Where do the components go on the ipad?

SketchUp for iPad
1

Morning! Another basic user error question.

I’ve been practicing some more. Thank you for all your advice so far.

My newest question comes while I am learning the ins and outs of groups and components. I am on the iPad version (still loving it). Attached is a model of a Uline storage rack Uline Racking.skp (336.7 KB)
that I am building, the one with materials was built from individual geometry before and now I’m redoing it on the right using groups and components.

Disclaimer: I am of the belief that I am not yet using these features correctly. No delusions here.

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Each time I get to a place where I realize that I want to make drastic changes to a component for whatever reason I explode it and change it, etc. I have been diligently naming these components each time it asks me to, but one time I exploded the flat piece (grate), changed it and then tried to make it a component again, named ‘grate’ only to be informed that ‘grate’ already existed. I realized then that even though I exploded it, it didn’t go away… ‘grate’ is still there somewhere.

Finally the question: Where are these components being stored? Is there a list or menu to grab them from? What happens to them when I ungroup them? Are they still components? when I save the model and it purges unused elements, does it purge component labels of exploded geometry? Is ‘re-componenting’ necessary?

I guess there’s also a secondary question involved. Does exploding even have anything to do with components, and if not, how much editing can be done to a ‘group’ that will become a part of an existing component?

**my basic assumptions about components **
~ they are like groups, only if I make a copy and change something, every copy also changes
~ they have to be grouped to be a component? If I ungroup them the component dissolves? But apparently not because of the name being ‘in use’
~ IPad is storing them…. Somewhere…. Assumedly for another version of the software, I.e…. I go to look at it on pro and there’s a menu there, just not for me.
~ i should be using groups to completely finish a building block and ONLY then make it a component?

Advice, links to other topics that have already explained this, anything and everything appreciated!

2

This may help: Groups vs Components
Google search: More on the topic.

3

That is helpful! But it also confirms for me that there is a secondary level I’m having trouble finding.

Where is this menu in the iPad?

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4

I don’t have an iPad as you know but from what I can see there isn’t a Components panel as there is in other versions. I did see a comment that it’s something in the works, though.

5

Okay. So on the iPad they’re most useful when I need exact copies of something and I should hang a version back off in space for access if I’m going to be burying them mid model.

6

That wouldn’t be a bad process for now. You could save the components into a folder on your iPad and import them as needed but storing off to the side in the model might be the easiest method as you are working.

7

You don’t need to explode a group or component to edit it and make changes. You double click on one to “enter that level of context” and you are then able to edit what’s in the group (and only in that group, not the rest of the model) until you “exit the group” by clicking outside. Double clicking with a stylus can be frustrating (Apple Pencil and Wacom Pen, which I use on desktop). Any skidding while you do a double or triple click messes it up.

8

This is helpful for moving this particular model into other models of various storage buildings though! So thank you for that information. I hadn’t thought to move into other models.

9

Very helpful!!!

10

Found This thread in the archives about this. You are both correct (never assumed you weren’t :wink: ) and there is no components menu yet.

11

I hope they make it light enough to handle like a thin paper notepad. iPads are still heavy enough that when you toss them on a table, they thunk, making them feel more delicate rather than like a tool. It also exhausts your hand when you hold it in certain positions for extended periods of time.

12

I’m not sure if this is still a question, but on the iPad version, I found components in the Outliner tab.
If you want to add a component that is unused, go into outlier, scroll to unused, press the three dots then click on insert.

Hope this may have helped people who are still wondering where to find components in Sketxhup for IPad

13

@Dollybeans12 it’s been a while since your post about Components and the Outliner. I’m curious to learn more from your experience. Since having discovered that the Outliner is doubling as the “In Model” component library in SU for iPad, how’s that going for you?

14

@MikeTadros, this is still an absolutely silly oversight, and seems like a purposeful choice to add an ‘annoyance tax’ to the Go plan for incentivizing moving to the Pro plan. And your comment here was so brazenly detached from any good-faith interest of user experience that I just can’t ignore it.

I had to move to the iPad version from Web because of silly choices in UI design in the latter which exits group editing context when toggling the visibility of other groups, and now I don’t have a component list. Also, who was the genius who decided that the shift key still affects the tool modes on the iPad when used to navigate with a mouse? No one is going to be holding the shift key on a keyboard and moving with a mouse and using a pencil at the same time. The middle mouse button should interrupt the effect of shift on the tool. This is basic quality of life programming, and the lack of this shows how little thought was put into your user’s experience. Every time I pan while using the eraser I have to double check if hide geometry has been activated… that’s actually cost me hours of work before I figured out that was even happening.

Concerning the component library, with laptop-grade iPad Pros fairly common, the idea that an iPad user wouldn’t have enough components in a model to make having a library worth the coding is not an excuse. Especially when programs like Clip Studio offer nearly exact desktop-equivalent functionality and have done so for five years. The fact that I can’t always click on a sidebar menu in Sketchup for iPad unless I jostle it with scrolling is just sad.

$20 a month should cover a program so dead simple that it can’t do chamfers or spirals. I pay half that for programs with significantly higher feature footprints. We shouldn’t have to spend $100 a month just to have all the features of the web and iPad versions in one place, especially since you guys really don’t seem to care about making either version terribly useful enough on their own. The only thing you guys have that keeps most customers is your warehouse and it’s integration with bare-bones layout tools.

It’s been three years. The component library made sense on day 1.

15

Screenshot 2026-02-22 180350
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Screenshot 2026-02-22 180553
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The first screenshot shows you the outliner (right) tab, and the component icon is circled in red. The second screenshot shows you the components listed when I clicked on the icon. All the components in that file are listed.

16

I agree that a component library would be nice… however, I just keep them in their own local file and copy out of that when I’m ready for them.

The thing I’m always confused about (not trying to start an argument, I literally do not understand) is why iPad users are all so dead set on using a mouse when they use their iPad for SketchUp. I like to use my iPad curled up on the couch, or waking around a job site where a mouse just doesn’t make life any easier and I haven’t had any troubles using only the pencil and my non-dominant hand, which I have to assume is the main way iPad UI/UX is designed to be used. If I feel like I need a mouse I would use my laptop and have access to the more powerful program in that case.

What is it about the mouse that is so desirable?

17

I don’t really use the iPad to model, just for presentations, it’s easier to take and to show to my clients than carrying my laptop. There are talented people that can create awesome projects on iPad but imho it’s not for professional architects, the main reason is that there’s no layout app for iPad, layout is a huge part in my job, the 3D modeling would be useless if I can’t extract information and documents out of it in an easy way. Also if you get possessed by Zaha Hadid or Calatrava, you can’t make organic models with the same ease you can make them on sketchup for desktop and some components, though that’s not my design style, y enjoy it and try to implement it on some projects where I feel organic shapes will add to the design without affecting the main idea of the projects, just organic shapes that blend with the rest of the elements. I’m quite proud of those projects but it would’ve been impossible to make them exclusively on iPad.

Again I respect those who use iPad exclusively like Dani, her gallery thread is awesome, and has found a way to make documentation using other apps which is great but if you want to get to a newer level, sketchup pro is the option. Or the other tools you mentioned on your rant.

18

It is a topic that interests me.

I watched your video that was posted a while back of your Ipad work flow. It is very impressive. I think most of us have a comfort level and fall back to what we know. @RTCool and others comment on using a pen&tablet. I think this goes back to early AutoCAD where those tablets automated the use of AutoCAD and once you master it is probably a preferred interface. ( I never used AutoCAD much ) I have a Microsoft surface pro tablet/laptop that if running the online version of SketchUp works kina like the IPad but using that pen is tricky. I havent used an IPad so i cant give a comparison. My desktop machine also has a touch screen and pen but using the pen for modeling is awkward. With practice it might get easier but we fall back to what we know. I hear similar comments on the space mouse. (I havent tried one). People also complain about Icons and on a desktop machine hotkeys make it so you almost never use the icons. I even have a small android table that has a custom screen of Icons that are hot keys. I dont use it as much as i used to! but it keeps my left hand from moving all over. So back to your question. If IPad users adopted your work flow and practiced a little they would stop using the mouse. Maybe some tutorials of how the pen works, pinch zoom techniques, ect. would help them.

19

23 years of using a three-button mouse when working in SketchUp results in a lot of muscle memory that is difficult to overcome. :wink:

I have a logitech M510 that I use for SketchUp on the iPad and it works fine. Identical to the mice I use on both my desktop and notebook machines.