Working with nested SketchUp components
There are many ways to leverage components to make your SketchUp workflow easier and faster.
Mar 17, 2021
If you’ve been reading this blog for a little while you might already know that I like to use components in SketchUp. There are many ways to leverage their features to make the workflow easier and faster. Recently I was working with some new users in Brazil and showed them how to speed up their modeling using nested components. I thought this might be a good topic for the blog so I did a video demonstrating a few things.
In the video I first show an example of some case work similar to what my students in Brazil are working with. In the second part of the video I’m use the model of a coffee table that will be featured in an upcoming issue of Fine Woodworking Magazine.
If you’re new to SketchUp, here’s a little analogy that will hopefully help you make some sense of this component thing. A component could be thought of as a container. Maybe think of the loose geometry as a chocolate truffle. Putting that geometry in a component is like wrapping the chocolate in foil. A nested component would contain more than one component. It would be like putting some individually wrapped truffles into a box. The nested component can be treated as single object or you can open the nest and get to the components inside and if you open one of the inner components for editing you’ll have access to the geometry.
In the video I used a couple of different extensions to make some modifications to components. If you are interested in them, they are Eneroth Solid Tools and BoolTools2 from Mindsight Studios. You can access both of them through the Extension Warehouse. Eneroth Solid Tools is available at no charge but only works in SketchUp Pro. BoolTools2 is $29 but it works in both SketchUp Pro and SketchUp Make.
–Dave
Comments
Which version of SketchUp would I need to be able to create the types of designs shown on Fine Woodworking? Would I be able to use the free version? I have tried that version a few times but can't seem to get it to work like the many video tutorials shown online. Thanks
In these blog posts I'm using the current version of Sketchup Pro. In the vast majority of the posts I do, I show things that can be done in both the Pro and Make versions. Many of them can be done in SketchUp Free, the web-based version. The web versions are extremely capable however at this point in time there is no implementation for extensions.
If you are using SketchUp for your hobby, you should be able to make do with SketchUp 2017 Make or SketchUp Free. If you would be using it in your business, you would need to use SketchUp Pro or SketchUp Shop. (Shop is also web-based.)
As for the online tutorials, most of them are going to be done in a desktop client version so if you are using a web-based version the user interfaces will be different. That said, the same basic workflow applies to both desktop and web versions.
-Dave
Thank you, Dave.
Happy to help.
Nice job Dave. I especially liked your concept of using the pin holes as a component. Never thought of doing that way but it so much better and provide great flexibility.
Thanks Jim,
I tend to think of components like the shelf pin and hinge screw holes like a gang of drill bits. Even without cutting the holes, from a distance they read as the holes without committing to cutting them until they are needed. Allows for easy modifications if needed and adds a lot of flexibility.
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