Using Symbol Manager to Delete Map Entities
I've seen numerous threads where people ask how they can delete all of something (all the trees, all the hills, etc). One suggestion that comes up a lot is to use the symbol manager to delete the symbol from that map. That way all instances of that symbol will disappear.
I have a question about that method though. Does that just delete the symbol definition or do all the symbol references for that definition also get deleted? It seems to me that if the references are left behind (to a definition that no longer exists), each render has to attempt to resolve those references needlessly on each refresh. That would then slow down each render (albeit minutely).
Also, an unresolved symbol reference would return an error, would it not? Could a significant number of such errors cause any problem (Possibly overflow an error stack or some such)?
I'm just trying to understand the mechanism. It sounds like a very useful shortcut.
I have a question about that method though. Does that just delete the symbol definition or do all the symbol references for that definition also get deleted? It seems to me that if the references are left behind (to a definition that no longer exists), each render has to attempt to resolve those references needlessly on each refresh. That would then slow down each render (albeit minutely).
Also, an unresolved symbol reference would return an error, would it not? Could a significant number of such errors cause any problem (Possibly overflow an error stack or some such)?
I'm just trying to understand the mechanism. It sounds like a very useful shortcut.
Comments
There's only one way you could leave "ghost" entities. If you'd EDIT a symbol, and removed all entities from it, you'd be left with an empty definition with all references still pointing to it. The empty symbol would be still be listed in the manager though, and you could just as easily remove it as any other.