Architectural_Design_with_SketchUp

Architectural Design with SketchUp
NN
note, though, that copying a group copies all of its contents and therefore doubles the
storage space required in the SketchUp file.
Component—A component is also a collection of geometry and other groups/components.
Unlike a group, a component that is placed in the model is always just an insertion (an
instance) of a component definition. A good way to imagine this might be that the geometry
that makes up a component gets stored in a hidden part of the SketchUp file. When a
component is placed into the model, a representation of it is inserted at the point you click.
Multiple insertions (or copies) of the same component need only one insertion point per copy.
While any of these insertions can have a different location, rotation, or scale, the underlying
geometry is safely stored in that hidden location in the file. As a result, the file space
required for a component is simply a single copy of the geometry plus a single insertion point
for each copy. This makes components very efficient in terms of storage. In addition to this,
components have their own (local) coordinate system that is stored within the component.
They can also be set up so that they always stick to the horizontal or vertical plane or any
face. Furthermore, they can have a property whereby they will always face the viewer (this
is the case with the 2D person cutout that comes with the default template). As in the case
of a window component, they can also be set up to cut a hole in the underlying geometry.
Beyond these differences, components can be shared in the 3D Warehouse, SketchUp’s
online 3D model storage service. And as of version 7, components can also be set up to have
interactive behaviors and may contain data when they are set up as Dynamic Components (we
explore these in more detail in Chapter 3). This makes components very flexible and allows
them to be used in a multitude of ways, for example, as parametric objects.
So how are groups or components created? After selecting the edges, faces, and groups/
components that will make up a new group/component, one option is to right-click and
select the appropriate item from the context menu (see Figure 2.19). Another is to use the
menu items in the Edit menu. The fastest method may be a keyboard shortcut—typing “G”
by default combines all selected objects into a component. See Figures 2.20 and 2.21 for
examples of groups and components, respectively.
TIP
Unfortunately, the Make Group function has no assigned default keyboard shortcut.
However, this can easily be remedied in the Preferences window, where any convenient
shortcut (e.g., Ctrl+G) can be assigned to the function.
Figure 2.19: Creating a group or component using the context menu
30