Component organization tip

[not registered yet]

I'll put this in the "Newbie" forum 'cause I consider myself a newbie, and you seasoned pro's probably have figured this out already.

I'm just finishing planning new kitchen cabs and so I have a lot of similar type components of different sizes (rails, stiles, panels, doors, etc.) and I was beginning to become overwhelmed when I tried to locate something. I noticed that the component window sorts alphabetically, so to more easily find something I went to the 3-D Text tool and typed the name of each of the various components -- Rail, Stile, etc., and paintbucketed them black. Each entry typed as 3-D text is automatically a component, so each entry is popped into the component browser window at the beginning of the set of components named 'rails xx in' or 'stile xx in', or whatever. The 3-D text is large enough that you can read it in those tiny little thumbnails in the component browser (unless you use long names).

Now when I want to find a component, I can quickly scroll down to the 3-D name and more quickly locate the particular component located right after the label.

P: chemtech

[CraigD]

Hi Chemtech - that's not a bad idea. One caution is that 3D Text can weigh down a file because the extruded text entities have a lot of geometry.

There is also the Outliner browser (Window Menu > Outliner). In hear you can not only see your components with names, you can see nested components (or groups) AND when you select them, the component becomes selected in the model window.

Give it a try!!

Cheers,

• CraigD

[Sinewave]

Also a "newbie", and a somewhat lazy software developer. I have an extension monitor connected to my laptop. My Sketchup project is displayed on the laptop screen, and all my component folders are displayed on the extension monitor (Windows Explorer). To add a component to the project, I just drag it from the extension monitor to the laptop screen.

Major advantages of doing it like this are the (much) bigger thumbnails, and I can display more of them in the bigger window.

Another component tip:
When creating many similar components, like windows, doors, kitchen cabinets etc, make only one of each main type. Test it to be sure that it "glues" and "cuts" exactly as you require. When completely satisfied with your "basic" component design, you can then create many more similar components from this basic one. Open the basic component, save it as a new file, and then do whatever editing and modifications are required for the new component. The BIG advantage in doing this is that every copy of the basic component will automatically "inherit" the same "gluing plane" and "cutting surface" as the original basic component.

Maybe we should have a special forum thread for "component tips and tricks"?