I am suggesting the equivalent of the “Direct Selection Tool” in Adobe Illustrator which allows the user to select faces and edges of objects even if they are in different groups. Then the user could use the move tool to move the selected faces and edges and thereby resize many different objects all at once. For example, I have a Sketchup model of a window. The window has a frame for the: jamb, sash, insulating glass unit, interior trim, exterior trim, and shade. I have a group for each one of these physical frames. Suppose I want to make the window 6” shorter. I currently have only two options. Option 1) Explode all of the groups. Now I can do exactly what I want. I can select the faces and edges at the tops of all frames and move them down by 6”. Voila! I have made each of the frames 6” shorter! However, I have critically lost the ability to manipulate and view each of the frames as a separate entity. All of the frames are now connected together and there is no easy way to separate them all. Option 2) I can open each group and resize the objects in each group one by one. This is extremely tedious and time consuming. Of course Option 3 is for Trimble Inc. is to create a “Direct Selection Tool” for Sketchup which would give the capability of Option 1 but preserve the groups. I suggest Option 3 to the Sketchup development team as a third-party solution does not exist. Option 3 would make Sketchup far more powerful for Architects and Product Designers who have models with many groups of objects that need to be resized and manipulated quickly and easily.
First of all, if you want to have changes to one object be shared with others, you should be using components, not groups.
That said, the SketchUp selection is only able to capture objects that are in the same “edit context”, that is, loose in the model or in a single group or component. For items in different contexts to be identified simultaneously you would need an extension that keeps its own list of those items, separate from the SketchUp selection. I think there are such available - search the Extension Warehouse and/or SketchUcation plugin store.
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Curic-stretch: [SketchUp Extension Warehouse]
Curic-deep-select SketchUp Extension Warehouse
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