Get rid of old child components for a newly imported parent

SketchUp
1

Hello everybody.
I must start by saying I am quite new to Sketchup. I do hope I am posting in the right place. I tried to search for a post discussing a similar problem to mine, but came back empty handed.

So here it is:
The way I work at the moment is kind of like you would work in CAD programs that have parts and assemblies. I built myself a small local warehouse (a folder on my hard-drive) with components that I use often. Then in the model I import those components as I need them.

When/ if I need to change one of the components, I edit itā€™s file, then go back in the main model, find that component and use the ā€žreloadā€ command from the right click menu.

For the sake of this topic letā€™s say we have a model of a wall (WALL.SKP) To create it I imported from my local warehouse some components already made: DOOR.SKP WINDOW.SKP STUD.SKP DRYWALL.SKP

Letā€™s say I wanna change DOOR.SKP . I go into the file, change the door color and modify the name of some components. Instead of FRAME I renamed it DOOR_FRAME and instead of SHEET it is now DOOR_SHEET.

I save and close everything, then open WALL.SKP right click on the DOOR and choose ā€žreloadā€. I then choose the newly saved DOOR.SKP and click ok. The Door is changed, color is the new oneā€¦ But if I go to Window->Model Info->Statistics - (Show nested components) I see that the FRAME is still FRAME, it has not been renamed. And the DOOR_SHEET is now DOOR_SHEET#1.

On the other hand if I completely delete the DOOR in WALL.SKP, and then import the component again, all the nested components have the right names.

So my guess is that sketchup ā€remembersā€ the component and only changes geometry, if different, but not properties like names and definitionsā€¦ Is there a way to clear the cache before a component reload?

Of course, for this example itā€™s easy to just delete the door and import it again, but in my current model I have 10 or more ā€ždoorsā€ and the reload command changes them all at once.

2

Purge the components. In the component panel, rightclick on the little blue details icon: Purge unused.

In general, to avoid these situations: purge, purge, purge.

3

Oh, forgot to mention that I did purge both from components panel and from statistics menu

4

How do you import the components?
The best way to avoid double wrapped components ( eg. You have a file ā€˜DOORā€™ which contains a component named DOOR) is to have a ā€˜working fileā€™ were you make your component, and perform a ā€˜Save Asā€™ to your library-folder.

The workflow displayed here is for developing content for the 3D warehouse, but the same aplies for collections of components in your workenvironment.

More info:

1 Like
5

Thanks for the reply @MikeWayzovski
I will try to do a Save As from the right click menu and see if that changes anything upon importing. My other idea was to actually change something in the geometry of the child components, not just the Description and name, that way ā€žforcingā€ sketchup to read all the ā€child componentsā€.

6

Well, that worked! Apparently I need to change the geometry ever so slightly (added a line) and that is enough for SketchUp to identify the change in geometry and import the whole component properly, with the new definition and everything.

itā€™s a big work-aroundā€¦ but still faster than manually replacing every instance of every component in every fileā€¦