Sharing Components

Sharing Components

Component saving from a master file

When you are modeling a Component in a working file with other Components: Right-click [context click] on the Component and select Save As. SketchUp will let you point to the folder in which you wish to store the component, and it will use the name of the Component as the default filename for the external file.

The Component is saved as a file, and its file origin point will be the origin point of the Component (not the origin of the current model).

Quick primer for 3D Warehouse

Sharing a SketchUp model for public use is accomplished via 3D Warehouse. This video Putting models into 3D Warehouse gives a general overview of what 3D Warehouse is about, and follows a specific simple example using a kitchen chair and table. For more information about 3D Warehouse, see the article: File management, uploading & branding. To share models as a collection, see Creating and Sharing Collections

Proper component nesting for shared components

Model organization is often different between a working model and the model for public consumption on 3D Warehouse.

When you are developing the model you might want to nest Components to develop a hierarchy that makes it easier to work on the model. Once the model is finished, reduce the nesting to a minimum.

For example, the image above shows a set of four workstations that have been put into an outer Component that contains all four sub-Components and the walls separating them. When you look at the nesting levels, here shown in decreasing order using colors: first level down is 1(red), next 2(yellow), 3(green), 4(cyan), 5(blue), you see that a user of the Component will be able to open the Component and quickly paint the walls. But to paint the rolling file cabinet, they will have to open three levels deep before painting. This is because each workstation is a Component (with its own hierarchy) within the whole workgroup.

Each file cabinet and rolling file cabinet are more deeply nested within each work station. White objects are at the main context level of the main workgroup component (ie. the walls). The upright file cabinets are one level deep, inside a workstation sub-Component. The desk and rolling file cabinet are two levels deep inside a workstation sub-Component. And the castors are further nested yet, within the desk sub-Component and the rolling file cabinet sub-Component.

When editing a Component, SketchUp represents the context (the bounds) of a Component as a gray bounding box surrounding all objects within the Component or Group. These gray dotted lines are not entities (edges) and are not selectable. You cannot affect any entities outside of this gray bounding box. All geometry outside the context will show as faded to let you know it cannot be changed or erased. But you can infer to entities outside of the current context while modeling.

Perhaps a better organization for a work station would be to make it so that the file cabinet, the desk, and the rolling file cabinet could all be colored just one level deep into the component.

So, to prepare the whole workgroup Component for 3D warehouse, it might be better to first re-structure the workstation sub-Component as shown, then explode each workstation within the whole workgroup Component. The workgroup Component can now be easily worked with by a designer with minimal Component editing (remember, red here indicates you can paint the object immediately upon opening the outer Component).

Modifying the material of nested components

Fig. 2

In Fig. 2, the blue chair is an example of a chair that has all the geometry as one component . Painting the Component causes all the faces in the Component to accept that color. The right image shows a chair that contains multiple components. Now a designer can edit the chair Component and quickly paint the arms, cushions, shell and base separately, because each set of geometry is encapsulated within a nested Component. This is more efficient modeling for the end user of the Component.

Using the default material to enable efficient modifications

For items like furniture that vary in color (for example, chair cushions), you can build the component such that the designer does not have to open the chair Component to be able to change the color of the cushions. To enable this quick application of material, a Component of this product type should be organized such that all the items for which you want quick material changing (e.g., cushions) are painted with the default material. All other items should be painted with a material or color. Now when the Component itself is painted by the designer, only the cushions will inherit the color. To change the color of any of the other sub-parts (the base or the shell or the arm pads), the designer will need to edit the chair Component and repaint those items within the component.

When a material texture is applied in this way, any smooth surfaces within the Component will not allow the texture to tile seamlessly. To control orientation of textures, you will need to apply the texture, then right click [context click] on the surface and select Texture > Position to adjust the pattern to match your geometry. Anything within a Component that uses the default color will inherit the paint applied to the outside of the Component. This means that a Component within a Component within a Component will inherit the paint as well, regardless of nesting level. See this video showing component nesting for an illustration of this concept.

Component swapping

Components can be reloaded with an updated version, or swapped one for another. Many designers will want to swap content from the 3D Warehouse during their design process. It is important to anticipate this activity when you model content for 3D Warehouse.

Components are swapped at their respective origin points, and based upon the scaling and rotation factors of the original Component being replaced. The scale and rotation factors get applied to the new Component coming in.

You can swap Components that are in the current model by selecting all the instances, and then replacing those instances with a different Component.

This can be very helpful when you have a high polygon version of a product and a low polygon version of the same product. This allows the designer to see the location of your product, but keeps the polygon count low so as not to bog down the modeling process during design. When they want to share an image with more rich context, they simply Replace the low poly version with the high poly version.

To do this, one would select the items they want to change, or from the Component Browser, right-click [context click] and select Select Instances to find all similar components in the model. Then find the Component to swap from the Component browser and right-click [context click] and select Replace Selected to change all the simplified Components to complex Components.

	In the previous example we selected the items to be replaced. You can also Reload one component in the model with another from outside the file. This replaces one Component for another. Only one Component exists within the file, not two. Again, the most important rule to ensure good behavior of Components is to choose an appropriate origin point for them.

This swapping ability makes SketchUp ideal for designers who want to present design options to a client. It makes the presentation all the more compelling if the designer has access to actual manufacturer content from 3D Warehouse. This enables a designer to start making product specification decisions earlier in the design process.