Discrete Entities?

As part of a massive reworking of many dimensions of many related objects, I created a supergroup of my entire drawing: “Everything”.

I then Edit/Paste(d) in place Everything, renamed it “Everything2” (or maybe I had already renamed Everything to Everything_1), and (in the Outliner, clicked on the eye) hid my previous Everything. I assumed the original Everything could be used as a ‘design alternative’ or a place from which I could retrieve entities I’d mercilessly botched up in Everything_2. Little did I know–and only after I had redone soo many entities (Groups as well as Components) that behind the scenes I was affecting those same entities in Everything. (You have no idea how ghastly, having the ghost-of-quality-assurance hounding me, is.)

I can think of good/bad programming reasons for not having created discrete entities. But, eons later, finding that this had not been done, (without at least early-on encountering a warning–“Would I like to replace entity1, entity2, etc.”, or conversely being given the option of appending a suffix to each of the new entities to ensure they would not ‘comingle’, would have saved a lot of grief.
Questions:

  1. Would I have accomplished what I had intended (a discrete group of objects) if I had renamed each and every one of the entities in either of the Everythings?
  2. Is there a way of copying a group of objects from an existing (or earlier version) drawing and pasting them into place in a later version and know they will retain their interrelationships (not their relationships with the item you copied) yet exist as unique entities?

[Emphasis added] A major wonderful feature of components is that they share the same definition. An internal modification to any instance (of a given component definition) will equally and instantly affect all other instances (of that definition). (I call out “internal” modifications, such as deleting an edge or adding new edges, as distinct from “external” modifications such as scaling or rotating the overall component instance. “External” changes only affect the instance(s) that were the target of the operation.) This is one of SketchUp’s core features.

The Make Unique feature can be used to break the connection between two instances. In your scenario of wanting an un-changed doppelgänger of the model, you would need to paste the duplicate and then select all the instances and use the Make Unique feature on each kind of component in the model (do this at all levels in the nesting hierarchy).

Renaming a component instance has no affect on the fact that the instance is still derived from its definition. The Make Unique function breaks the connection between the instance and its original definition, and connects the instance to a new definition.

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The whole point of components is that they are copies of one original, if you want them to be different Make them Unique by using the Make Unique command.

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I know, and greatly appreciate, Component Functionality. It so happens that in this specific circumstance I was working on a Group, not a component (the Fridge–no plans on multiple refrigerators).
As I’m sure you can appreciate, my intentions are also reasonable.

Is there a way of not having to go through every single entity, Group or Component, instructing it to Make Unique (which isn’t even, in many cases, even an option)–in order to have an ensemble of objects that can be worked on independently (a doppelgänger, as TDahl perceptively insists)?

The fridge door is a component.

Correct, the door is a component, so are the feet. The fridge is not. So what?

This is a help forum, we are happy to help with issues, but we are not meant as a replacement for Tuition.
I believe you would benefit from hands on one on one training, they would teach you from start to finish and reinforce the fundamentals as you go. All we are doing here is bouncing from one issue to another without actually getting a grasp of the ground work that is needed to truly move forward.
I’m not trying to offend you, I am simply pointing out that we seem to be going in circles with your threads and it would be easier for you if you had someone at your shoulder getting you on track and answering your questions as they arise.

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Of course it is. And I appreciate the help I’m getting.

But my intention was not an unreasonale intention. It is something many (no one??? ever???) ShetchUp users might want to do. Just because this particular question (copying followed by a Unique Paste in place ) has encountered a roadblock, doesn’t mean having a solution to it wouldn’t help a lot of people.

Apparently this hasn’t been designed into the program or isn’t (easily) possible. This concept wasn’t covered in SketchUp Fundamentals, (nor was Scale, for that matter).

I’m surprised you’re not willing to admit it can’t easily be done or that it can be done only if I simply delete and recreate every object.

Gee, might it not be a useful feature? A sensible suggestion?

Groups do not interact in the way you are suggesting, only components do.
In this I make a group of groups the same as I did with components, and then made a copy of that group but as you see here nothing carries over, no interaction.

So if you are getting a link there must be a component involved.

This edit of yours is nonsense.

Yes, save it as a separate file… you can always copy/ paste between files easily… it is what I do

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OP seems to be using SketchUp web free. You can have open two SketchUp free instances, but you can’t copy (to clipboard) > paste (or paste in place) from one SketchUp instance to another, unfortunately.

However, your suggestion to save as a separate file to your computer and rework that file in the second SketchUp instance should work for OP. (only copy > paste won’t work between SketchUp free instances, that requires the desktop version of SketchUp)

True about copy and paste between files only working within the same tab on Free. But the OP is using pro, despite what their profile mistakenly says. So copying into a fresh file is a fine method here.

That’s what I was looking at, my bad. So true, with using pro the suggestion by @gsharp is a quick solution for sure.

Don’t paste in place but paste at known distance to a free work space.
Renaming the copied group doesn’t do much to help you, groups are separate instances anyway.
The components inside the second group however are still copies of the components in the first group, they all share the same definition.
Inside the second “everything2” group you need to go through each level of nested components to grab all equal components and select “make unique”, to unty them from components in the first “everything1” group.

No way you could have known, your advice was correct for the profile. I only know because I’ve been interacting with the OP in several other threads and have had to clarify their version directly with them as their questions did not match their profile. Wish they would make their profile correct. I wish a lot of things… sigh.

I’m sorry. I just went back to sketchup.com and tried to correct my profile–didn’t work. I originally started working with SUfree and after being captivated (3-4 days) tried to go on the trial program. I wasn’t able to do it a way recommended (called sales to ask advice–left message) by SU so I asked in forum and was told a more direct (url) route. Two weeks later, sales called.

I opened a previous file, copied, and pasted in place another copy of all of the non-fixed entities. It seemed to be working, and working in Hide Rest of Model mode is exciting.

I thought that by cleaning up the only instance of entity movement not determined by an exact entered distance or exact snaps (the divider wall between the fridge and the rest of the cabinet–the one I’d constructed against the fridge and moved it out a smidge thereby determining the ~width of all the cabinet shelves…and causing you to have to go through the work of explicitly giving the shelves an exact width)
Every line I’ve drawn has been on axis (x, y, or zed)…if I could construct that wall again and this time move it exactly 2" from the fridge that the whole drawing would fall in place; I’d have successfully taken on Box’s challenge (no tildes!!); and all the shelves would have absolute dimensions. It hasn’t worked out that way. sigh.

JAR1 Your profile is handled right here. Click your Avatar icon in the upper right.Click on the little person icon and Preferences. Look for Profile in the list that appears.

Corrected. sorry.

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this should not be the cause of wrong measurements! You can draw a side panel against the fridge, group it (or better, component it) and then move it a little from the fridge to where you exactly want it without problems. Copy and flip the component to the other side of the cabinet (exactly how wide you want the cabinet to be) and then draw the shelves…

All this doesn’t have to be done when you model it the right way from the start.
It seems you want to do everything the hard way instead of starting over the “right” way!

Then why don’t you move the wall 2" away from the fridge??
Select the wall, click move tool, select start point, move mouse in desired direction, type 2" and enter. Done!

You still can! @Box advice is among the best you can get. He showed you how to do everything you want to do, made screenvideo’s for you because it is easyer to understand than words. He (and others) pointed you out to exellent free online training courses of SketchUp itself and other YouTube video’s that are really helpfull.
Now it is up to you to take advantage of all that help, and start at the very bottom!
Don’t try to run before you can walk or even crawl!
Don’t try to make the program work the way you want it to work, but instead go with the program, follow the exellent training courses, and learn how the program works.
I bet you’re going to love it as it is, like many people over here!

Happy SketchUpping!

Just a quick idea.

To save a copy of as many components as you want incase you may need some of them at a later miment, I suggest that you save them to a new file (Save as …).

Then, if you need something, you can open this file, copy the required component and then go into the other model and then Paste in Place or simply Paste, whatever suits you.