🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello Naranjan,
I have seen this situation many times before. Indeed, I use it as an example in structured training to show people what happens if they try to put a section 3 heading straight after a section 1 because they prefer the "prettier" section 3 formatting.

If you set up a numbering scheme assuming a certain minimum structure, then you have to have that structure. That is if your Figure numbering needs chapter, section and sub-section then you must always ensure that all three titles exist. In this case you'll need to add another paragraph format called "empty subsection". This new subsection should have all the characteristics of a normal subsection except its in white 2 point text. This is a bit of a band-aid solution.

What I suggest you do is simply change your Figure numbering scheme (and tables and examples if you have them), so they each use a separate sequence label and use only one numerical after the chapter number.

"But people will not see that a figure belongs to a subsection" someone might protest. This is totally unimportant since it's more difficult to find a figure using a subsection reference than it is to use a page number. So your Xrefs should read "See Figure X.F on page X.Y".
Figures, Tables and Examples should be numbered Figure X.F, Table X.T and Example X.E - try using F:, T:, and E: as the sequence labels so that Figure autonumbering will look like
F:Figure <$chapnum>-<n+>\t

If someone still protests about finding Figures, give them a Table of Figures just after the Table of Contnts.
Cheers
Ian