the skip back down the timeline in Component "A".  I start adding new features to the Component "B" time line which are added after the impacted features.  This can cause problems.

If, upon entering a Component the "timeline viewing position indicator" sat at the end of time instead of the beginning of time I could see that I had made a change in another Component resulting in inactive/out of sync features and could then go back to that component and force the timeline to execute to the end of the time.  

I guess that I could also accomplish this by ensuring that any timeline is executed thru to the end of time for that Component before switching to another component.  Another one for the Best Practices Bible.

It's hard putting these issues in writing however, doing so does force one to think through the problem more completely hence the Best Practices comment.  That being said it would be nice if when entering a component the timeline "viewing" would skip automatically to the end.

[jeff_strater · Accepted solution]

@s.david.baxter - I understand the request.  Your description is clear.  That's not how it works today, though, so yes, it's a best practice issue now.  I always move the timeline marker back to the component I'm working on before I activate it.  That way, I keep all the features for that component together in the timeline.  I try to go one step further, and create a timeline group for each component's features, just for extra cleanliness of my timeline.

[chrisplyler · Accepted solution]

Oh... Now I understand.

Sure, if you back up the timeline in Component A, which was modeled prior to Component B, then when you activate Component B, of course it's going to be at the beginning...because you've got the timeline backed up.

You can't SEE the ENTIRE timeline when you have Component A active, but when you back the marker up, you've backed it up in the OVERALL timeline also. If you leave it there, then activate Component B, then of course it's in a place prior to when Component B was modeled, so it looks like it's sitting at the beginning.

The solution, of course, is to make your mods in Component A and return the marker to the far right before activating Component B.