Basic Edits

Editing components

You can edit a component as a whole or edit individual entities within a component.

Editing or modifying a component instance as a whole affects only the component instance, not the component definition or other instances. Here are some of the edits you can make to a component as a whole:

• Scale: Scaling a component as a whole scales the individual component instance, not the component definition, allowing you to have differently scaled instances of the same component in your model. A component can become skewed when you scale the component in multiple directions. You can reset a component's scale and skew by context-clicking the component and selecting Reset Scale or Reset Skew. To scale a component, use the Scale tool(), as explained in the article, Scaling Your Model or Parts of Your Model.
• Flip: You can flip (or mirror) a component along an axis. Context-click the component, select Flip Along, and select an axis (Component's Red, Component's Green, or Component's Blue).
• Rotate: You can rotate a component with the Rotate tool () or the Move tool (). When you use the Rotate tool, you have more control over the rotate plane and center of rotation.

Flipping and Rotating explains how to flip and rotate geometry. To rotate a component with the Move tool, hover the Move tool over a face that's perpendicular to the desired axis of rotation until four rotation handles and a protractor appear on the face, as shown in the following figure. Then click a rotation handle and rotate the component.

Editing entities within a component changes the component definition, and thus changes all other component instances in your model. 

You can also save edits to your component, revert an edited component to the original file, or explode the component:

• To save an edited component as a separate file with a new name, select the component, context-click it, and select Save As from the menu that appears. Navigate to where you want to save the .skp file, type a new name, and click Save.
• To reload a component from its original file, which overrides any edits, context-click the component and select Reload.
• To break a component back into its entities, select your component and then select Edit > Component Instance > Explode from the menu bar. Or context-click the component and select Explode from the menu that appears. Your component is no longer a component with a special force field. It returns to plain old geometry, kind of like a captain returning to civilian life.