How to keep sketchup synchronized

I hope this is the right forum. I think I have a fairly simple question. Please point me to any tutorials that might be available.
I am relatively new to SketchUp, and I am trying to use it personally to plan a kitchen upgrade. I am using the software on two computers (Win8.1 and Win10), one a desktop, one a laptop. I am struggling with keeping the information synchronized. For example:
I downloaded a “cabinet” from the warehouse on one computer and defined a “color” that I want to apply to the cabinet. Then I saved the model, went to the other computer, and thought that when I open the model, it will have the same information. Not so. The color was not there. How do I transfer that? And what else do I need to transfer to make the switch between computers seamless?
Another thing is: How do I know which model I downloaded? Say, I work on this, and then I want to download the model again, Is there a record somewhere that tells me what I downloaded? When I go to “Entity info” it does not tell me what the file or collection was that I took that from. Did I miss that?
And finally, I saw some collections in the warehouse that seemed to have a lot of different cabinets (in this case), which I thought I could use. But then it loaded the whole “collection” into my model, and I can’t figure out how to break that up into the individual pieces (as I am not going to need all). “Explode” didn’t work. So how do I load a collection of multiple items into sketchup and then select a single item to use?

Thanks.

Where did you save the cabinet model to? Where did you open it from? If you opened it from the location you saved it to, any changes you made prior to saving should be visible when you open it.

Components you get from the 3D Warehouse will be identified in the Components window so you could conceivably download it again. But if you already have it in your model as a component, there’s little point in re-downloading it. You can just drag it in from the Components window.

If the entire collection comes into the model at once, exploding would break up the component into sub-components however the author might have wrapped it up several time so you might need more than one explode step to be able to get the cabinets loose. Look at Outliner. It’ll give you a good representation of how the components are set up in the model.

The two computers would need to use some form of shared storage in order for a given SketchUp file to be directly accessible by both computers (one at a time, for sanity!). Either a home NAS box that is used by both computers, or a USB drive that is manually switched between the two computers, or a cloud-based backup/storage service, or various other options.

I use google backup and sync on Drive cloud storage on my windows system to transfer and view models, text files and photos between my notebook, tablet and phone. I pretty happy with it. I found One Drive, which is Microsofts cloud storage system somewhat less convenient.

Thanks for the quick answers. Yes, the model is saved on a shared drive. But things like a color I created on one computer is still missing on the other. I see the cabinet that I “painted” in that color on the other computer, and I can use the eye-dropper to pick the color and add it, but it does not transfer by itself.
Most components I got from the warehouse, but I chose to “open directly in the model”, assuming that the storage and opening would happen behind the scenes. If that is not the case, I misunderstood. I’ll try to save an open a component to see if that makes a difference.

Identification of components: When I right click on the item (say a cabinet I downloaded from the warehouse), It brings up the Components Window, but there is no identification. Is that perhaps because I downloaded the component “directly into the model”? Is that perhaps the wrong way, and I need to download the file first (to my shared folder), and then open it in SketchUp?

And I’ll try to “explode” the collection a few times. See if that gives me the individual components.

But thanks a lot for the good advice. Appreciate it.

Where are you expecting it to transfer to? Where are you looking for it?

If you choose to open a component directly in the model, the only place on your computer where that component resides is in your Sketchup model after you save it. Since it will come into your model as a component, you would be able to find it in the In Model components collection.

If you hover the cursor over the component, it’s name will be displayed in a pop up. Alternatively, if you select it in the model space, you should see its definition name in Entity Info. And you would also be able to see the definition name in Outliner.

Not really wrong but it’s usually best to open components from the Warehouse in a separate file so you can examine it and make sure it is suitable for your needs. Sometimes components need to be simplified or need repairs depending upon your use. It’s easier to do that in a separate file and then either save it locally to import into your main model or copy it from one file to the other.

First look at Outliner to see how it is structured before you just start exploding.

I had to do this on one occasion when I needed some office furniture for a project.

I downloaded the model which the manufacturer has created, which contained all their desks. I downloaded it into a new model, exploded it and then “re-component-ised” the individual desks, saving them out individually to a new collection on my hard drive. Took a while but was worth it.

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