How to Properly Use, Components, Groups and Tags?

[EleanorGrace]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been using SketchUp for the past 3 days now and I’m confused with the proper order of using components, groups and tags. I want to duplicate the same object multiple times, slightly edit them and assign materials.

What’s the proper order for these functions and how do you know when to use them? Should I use them for every object or not?

How do you assign materials to a tag so that you don’t have to keep pasting materials on every new object you make?

Also, how do you make sure that the objects are solids once you categorize them into components, groups and tags so that you can subtract them? 10.0.0.0.1 192.168.1.254

Thank you.

[DaveR]

Components and groups can be thought of as containers that hold stuff. Typically raw geometry. Tags are given to or put on components and groups and are primarily used to control visibility of those objects. Tags provide no separation between entities. You can make either a component or group of the geometry to create an object. That can then be copied as many times as needed. If you want to make each object different, you can either first make the components unique and then edit them. If you create a group of the first one and then copy it, there’s no need to use Make Unique to make the copies different from the others. Simply open them for editing and make the changes.

@EleanorGrace

Should I use them for every object or not?

Every object in the model should be a group or component. That prevents geometry from sticking together among other things.

@EleanorGrace

How do you assign materials to a tag so that you don’t have to keep pasting materials on every new object you make?

You don’t put materials on tags. You apply materials to the faces in the groups or components. If you have multiple instances of a component, editing one will result in all other instances getting the same change. If you open a component for editing and paint the faces red, all other instance will show that as well.

@EleanorGrace

Also, how do you make sure that the objects are solids once you categorize them into components, groups and tags so that you can subtract them?

You can check to see if a component or group is considered a solid by selecting it and looking at Entity Info. If you’ve selected a solid component it will say so at the top of the Entity Info window. To be considered a solid every edge within the group or component but be shared by exactly 2 faces. no more, no less. There are extensions such as Solid Inspector 2 that can help identify what might be preventing a group or component from being solid.

How to add item to existing group

Hopefully it helped. In case you want a little more, here’s an analogy that will hopefully clarify things. A bunch of jelly beans. This is like your loose, ungrouped geometry. [Screenshot - 11_16_2020 , 9_22_39 AM] The jelly beans in a jar. This is like putting your loose geometry into a group. [jar] If you want to make changes to the jelly beans in the jar, you have to open the jar. (Open the group for editing.) If you are going to use a tag, you add it to the jar, not to the jelly beans…