Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Chapter 5. Working Smarter with Groups and Components

SketchUp views the world as edges and faces. You might call them lines and surfaces, but then again, it’s a computer program and you’re a human being. It’s natural that you’d like to organize those edges and faces into groupings that make sense to you. For example, some of the edges and faces in your house might form windows or doors or a roof. As you’re working on that house model, you may want to hide the roof so you can look inside. Or you may want to show a client several different window styles. It would be a nuisance to have to select all of a window or roof’s individual edges and faces every time you want to move it as a unit.

In this chapter, you learn two ways to collect those edges and faces into meaningful objects that are easier for you to work with. One method is to create a group, and the other method is to create a component. You’ll learn how and when to use one or the other of these methods. Along the way you’ll see how the Outliner keeps track of all the groups and components in your model. You’ll learn how arrays can help you make multiple copies of objects. Most of the exercises focus on the job of building a simple picket fence.

Groups and components have many features in common, but components have some additional tricks up their sleeves. So it makes sense to take a look at groups first to explore the features they have in common.

Note

This group of exercises continues the SketchUp house project started in