Editing One Component Is Not Editing The Others

[heatonandy]

I am making shelves and would like to make every other shelf in the same component group. I have placed alternating shelves in component ‘shelf a’ and ‘shelf b’ respectively.

When I try to edit one of the shelves, it only edits that shelf and not the others I placed in the same component structure.

What am I doing wrong here?

Steps:

1. I click once on the component and each component in the shelf highlights in blue (push/pull does not work yet, it’s disabled)
2. I double click on the component and the blue highlights go away but each related component shelf seems a lighter color than the others (push/pull tool still disabled. why is this?)
3. I double click on an individual component shelf one more time, and now the push/pull tool works but none of the related components are affected.

I pulled the top shelf out 6 inches expecting/hoping that the other matching components would do the same. I would love to learn what I’m doing wrong here!

[Box]

Need to see your model to answer specifically.

[DaveR]

The bounding box for the component you’re editing is way too large. It implies yu made a common new-user error and copied the geometry within the component instead of copying the component when you made th additional shelves. As @Box says, the only way to tell you exactly what you’ve got wrong is if you share the .skp file with us.

[francisquitof]

It seems that only two entities are instances, the other ones aren’t. But I’m not 100% sure. You must share the file, so we can take a look at it and give you a solution.

[3DxJFD]

Here’s a little walk-through:

4 “Shelf” components:

A Shelf component, Selected (single Left Click). This would allow Moving or Rotating the individual selected Shelf component:

Triple Clicking ‘into’ the geometry of an instance of the component affects all instances of the component:

Single Click on the top face of the component affects all instances. Here Push-Pull was used to extrude the face upwards:

It doesn’t matter that these components are not Grouped.

Here one of the component instances is being Made Unique (“Make Unique”):

Now Push-Pull only affects the unique Shelf component:

Copied the upper unique Shelf#1, Moved and Rotated it:

Renamed the upright component to “Case”, copied and moved those into place:

Copy, Move, right click, Make Unique:

Triple click ‘into’ component instance. Single click to select end face for Push-Pull:

Select All, right click, Make Group:

[heatonandy]

Bookshelf.skp (141.3 KB)
@Box @DaveR @francisquitof @3DxJFD

Here is my file. Thank you for your explanations so far! I’m having a hard time following, so hopefully having my file helps.

[DaveR]

Each one of your shelves is a different component. They need to be instances of the same component in order for them to be edited together.

Here I’ve replaced all those different components with instances (copies) of the bottom most shelf. When you edit one copy all the others will change with it.
Bookshelf fixed.skp (58.4 KB)

[wataru.kannuzuki]

When I explode the shelf group, I don’t see one component repeated. Rather, it seems each shelf in the group is a unique component (numbered in the component outliner). Therefore, when I edit one, it doesn’t do anything to the others.

Meanwhile, your vertical boards are all the same component, so edits there affect the whole bunch.

Also, when you edit the component, make sure you’re using either the push/pull tool or the move tool. If you just use the scale tool, it won’t affect the other components.

[DaveR]

By the way, your method of nesting the shelves implies that maybe you want the odd numbered shelves to be different from the even numbered ones. If that’s the case select three of them, right click on them and choose Make Unique to separate them from the others. No need for the nesting.

[3DxJFD]

You made a component out of 3 Unique Components:

One different way to do this would be to make a Group out of 3 (or more) Component Instances:

Here shelf#5 is Copied, Made Unique and renamed, “New_Board”:

Here, “New_Board” is Copied 2 times (total = 3):

Now Grouped with Group name, “Right_Boards”:

Here the Right_Boards are moved/spaced:

Here the Group and its’ contents are copied and renamed to, “Left_Boards”:

Let’s say these are staggered; they could be rotated as a Group or the Components could be Made Unique.

Here they (Left Boards) are rotated and the New_Board is extruded with Push-Pull:

Since they (New Boards) are all the same, they all changed length.

Another way would be to make all of the New_Boards in the Right_Boards Group unique and then use Push-Pull on one of those New_Board#1 components:

Now the boards in each Group are different from each in length.

Bookshelf.skp (150.7 KB)

[RLGL]

To help achieve your goals, some time spent at the SketchUp Campus and at the SketchUp - YouTube channel will be very worthwhile. Both sites are from the SketchUp team. On the YouTube channel, pay attention to the Square One Series. It covers the basics for each tool.

[heatonandy]

Thank you all so much for your help! I’m blown away by how helpful this community is. I’m excited to be here and to learn. You guys put so much time into your answers and I really appreciate it.

I’ve learned that it doesn’t work to make a bunch of copies and then highlight a subset and right-click to make a new component set with that subset.

BUT it does work to make a bunch of copies, then highlight a subset, right-click, and ‘Make Unique’.

I don’t know why one works and the other doesn’t, but it’s good to know.

I’ve been following some other tutorials, but I’ll definitely be checking out Sketch-Up Campus and the YouTube channel.

[DaveR]

@heatonandy

I don’t know why one works and the other doesn’t, but it’s good to know.

I think you have a misunderstanding of making a nested component orgroup is. Selecting the three diferent shelf components (three different definitions) and putting them into a nested componnt is like taking a jar of peanut putter, a jar of pickles, and a tin of sardines and putting them in a sack. It collects the objects into a single container so they are easy to move around but it doesn’t mean they are related.

In my example I made multple copies of the same component definition. If I edited one of those all of the others would show the same edit. By selecting three of them and making them unique I created a new component definition that is separate from the others. At that point editing one of them only affects the others with that same definition.

[3DxJFD]

As someone who did not learn the basics first I can say -definitely- check out the links @RLGL posted. You’ll have an easier time and more fun!

[francisquitof]

@heatonandy

BUT it does work to make a bunch of copies, then highlight a subset, right-click, and ‘Make Unique’.

That’s wrong, you should create an object, right click and create component, then make copies of the object you’ve created, you make unique if you need one or more instances to be unlinked with the rest of the instances. You can also create a group and make copies of it then with a plugin like selection toys or S4U components, convert the groups in components.
Before advancing with your project or starting a new one, you should check the free courses on the links shared by Dave before.