Subsymbol or node inheriting parent appearance aspects (or not)

I’m trying to create a reusable subsymbol that basically consists of three parts.

  1. a helix
  2. a ring around the helix
  3. an ‘energy ray’ emanating from the side of the helix

There will be several of these subsymbols in my project. Aside from their location, the only other differentiating aspect will be their color. That is, the ring and the ray will be the same color, which is different for each of the instances of the subsymbol, while the helix will always be white, for every instance.

I realize I can set the colors for each individual node at runtime, but I was wondering if it was possible to just set the color of the parent node and have some child nodes inherit this, while others override it. Then I’d only have to change the color of each of the subsymbols’ root nodes.
Ideal would be if the color could be adjusted independent of the opacity, so that I can have the helix and ring ‘fade in’ by changing the opacity of the root node, while still having the color of the helix overridden.

Hi @mark.gerritsen,

Thank for your question :slight_smile:

A object with a color property will inherit its values from a parent node/group in which it is a child.

To do this you can place both the ring and the ray into a group making sure that both of the color values are set to white defaulted. Once they are in a group, right clicking on the groups property color node will allow a reference to be made for it. An example of this can be seen below -

ReferenceRingAndrA

The sub symbol properties will now have the groups color value when it is dragged into the main scene, as seen below -

ReferenceRingAndRayColour

If you wanted to, an animation of a fade in/fade out timeline can be added to the main symbol or can be added to the sub symbol and referenced much like how the color was. Either way the colour will still be taken from the parent referenced node.

Hope this helps!

George

Hi George,

thanks for your quick reply! Yes, I figured out that setting the default value to white gives the child nodes the parent’s color; the color values seem to be added(?), as when you use something other than white, the color will be shifted along the rainbow, so to speak.

I gather that it is not possible for a child node to override its parent’s color setting, and that color and opacity are inseparable. This makes it impossible for me to set the subsymbol’s color while keeping its child-helix white (have the helix override its parent’s color setting). It also makes it impossible for me to have the ring and helix in different colors and just adjusting the subsymbol’s opacity setting to have them ‘fade in’ while keeping their own color.

While this all can still be done with a little more coding, and it’s just a minor inconvenience, I figured I’d ask to make sure I hadn’t missed a setting that simplified things :wink:

Thanks for clarifying!

Not working using the relativeTo property.