Having some trouble removing objects "on face outside active" and green color

Hi I am trying to design a home using 40ft hc shipping containers , I have managed to stack them together the way I want. But here is where it gets tricky, In order to be able to use the stack of containers I need to put in some stairs witch I have successfully done but there is a problem . The stairs currently go straight throe the walls of the container. When I try to remove (a section of) the wall it lets me remove some outer skin / face, but there are structures in the way that are green and they can not be selected / removed a message pops up saying “on face outside active”. How can I remove the inactive aspect of it?
I am working with actual detailed models of shipping containers that do not have flat sides, and I am having problems to cut out sections to place in windows. comes to that I need to find a way to slice a corridor throe 3 containers so the stairs can fit practically I’m sorry for the many questions, I am just starting off with sketchup. I followed lots of basic video’s but that did not cover the problems I am having right now.

Please who can help me on my way?
Thanks allot for your time and effort!
Chris

Perhaps you could share the SKP file as far as you’ve got it so we can see what you’ve done?

Very likely you need to be opening a group for editing so you can remove the edges and faces to create the opening.

11x40ft High-cube Container.skp (378.7 KB)
Thanks for your fast reply :slight_smile: I don’t know if this worked , but I think the file should be in this post.
Hopefully it helps.
Chris

It did work.

Where did you get the container component? It’s rather poorly made which makes it difficult to use for your application. Reversed faces, bad and excess geometry, etc.

I’m also not sure how you managed to get the model to the point it is with all those edges outside the component for that upper container.

To cut the opening for the stairs, you can draw a box that can be intersected with the various components in the container. Due to the way the container component was created, you’ll first need to go through and use Make Unique to separate the component instances that will get cut from the ones that don’t need to be cut. Due to the deep nesting, this is going to involve making lots of component nests unique as well. You’ll need to do this for each container component that will get an opening cut.

If you are just starting with SketchUp as you say, I think you should put this project aside for a little while and learn how to use SketchUp with a much simpler project. Or maybe you can manage to live in just one container. :smiley:

active” means the entities context that is currently active (aka, open) for editing.

You open a context for editing by double-clicking into it. A box of dotted lines appears around the open (“active”) entities.

If you have “fade or hide rest of model” set in the Components panel of the Model Info dialog, it can make it easier to see what entities are open for edit.

When you edit a group or component instance, you are actually editing it’s definition’s entities collection (because instances do not “own” entities themselves.) So this normally means all instanes of this component (or group) will reflect the changes. This is why (as Dave said,) sometimes you need to right-click an instance an choose “Make Unique”, so that this particular instance gets a unique definition generated for it, and so edits will then only apply to it.

See: SketchUp User Guide: Editing components

Hi , thanks for looking at it and for your tips and feedback!
Unfortunately I will need to soldier on with this as I need to provide a detailed concept for (potential) financial investors.
I really can not stand living where I live now any longer. Anyways I will see how far I come with your tips and will learn how to do this, learning how to design is seldom a waste of time :slight_smile: .
Thanks again. Cheers, Chris.

FYI, SketchUp Make is licensed for non-commercial use only.

Thanks, I will have a look at the information that you advised. Its all a bit much to take in all at once, but hey Rome was not built in a day (neither will my container-home be built in a day.
Anyway thanks for your feedback!
Chris.