Using components

[rstimler]

I’ve been reading this thread, and remain confused. I have found all these places in the components tray at right, such as my components, etc. So I have a component, and wish to use it in other drawings. Do I need to save these, as it says to a disc or other storage, or can I manage to save it somewhere in SU, i.e. in my collections? How do I get that readily used component from my original model into a usable, easy to find collection within SU so I can use it over in another model. One commentator says to just open another window and drag from one to the other. Is that other window opening a new SU app, or can I open another window in the app I’ve got running on my computer?

[simoncbevans]

When you say “this thread”, it looks like you have started a new one.

However, components can be local or global, ie particular to the drawing in question or generally accessible. Sounds like you want to make them generally accessible. All you have to do is to keep all your generally accessible components in a file structure like any other and point SU at it so that it can read it. Here’s my file structure for SKP components:

[simoncbevans]

And when I say point SU at it, I mean by setting preferences, like this:

[MikeWayzovski]

@rstimler

Do I need to save these, as it says to a disc or other storage, or can I manage to save it somewhere in SU, i.e. in my collections?

Best way to save components gor use in other models is by setting the folder to an appropiate place in Window>Preferences>Files. An appropiate place would be a folder in your documents, like so: Documents/SketchUp/mycomponents/tables
Then, if you rightclick on any component in any model, you will be prompted to save the component at that location.
You can ‘Open a local collection’ by clicking on the little blue details icon in the Component panel.
By clicking again, you can add that folder to yout favorites, which appears when you vlick on the down arrow.
Mind you, a component is saved as an ordinary SketchUp file, without its highest ‘wrapper’.

[rstimler]

Thanks to both of you respondents for the answers. They are extremely useful. And, as for creating a new thread- It wasn’t my intention. I was reading a thread with that name, and thought I was adding to that thread. I haven’t done a lot of posting on this forum, so bear with me. I think I can get the rest of this all figured out with the info you’ve provided. So…do we now close this thread, and if so, how do I do it?

[DaveR]

There are a couple of other options you might want to explore. First, if you want to save all the components in your current model as a collection as you might do with a bunch of kitchen cabinets you’ll want to use in future projects, set the Components window to display the In Model collection. (click on the house icon.) Then open the Details menu by clicking on the button to the right of the search window. Choose Save as a local collection.

If you already have a library of components and you want to add to it, you can open the secondary pane by clicking on the button immediately under the X in the upper right corner. Then set the secondary pane to the desired collection. Click and drag thumbnails from the In Model collection to the destination.

If you want to create a new local collection to put those components in, you can open the Details menu and choose Open or Create a Local Collection.

If you make a new collection and want to find it in the drop down list, go to the Details menu and choose Add to Favorites.