Consolidating instances to point at one definition
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I haven't quite tracked down what causes the creation of new definitions in my model. I drag in a component from the file explorer and it inserts into my model just fine. I notice later after inserting more of the same models that I then have a new definition which is the old one plus a "#1" appended to it.
I know that making a component unique causes that to happen but I haven't done that with my model as near as I can remember. Guess I have two questions:
- How could a new definition be made accidentally?
- Now that I have a model with some unwanted definitions, can I point the component_instances to reference the original definition that most of my blocks are pointing at and then purge that "#1" definition?
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Bring in the external component just once. From then on, Move/Copy the component to create additional instances. To tell SketchUp that "this one" should be an instance of "that one" requires Ruby programming.
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As Martin has written, make copies of the initial instance using the copy function of the Move tool. This will generally be desirable because it can be easier to place the additional instances. You can make arrays if the components will be placed regularly and at some specified interval.
If you must drag them into the model from the Components browser, bring in additional instances from the In Model library. They will all be instances of the same definition that way.
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"Model library" (as Dave says) i.e. the built in Component browser (Window menu).
As long as you keep inserting components from external resources (not from inside the active model), SU will consider them different instances. This is normal as otherwise you could incidentally replace existing components with ones that have the same name somewhere else.
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