# Subtract solids **URL:** \ **Category:** SketchUp\ **Created:** [March 29, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190 "2020-03-29T01:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![athos.jerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@athos.jerome](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/athos.jerome)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 1:41am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/1 "2020-03-29T01:41:03Z")
Hello everyone, I have to subtract several solids from a solid. So I use the “substract” function but I have to do it one by one, which is very long. Do you have a solution to do it all at once? ---
**Author:** ![McGordon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@McGordon](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/McGordon)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:00am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/2 "2020-03-29T02:00:15Z")
Select all the objects you want to subtract. Make them into a group. Edit that group, select all and explode them. You may have to do this multiple times if you have nested groups/components. If the group you made is still solid, you should be able to subtract all of them in one operation. This is difficult to explain without seeing an example of what you’re trying to do. Here is an example of what I think you mean: ![subtract](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/original/3X/b/6/b644dca7c43c0e2b4c50a7f89e58b9fbf2ec1b6b.gif) ---
**Author:** ![athos.jerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@athos.jerome](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/athos.jerome)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:28am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/3 "2020-03-29T02:28:20Z")
Thaaaaaaaank you so much ! It’s working perfectly when I try with simple solid, but with my model, it seems to have a problem with complex solid. But thank you again ! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DaveR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/sketchup/user_avatar/forums.sketchup.com/daver/32/7601_2.png) [@DaveR](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/DaveR)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/4 "2020-03-29T02:30:24Z")
If you share the .skp file so we can see exactly what you are working with, we could likely give you some solution. ---
**Author:** ![athos.jerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@athos.jerome](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/athos.jerome)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/5 "2020-03-29T02:55:57Z")
[urbanS06.skp](https://forums.sketchup.com/uploads/short-url/h296Jb2Lr6lBJAKWdZ9TbB1PkmH.skp) (11.4 MB) Of course, sorry I have filled in colors to make it easier to understand, but I would therefore like to subtract the red solids from the green solid. (for information, I downloaded the map from cadmapper, and extrude the shapes with JointPushTool) thanks a lot for your help ---
**Author:** ![McGordon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@McGordon](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/McGordon)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:15am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/6 "2020-03-29T03:15:41Z")
In my simple example, there were no objects intersecting with each other. Multiple separate solids in the same group still count as a solid and work with the boolean tools. In your file, you have multiple solids intersecting with other solids. This will create lots of internal faces when you try and merge them together into solids that you can subtract in one operation. There are extensions that will help you such as ThomThom’s Solid Inspector2. It’s debatable whether it would be faster to just subract each red object one at a time rather than merge them and tidy them up so that each was a solid object that could be used with the boolean tools. ---
**Author:** ![athos.jerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f0a364/32.png) [@athos.jerome](https://forums.sketchup.com/u/athos.jerome)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:27am UTC](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/subtract-solids/120190/7 "2020-03-29T03:27:58Z")
Yes, I suspected it was because of the intersections. I’m going to continue one by one, I don’t have much left. However, it takes me about 3 minutes each time … maybe because of the complexity of the forms? I’m going to be patient haha