How to fold a model (that folds/unfolds)

You’ve given yourself a rather complex puzzle.
For the board to fold with the hinge you need for half the hinge and a board to be together. You have quite some nesting happening that isn’t working.
In the gif you see I need to explode the hinge twice to let me select half the hinge and the board and combine them ( used a group but it could be a component) which allows them to rotate as one. But then there are the hinges on the other end too so you need to add them and also work out how you want it to fold.

Thank you, @Box! You were right — I was selecting too much. (I was selecting both sides of the cross member.) Now that I understand the right way to do it, it seems painfully obvious. I guess life is full of such scenarios, though.

Now that I understand how to fold up my model, I have a follow-up question…

I’d like to have two versions of the workbench - one that’s folded up and stored and one that’s unfolded and setup. And I’d like to have them on separate layers so I can just hide one and show the other. But copying the workbench and pasting to another layer has been frustrating. Ultimately, I can get it done, but it involves a lot of trial and error, a lot of component editing and exploding/recreating components — and judicious use of the undo button. And just when I think I’ve done it and I start turning layers on and off to confirm, I find that there are components that are completely missing from the original layer and I have to undo all the way back to where I started. (This has happened so many times that I’ve started to draw a circle slightly away from the model. Then, when I have to go all the way back to where I started, I’ll know when I’m there because the circle disappears.) There has to be a better/right way to do this. Can someone enlighten me, please?

Re-post a link to your current model - both the links above to the 3D Warehouse say the models no longer exist.

Then someone can demonstrate how to do what you want to do.

I was going to try, until I found the models no longer exist.

Thanks, John. Coming right up…

The reason I deleted the model from the 3D Warehouse is because I started over from scratch. (I felt like I had made so many mistakes that I just didn’t trust the model. Also, I wanted to make it a little smaller.) So this is a completely different model. I still have some work to do on it - it’s not quite as far along as the other one - but I’m pretty sure there’s no mistakes in it.

I can see how the horizontal parts are hinged, and could collapse inwards to let the ends come together, but what happens to the top? Does that completely remove as one piece?

Precisely. With the top off and the base folded up, it can be placed against a (e.g. garage) wall and it will only stick out 5”.

Well, it’s finished - my first decent model with scenes and an animation. Duplicating the layers was a pain in the neck (and very time consuming) but I managed it with a ton of trial and error. (And as much time as I spent trying to get it all working, I still don’t know the best/simplest/quickest way to duplicate components to another layer!) Anyway, I thought I’d post it for your enjoyment/comments/critique.

One final question (apart from what is the best way to duplicate components to a different layer) — is there any way to send a link to a model so that the animation will play when it’s opened?

Skinny-Store Folding Workbench