I am designing wooden vertical blinds for the house. After creating the individual blind sections and stacking them 2” apart, I created a group for all the sections.
I want to know if I can rotate each horizontal blind section at the same time when they are grouped using the rotation tool or some other axis rotation tool. I have attached a 2D image from my project for a reference .
So you want to do something like this?
Did you make each slat a component?
Do they really have to move or is it enough to show them in either the open or closed position?
Are you still using SketchUp 2021?
Not that it really matters, but vertical blinds are the ones with the slats going vertically.
So you want to do something like this? Yes please
Did you make each slat a component? No
Do they really have to move or is it enough to show them in either the open or closed position? I want them to move
Are you still using SketchUp 2021? No I’m using 2025.
My bad.. yes they are horizontal blinds…
Dave, after making each section a component, what tool did you use?
Thank you for the input and response.
Dave, after closer review of the animation drawing you attached, do I just use the move tool at the corner position of a slat. How is the center axis defined so all the components don’t just go up and the tilt?
I made the first slat as a component within a component. This was copied up using Move/Copy to make an array. To rotate the slats I opened the top level component of one of them for editing, and used the Move tool to roate it about its center. Could also the Rotate tool but then you need to find the center of the end for rotation. You don’t have to do that with the Move tool.
You could also make a Dynamic Component to do this although it wouldn’t be as quick to make. You might find one already made in the 3D Warehouse but I haven’t chacked.
Please correct your forum profile as that information helps us help you. Put in the model of graphics card, too.
Dave.. Thank you so much for your assistance..I created what I think are components within a component and I am still unable to move or rotate the slots on their center axis. I also tried selecting one of the slots and grabbing a corner to move it up to rotate all the slots at once. I am still rotating the entire group and not rotating the slots on the center axis. I have attached a screenshot of the 2025 sketchup pro design. Please let me know what I did wrong… Also can you please tell me where I should update my profile to show you I am using Sketchup Pro 2025 ?
@DaveR will ask you to post your model… screenshots are useless for this sort of help.
Did you go into a blind component, select all, then rotate the geometry?
Based on the view of Outliner you have all of the slats inside a single component. This shows Outliner in my model.
I guess Mike has already answered so this is moot. I opted to do the double wrapping of the component in my case, though. It makes selection for rotation and potential modifications to the slats easier
As for editing your profile, click on the J in the green circle at the top right corner of the forum page. Then click on the Person icon followed by Preferences and then Profile. Make the edits and scroll to the bottom of the page to click Save.
Thank you Dave….I created a component within a component I believe. I’ve attached my working file to this tread…
Blind slot.skp (284.4 KB)
the saved SketchUp file I created
Not the same as I did. Look at Outliner. You have all of the slat components collected into a single component. You either need to do as Mike showed and open a slat component for editing to rotate the geometry or you need to build it like I showed.
Dave… I see where I went wrong… Thank you for your help. Is there a tutorial video showing the process you outlined?
I don’t know of a specific tutorial on this. I think it’s really just a matter of understanding how components work in SketchUp.
TBH, this “double wrapping” is normally not recommended for most modeling as it usually winds up create more work as you move through the modeling process. This is an exception, though.
If you are going to actually make the slats and you wanted to generate a report/cutlist using the components, the dimensions will be taken from the bounding box of the component. The method Mike showed will require that you turn the blades horizontal or vertical before generating the report since the bounding box size will change throughout the rotation. In my setup, it’s the bottom level component getting rotated and its bounding box dimensions remain constant.
Dave …. I got it…. Thank you so much for your Patients… I have not worked this extensively with components and your help has opened my eyes the the complexity of grouping components.
Sounds like you’re sorted, but if you want the slats to animate to set rotations with a single click, you could add dynamic attributes. Let me know if you want me to show you that. No worries if you’re sorted.
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