unlinking linked groups of linked objects

I'm just getting started making things in sl, and I've run into this quandry: I have a two-stage project, where I create some objects and link them; then, I make copies, reposition them and link these copies together. So, I have two stages of linking. The problem is that if I unlink, I do not go down one linking stage, I go down to the root prims. This makes it nearly impossible to edit the composite (linked) objects created at stage 1. Or, am I missing something? Somehow I feel that the creative experts in sl must have a more efficient way to edit composite objects.

Thanks,
Craig

Hi Craig. Welcome to SL and its dreaded lack of heirarchy.

At SLCC last year, I asked Cory Linden if there were any plans to ever increase the linking heirarchy beyond just one level. His response as best I can remember it was, "Well, when we first designed the system, our thought was 'nature doesn't have heirarchy, so why should we?'. That philosophy was wrong, so yes, we do have plans to add that."

That was just a few weeks shy of one year ago, and we're still at one level for everything. SL's far from perfect in many ways, and the modeling system is no exception. It's still a great place to be though, and a wonderful public creative outlet. It just requires some rethinking of your normal modeling process.

Hi Chosen, thanks for your reply. I've never done 3D modeling before, so its all new to me.

Could you answer one more question? The last prim linked into a group is outlined in yellow. What is the significance of that?

PS, a "search" in the help menu would be very useful.

Thanks,
Craig

Hi Craig, it is the root prim. Significant in many ways.
From:http://secondlife.com/badgeo/wakka.php?wakka=link:
The last selected prim is the parent/root. (This is probably mostly useful in scripting, but a non-scripting use is ordering behavior of multiple sit targets in a linkset.)

Hi Craig,

Since all of the prims in a linked set are at the same level, a useful option SL offers is the ability to unlink one prim at a time.

Select the linked set, and in edit mode, click on the "Edit Linked Parts" checkbox in the top part of the edit window, then left-click the prim of interest.

Once an individual prim has been selected from the set (it will be the only prim highlighted), you can work on it individually.

If you need to do more than just minor modifications, like to copy the prim, or to work on a subset of the main structure, this one prim can be unlinked from the set.

To unlink an individual prim, press Shift-Ctrl-L while editing an individual prim, and this one prim will be unlinked from the set. From here you can unlink other prims to work with or just work with the one prim. The unlinked prims can be copied, edited, linked into a subset, or whatever.

Once you are finished working with the unlinked prim(s), simply re-link them back into the main structure once again by un-checking the "Edit Linked Parts" box in the edit window, selecting the prim(s) you unlinked plus the original set, and pressing Ctrl-L once again.

Hope this helps.

thanks Exel! I'll try that.
Craig