Google SketchUp® 7 For Dummies®

Chapter 5. Falling in Love with Components

In This Chapter

• Lumping together geometry into groups

• Discovering the wonder and majesty of components

• Using components to make symmetrical models

• Building stairs with component instances

• Getting familiar with Dynamic Components

• Making your own Dynamic Components with SketchUp Pro 7

I wish there was a way to use the typography in this book to convey the relative importance of certain topics; if there was, the word COMPONENTS would be printed 4 inches high, and it would be colored neon green. Components are that important.

Making a component (or a group) is like gluing together some of the geometry in your model. Edges and faces that are grouped together act like mini-models inside your main model; you use components and groups to make it easier to select, move, hide, and otherwise work with parts of your model that need to be kept separate. Getting used to using groups and components is the single biggest thing you can do to get better at SketchUp.

This chapter is about creating and using SketchUp components to make your life a whole lot simpler. I begin by talking about groups (which are a little bit like lobotomized components). After that, I jump into components — finding them, managing them, and making your own. The last part of this chapter is brand new for SketchUp 7; it's all about Dynamic Components, which are the best thing to happen to SketchUp since the invention of the scroll-wheel mouse.

Grouping Things Together

Note

Anyone who's worked ...