Dynamic component workflow

ken

OK, I am lost. I have some components that I wish to set up to scale and to add other attributes. I insert the component into a blank drawing, added all the component attributes that I want. Test the component and the component with the attributes work just fine. So now, here is where I am lost. How do I get the component back to the component library with all the attributes still working.
The information on the web site is a little unclear on how to save a component with attributes, or I am just overlooking the info.

Question.

How do I modify component that I all ready have that has no attributes, with the new attributes I wish to add?
How do I modify a component that that I manage to save and it has some attributes, but I want to increase the attributes?

I cannot find the magic button that is consistent with saving or modifying components with attributes. I have saved some component with attributes; however, the process does not seem to be consistent.
Thanks in advance for your help

Ken

P.S. This part of the SketchUp 7 is going to be a killer application in IMHO.

AdrianM

IF you create the component and then save it so it can be imported via the Component window then it will lose attributes. The documentation does imply that DC's can't be imported via the browser.

I save them and open them as normal Sketchup files which seems to work fine, nowhere near as convenient as importing though.

Not sure what you mean by adding attributes, if I'm modifying an existing DC or creating a new from scratch or from a normal component I just highlight it and choose attributes off the context menu.

James Fraser

I would treat DCs like Face Me components (I don't know if you have used them).

When creating or editing you should have a model open and work on the DC within the model (not as a model in itself). When you are finished, go to In Model in the component browser, right click on your component and select "Save As" Save the model wherever you want. Saving like that for the first time has a tendency to mess things up a little (although less so than in 6), so you can open that model, reset the view and save again. You can also make some physical changes to the model when it is opened (rather than imported), but it is best to avoid doing DC things.

To use the component later on, or make DC changes to it, you want to import it. I tend to do this using drag and drop from a file browser (nice and easy on my mac), but if you prefer using the component manager thing, then you want to go to the menu and select "Open a local collection...", then you can navigate to wherever you keep your components.

Basically, the thing to remember with DCs is that you only see the functions when you view it as a component, not as a model.

To be honest, I don't use the component window all that much (usually just to save), but I hope that helped answer your question. I have tested all of that with my own DCs and it worked fine.

AdrianM

@unknownuser said:

To use the component later on, or make DC changes to it, you want to import it. I tend to do this using drag and drop from a file browser (nice and easy on my mac), but if you prefer using the component manager thing, then you want to go to the menu and select "Open a local collection...", then you can navigate to wherever you keep your components.

It must be different on a Mac as importing a DC on the PC in either of those ways loses the attributes.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding something which is usually a safe bet.

James Fraser

I have tested things on XP and Vista and it is fine for me.

I did have a think and I might have worked out what is going on for you. Would I be right in guessing that you create DCs, which work fine, then to save them you go to File => Save ? If you do this then your DC will not work. You have to go to the component browser and save from there.

This is because when you access the Component Options you are only looking at the top layer component, in Component Attributes you see the top two layers. If your DC was saved within a model, when you import that model will be seen as a component containing the DC you were after.

If you saved within a model more than once, or put your DC within another component, then you would see nothing in Component Attributes.

You actually can alter the attributes of things beyond the first two layers, if you edit the component and select the Attributes from in there.

I think that is probably what is going on, but if not then maybe you could post an example of the problem that we can take a look at.