Components dissappear

[kmcgheeCMFPG]

So I have three mechanics tool chests donated to my high school auto program. I am designing a new wooden cabinet to surround them with a large tool board to go over top. My work flow was to create a component with bodies to represent the cabinets. Which I did. I then created a new component that would be the cabinet I want to build around them. When I create that component and activate it, my tool cabinet from the previous component disappears and I can no longer reference it. Why is it vanishing? The cabinet was made first in the timeline so it should be visible. File attached.

[norbertut]

Hi, from my point of view this is normal behavior.

If you start working on the new component, it is correct that it disappears when you activate it.

But you can reference it through projections (Sketch - Project and take the borders of the cabinet)

I created a sketch based on your file, where I project the shape and then performed an offset and created a line.

The projected lines are recalculated, in case you apply changes to the other component.

If you have  autoprojection activated in your preferences it may create the lines automatically when clicking on them to draw something in your sketch (not using this in my case).

[TrippyLighting]

I agree with @norbertut. When you activate a component, all others will turn transparent, but can still be selected.

The other thing that happens is that the timeline gets filtered to show only those features that belong to the activated component.

Both of these behaviors can be turned off, but I wouldn't recommend it for general work.

[kmcgheeCMFPG]

This is my problem, I can't select the other components.

[TrippyLighting]

Select where ? IN the viewport ? In the Browser ? in the timeline ?

Can you create a screencast to show that behavior ?