TIEBIAOJI SketchUp Tutorials

Inserting and Editing Predefined Components

• What is Meridian Tapping and How Can It Help

Editing components is a simple procedure. We'll start with predefined components, to save you the trouble of creating your own (for now).

1. Open the Transportation_Sampler category and insert an armored truck, a delivery truck, and a sedan.

Open In Model. The three components you inserted will appear here.

Switch to List View to see the components listed by name.

Com parents	1
* <1> Tr Model"	Icon View
Name	Truck_Armored Truck_Delivery	Refresh
Expand Purge Unused

Insert another armored truck, and open either truck for editing (right-click and select Edit Component, or just double-click it in Select mode). The opened

component appears in a bounding box, and the other objects in the model appear faded. This fading can be changed, as we will see in later exercises.

Select the entire truck (you can only select objects within the component, so select everything). Note that the other truck component is also selected. Then use Scale to make the truck taller. Note that the other truck updates the same way - this is the essence of components: change one and you change them all.

6. Right-click outside the component and select Close Component. You can also click anywhere outside the component (while in Select mode) to close it. Now both trucks are taller.

This is an important point: you did not change the original component you took from the Transportation_Sampler category. You only changed the definition of the component in your model.

7. Insert another armored truck from In Model (not Transportation_Sampler). It should be the same size as the existing ones.

7. Insert another armored truck from In Model (not Transportation_Sampler). It should be the same size as the existing ones.

Right-click on any truck and select Entity Info. This tells you that there are three instances.

1 Entity Info
Component Instance * |
\	Layer: |LayerO	zl
\	Name:
	3 Instances ME^

9. In the Component Browser, right-click on Truck_Armored and select Select Instances.

Now all three armored trucks are selected.

Open the Outliner (Window / Outliner). This outline shows all components and groups defined in the file, including sub-components (also called nested components). Collapse the list if necessary, and the three trucks are highlighted as selected. The other two vehicles are listed here as well

You can also change one or more component into a new component. Select two of the components, right-click and select Make Unique.

12. Edit one of these trucks and perform some change like adding a window on the back.

Close the component. Only the edited trucks were changed.

Under In Model you can see that a new component was added. Truck_Armored#1 is the one you just modified.

17. Switch to Components in the drop-down menu to see all nested components. These include four car wheels and two side mirrors.

You can change this name by right-clicking on the component in the browser and select Properties (Windows only), or via the component's Entity Info. Now for the sedan. Right-click on it and select Entity Info.

Edit Component

Open the Statistics tab. (If needed, use the arrow icon at the top of the window to expand the window.) When set to All geometry, you can see a compilation of the edges, face, and other objects included in the sedan.

Entity Info
Component Instance
\	Layer: |l_ayerQ	d
\	Name: ||
	1 Instance

Definition Statistics | I All geometry Espand

Name	Tco.-r^
Edges	434
Faces	121
Component Instances	S
Construction Lines	0

En tit* Info
Component Instance
	Layer: j Lay erO
\	Name: |
	1 Instance

Definition Statistics j

I ffffliffsffsnsi ' I

I Expand

Definition Statistics j

I ffffliffsffsnsi ' I

car wheel #2 side mirror #3

I Expand

Open the Outliner (Window / Outliner). Open the sedan to expand it, and you can see the same nested components listed.

In the Outliner, highlight the wheel sub-components one at a time. You can see each one appear as selected on the sedan, and the sedan itself is in Edit mode - the sedan must be edited for the wheels to be accessible. (You can Shift-select or Ctrl/Option-select in the Outliner to select more than one wheel.)

In the Outliner, right-click one of the wheels to edit it - this is the same as double-clicking on the wheel itself.

<T"ruck_Arrnored #2> <T"ruck_Arrnored> <Truck_Delivery> <car_sedan> ■ :: <car wheel #2>

23. Another way to edit a component is to explode it. Right-click on the sedan and click Explode.

Entity Info Erase Hide Lock

Delete

Make Unique Explode

Unolue

23. Another way to edit a component is to explode it. Right-click on the sedan and click Explode.

Entity Info
I Erase	Delete
Hide
„ Lock
Edit Component
Make Unique
Unglue
Reload

The wheel is open for editing, and you can still see a faint bounding box around the sedan as well. This is how you can tell that the wheel is nested within the sedan component. Also, the wheel's icon in the Outliner indicates that the wheel is open for editing.

|Outliner		¿1
Filter:	1
0 Untitled
E- :	: <Truck_Armored#2>
É- :	IS <Truck._Armored£2>
É- :	IS <Truck_Armored>
fib :	IS <Trudc_Delivery>
E- !	is; <car_sedan>
	:: <car wheel#2>
	issi <car wheel#2>
J	^ :: <car wheel£2>
/	:: <car wheel#2>
	:: <side mirror#3>
	:: <side mirror #3 >

21. In Select mode, click once outside the wheel. You are now back inside the sedan component.

22. Click outside once more to close the sedan for editing.

Now this vehicle is no longer grouped, and does not act as one individual object. Its sub-components are still intact, but now they appear as first-level components in the Outliner.

25. Now that the sedan was exploded, its wheel and side mirror components now appear on the list of components in your model.

Tip: You can display nested components in the browser, without exploding their parent component first, by clicking on the right-facing arrow and selecting Expand.

26. Right-click on one of the sedan wheels and select Entity Info. As before, you can see the component name and number of its instances.

27. Even though the sedan was exploded and no longer exists in the model as a component, it still appears in In Model. To delete it, click on the arrow at the top of the browser and select Purge Unused.

Note: To purge all unused components, materials, and layers, open Model Info to the Statistics page and click Purge unused.

Note: To purge all unused components, materials, and layers, open Model Info to the Statistics page and click Purge unused.

28. Lastly, we can rename the component of the armored truck with the window. In Windows, right-click on it and select Properties.

29. Use this window to assign a new name.

Mac: The Properties option does not work as of this writing, but you can change a component's name using the Entity Info window.

0 0