3D Warehouse offers a wide variety of components you can add to your model. In addition to the normal way you would use 3D Warehouse, you can use the Components panel to search 3D Warehouse for components to use in your models.To get started, open the Components panel and navigate to the Select tab. You can then use one of the following methods to find components on 3D Warehouse:

Components are complex entities you can create by grouping geometry. When you create a basic component in SketchUp, you turn that grouped geometry into a reusable and separate entity. Adding attributes to a basic component creates a configurable Dynamic Component. For even more configuration options, you can use a SketchUp Live Component.Getting Started with ComponentsBefore you start creating and inserting components there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

Restructure here refers to components and component nesting. Think in terms of the number of clicks to edit into a component to change a sub component's color or orientation, or to manipulate it. You should minimize this number of clicks for the user of 3D Warehouse content.There are four main things to consider when restructuring or your component:

Whatever your experience level or modeling style, the way you model impacts SketchUp’s performance. Using the recommended system requirements helps, but there are a few other things you can do to optimize your SketchUp experience.

When you transform SketchUp geometry into a component it takes on the following behaviors and capabilities:

In SketchUp, grouped geometry is called an Object. There are two types of Objects, Groups and Components. Groups are just what they sound like they are, a selection of multiple pieces of geometry. Components are more complex, reusable Objects. Both types of Objects can help you organize your model in a few ways: