Making a component

I have a component that is made up from several other components. I’ve made it a component and exploded it several times, each time giving me a different configuration, this is before:

This is first component:

The next one (after exploding the first):

And the final one:

For this one after exploding it, I deselected it then selected it again before making it a component. Nothing else was done, my question is why are they all different?

I’ve seen the oversized boundaries before on stuff from the 3D Warehouse but usually there’s left over stuff that I can delete to bring the boundaries back to ‘normal’. Not the case here.

It could be due to where axes of the child components are. Or it could be something else. Perhaps you can share the component?

Why do you find a need to explode and remake the component multiple times? Something is wrong with your process if you need to explode and remake components like that.

Because the oversized boundaries kinda freaked me out, I knew there was no extraneous material out there.

leveler assy.skp (161.2 KB)

Well, at this stage it appears whatever was causing the bounding box size thing has sorted itself out.

Looking at the Outliner, it appears you have an interesting structure for this assembly. The shafts are just loose, ungrouped geometry and it looks like it would be a bit more challenging to adjust the positions of parts than needed.

I’m building a mobile base for my drill press, this is the leveling assembly, the shafts are 1/4-20 threaded rod through 1/4" holes. I’ve combined several designs I’ve come across over the years into something I thought I could use.

The rods were kind of an after thought, I applied a circle into the center of the leveler and just pulled it up. I still have issues with adjusting the position of components. This is the base:
Drill press base.skp (723.7 KB)

Comments are welcome.

I redrew the leveling assembly from scratch. Here’s the way I would organize and group the parts.

As for centering things, the easiest way is just draw everything in place. You can also use Inferencing and if you set the component origin at the center of the component, you can quickly and easily insert the component by dragging it in from the Components window.

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Thanks Dave!

I downloaded the T-nut and knob from 3D warehouse, placing them was a real struggle. I made the foot as a separate project at 10 times actual size and added a small circle in the center (easy to do since it was on the blue origin) then scaled down and moved the origin to the center of the circle, it was still difficult to place.

I assume you used Follow Me to make the foot, and you did that in place? Then did you add the nut later?


I used my favorite method of starting the foot at it’s correct size and in place on the bottom of the shaft on the left end. I drew a profile for the foot and a circle for the Follow Me path on the shaft’s centerline. I also drew a hexagon for the nut while I was at it. I selected the profile, circle and the hexagon, made a component and then made a copy of the component. I scaled the copy up leaving the original in place and then edited it to run Follow Me and to make the nut. After I finished up the foot, I exited edit mode on the big copy and deleted it. When I went back to the original, it was complete and sitting where I left it. No need to scale back down and try to get the component in the right place.

I had the tee nut and knob from other projects I had drawn.

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Had to think about it, the nut has nothing to do with the Follow Me, right?

Thanks again Dave. I don’t use Sketchup enough to remember everything I learn.

Right. It doesn’t but I made the nut as part of the foot. It was added after running Follow Me on the foot. It was just easier to have it in place from the beginning.

You’re quite welcome.