Special behavior of path properties

In general, property handles for path properties behave the same way as basic property handles, i.e. they provide the same functionality. However, when using path properties, most of the functionality is delegated to the last element in the path property. Meta-information (type, dimension, size etc) also refers to the metadata for the last element.

In general, path properties should be used when sequential iteration is required or when information from related instances needs to be retrieved, which is connected to the current instance via a singular reference/relationship path.

As other property handles, the path property can be positioned or counted. Nevertheless, path property should be used mainly for sequential access, since positioning the collection to a certain position may take a while (even though, the property node always tries to find the shortest way from the current position). Counting the elements means adding the counts for the elements for the last path property element. In order to maintain the current position, a copy of the path is provided for counting.

You may also try to locate an instance by key (according to the sort key currently set for the last path property element by default or by ChangeOrder()). Locating an instance by key value, however, also tries to locate an instance with the requested key in all last element collections until it finds one.

Selections and instance event handler can be set for a path property, but those only receive events from the last path element.