I have an upright post, set as a component. Crossing the top of it, a cross-strut, another component. I want to allow the cross-strut to cut the upright post, so the two fit together as a joint. I guess ‘cut opening’ has something to do with it. How do I control which component cuts which? As I won’t always want Component A to cut Component B, can I control it on the fly, or after geometric construction?
Cut Opening probably won’t be the right thing for this application.
Since you are using Sketchup Make, the easiest way to cut the slot in the post would be to open it for editing and trace the edges of the beam on the top face. Then use Push/Pull to push down the face in between those edges. If you don’t want to cut all of the posts that way, use Make Unique to separate the posts. In your example, the for corner posts can be instances of the same component so editing one will result in all four getting the slots.
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OK, thank you, that works. I can no longer have the uprights as components, unless, I suspect, I set them up as an array around the central point.
Ah, not that simple… I can trace around the bit to cut into the upright component, having selected and opened it, but after pushing down and making the cut, when I try to erase the lines left crossing the cross-strut component, I get unexpected behaviour. Clearly, I have not cut what I expected to cut. With the joint ‘assembled’ I have no idea which bit I’m actually working on, even though they’re both componeents and I have only one selected.
Help!
You have to open the post component for editing. See the animation in my previous post.
I thought I did 
I’ll try again. Your animation makes it look very easy!
It should be very easy. If you still have problems, upload your SKP file so I can take a look at it. Or send it via PM if you don’t want to share it publicly.
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Got it!
Many thanks 
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