Q: Can anyone advise if there is a good way to isolate an entire floor of a multi-story building model AFTER it was built into the whole?

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Q: Can anyone advise if there is a good way to isolate an entire floor of a multi-story building model AFTER it was built into the whole?

I am Rusty, a self taught user that didn’t start learning SketchUp by following the tutorials, just jumped in and discovered new stuff by falling into it.
I’ve gotten to the point I can build a pretty detailed model which I use as examples when talking to clients about the buildings I am bidding on.
I have created a model for an 800,000-sf distribution center with a 3-story interior office.

Now I want to be able to show the client the each floor of the office separate from the rest. I didn’t “group” all the parts of each floor together a one group per floor or in some way make it a single piece that would allow me to copy it or move it in the model separate from the rest.
Q: Can anyone advise if there is a good way to isolate an entire floor of a model AFTER it was built into the whole?

I am about to copy the file and deconstruct the model floor by floor down to the first floor if I need to but wanted to check to see if there was a better way than that.

Then I still need to somehow group the first floor once its uncovered, so I need some guidance to the correct tutorial or ? that will help me accomplish that I would appreciate it?

Thank you!

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If you view the model horizontally from a side, you should be able to drag a selection box across the area corresponding to a single floor then make a group from the selected entities. Assign a non-visible layer to that group and then repeat the process for each additional floor.

On the first attempt you will probably find that when you assign a non-visible layer to a floor group there are some contents left behind that you would have liked to include. You can select these, cut them, then open the group for edit and paste-in-place to put them into the group. You may also find that you captured some things you didn’t want. You can open the group for edit, select them, cut, close the group then do paste-in-place to get them out of the group.

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If your entire model was not grouped or made components from the start then it my be difficult to select your way out of this. If the walls for example are three story tall slabs you won’t be able to select only the one floor of wall no matter where you look from, you will always select entire planes or not. Cutting a model apart like this after the fact can get very tedious.
Grouping and making components from the beginning is of course the way to go, but in this case if you just want to present the floors and don’t want to redo everything, a workaround could be section cuts. You could install horizontal section cuts above and below the office and arrange them to cut out the floors you don’t want to see.

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Thanks you guys, I appreciate your responses!
It’s a mess either way so I’m paying my dues and deleting sections and components and individual lines one piece at a time.
It’s all good, still a KA model.

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Would it help to select all the original model, make it a component or group, then lock it, and redraw over the existing geometry, making components of ‘real’ solid parts as you go?

Or if you don’t lock it, window select parts inside the original component, exit the component, paste in place the result, then make the selection into a component. Either choose the option in Model Info to Hide all that you are not editing, or work on in a separate file, to clean it up.

Edit out the stray geometry you may have picked up in your selection, then put the component back in the model.

From time to time either hide the original, or put it on a layer you can turn off, to see how much of your model is still missing from the redrawing process.

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What and how depends on what the model is at present time?
Have you considered the use of section planes, layers and scenes and may be you do not have to deconstruct the model to extent you think.
A section slice allows you to create a group of the slice ( even make it a component) and thus intersect with your model and possibly allow you to set views you need for the customer.
You need to read the help pages on the subject so you under stand what you can and cannot do; only one active view per context.
Posting model is worth 1000 words:grinning:

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