It is great to have the “Ctrl G” shortcut keystroke to Group objects. It would also be great if SketchUp conformed to the protocol of nearly all other programs to use “Ctrl ^ G” to ungroup them, i.e. “Explode” in SU parlance.
You could set that up if you want. I so rarely need to explode groups or components that for me it isn’t worth tying up a shortcut but it’s certainly within your control to have it if you want it.
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One thing to know, setting shortcuts to contextual menu items will only work while the contextual menu is active at the time. If you went straight into the shortcuts menu and looked for Explode, it won’t be there. But, if you first select a component or a group, then the option will show up.
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I use “X”. I don’t remember if it is the default.
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There isn’t a default keyboard shortcut for Explode.
Thanks for responding and your suggestions. Apparently SU-2020, which is what I use, is different than DaveR’s, as my shortcut preferences panel is much different (see screen-shot). I also tried “X” as Anssi suggested, but nada.!
I se explode often when making components and subcomponents. For example, in the screen-shot I show, I made the rafters for the left side of the doormer and group them into a roof-framing component. To make the right side, I duplicate the assembly, explode it, and then turn each rafter 180º. Each rafter is itself a component, so if I need to tweak a cut, I must also explode it. I have many other components in this drawing that have similar issues.
Thus - I would still love SketchUp to to assign [Ctl] + [ ^ ] + [G ] as the standard Ungroup “explode” keystroke shortcut
No. That’s because you’re using Mac and I’m using a PC.
No you don’t! That’s working too hard. Just open the component for editing. If you need to make that component different than the other ones, make it unique first.
I’m confused by a couple of things you wrote. First of all, in the title and in your post you say you want to use Ctrl ^ G. But on Mac, ^ is the glyph used to represent the ctrl key. So Ctrl ^ G is redundant!. So, I’m not sure what you meant by ^ - shift? Second, you say that Ctrl G is the default for create group. But on Mac, the default is Cmd G, not Ctrl G.
So, I’m wondering what you are really trying to do. If you mean Ctrl shift G, I see no reason that should fail (it works for me). If you mean Cmd Ctrl G or Cmd Shift G, you can’t do that on Mac because you can’t use Cmd in user-defined shortcuts and Cmd Shift G is already wired to Create Component in the Edit menu…
Really? I wonder what your modeling style looks like. I have to explode and regroup and redo things all the time.
I use X for X-ray.
What do you mean about my modeling style?
I guess we have a different workflow. I don’t need to explode and regroup very often at all. I wonder why you do.
I’m with @DaveR on this one. I quite often open a component or group for edit and make changes, sometimes copying loose geometry in place, but I rarely explode objects except when helping with someone’s model that has unneeded nesting.
Perhaps you could describe the workflow steps that make you need to explode objects so often? We might be able to suggest a more efficient way.
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I assume because you are a more orderly and organized person and think more carefully about what group, subgroup or layer you should go to before you start modelling new geometry
I often have some idea that I quickly want to try out, so I start modelling geometry in reference to geometry that already exists without much or any consideration in what group this should be done - this feels to break the flow of ideas. So existing geometry is typically already grouped and nested together. So as I am modelling I often only group new geometry as really necessary so it doesn’t merge or something and when I am “finished” I usually end up with some unorderly mess of partially nested and grouped stuff whose nesting structure doesn’t make much sense. At this point, I start to clean up the mess by exploding a bunch of groups and subgroups to reorder/regroup them into something more orderly. Ok, I guess I also often use cutting out and pasting stuff in place.
I also have a habit of copying large junks of geometry “on the side” to do some iterations on this geometry, to see “how it looks”. Often I am undecided if I should continue with an iteration so I leave the iteration “for the moment” without either going forward with it or deleting it but I start another iteration “on the side”. Typically I end up with lots and lots of iterations and because often some geometry that is not needed at a certain point is blocking the view I delete it. To delete some stuff I often explode stuff and then regroup it.
These are probably very suboptimal habits.
In school there where the children who wrote a text in one clean swing without deleting and restructuring sentences, words and paragraphs and some who didn’t. My text where always a wild butchered mess of restructured stuff that was barely readable, so I had to rewrite everything at the end two or even three times.
I guess you use * for the array function?
If you add the X to the end, then you can still use it as a shortcut also (i.e. for an array of 8, type 8x).
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You might want to learn to use TAGS an OUTLINER. They are a great organizef for complex models. Also look at reparenting groups in outliner.
that’s good to know! Thanks!
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Thanks. Was wondering why it wasn’t appearing.
Thanks Colin, I almost get crazy trying to configure for my old “X” shortcut in the 2024 version.
Now is under Edit/context menu flyout/explode while selecting any group or component.
Thank you!