Convert component to group?
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I made a model and imported it to another existing project.
When I made a copy of it, I realized that the copy is a component which the copies change according to the changes done on the others.
This is not what I intended to do. I guess I had a mistake. I want to make the copies into a plain and simple groups that will not be effected when I change the rest.
Is there a way to convert the components into simple groups?
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Instead you could select the components you want to change, then right click and choose, "Make Unique". This will remove "unlink" them from the other components so the changes don't affect all of them.
To make them into groups you have to explode and then group.
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Place an Instance of the Component - located away from other Geometry.
Select it.
Explode it.
Its Entities remain selected.
Pick 'Make Group'.
Now what were the Component's Entities are now duplicated in a new Group. -
If you explode the component before grouping the pieces, you might have trouble keeping it away from other geometry. I like to turn all the pieces into a group while they're still inside the component. I just have to double-click to have them nice and isolated, and then select all and make a group. Then when I explode the component, I'm left with the group that was inside, which is what I want. If you do it that way, you won't have to make a copy or reposition it away from the rest of your geometry or anything like that. You might still have to make it unique first, if you have other instances of the component that you don't want to be grouped.
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Yeah best method is to double-click into component, select all, make group, exit component, select component instances, explode. All component instances are now unique groups.
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@bitslapped said:
Yeah best method is to double-click into component, select all, make group, exit component, select component instances, explode. All component instances are now unique groups.
Kind of funny to dredge up such an old thread.
You might consider that converting the component to a group results in giving up all of the benefits of having a component besides that of editing one edits the others. Using Make Unique as suggested by Earth Mover more than 5 years ago only breaks the link to the other copies but you don't lose the other benefits afforded components.
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There's a plugin that converts components into groups somewhere in the Plugin Store.
Aha Dave! There are a lot of benefits to groups and the most important one is that they are not components!
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Since this thread is alive again, could you lay out for the rest of us how you feel a group can be beneficial over a component, with the exception of not having to click once more to create it or that it doesn't fill up the component browser.
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It doesn't mimic itself by default.
As such you can model groups safely without worrying that if you inadvertedly change one, you're not changing all copies of it.
It can be easily converted to a component if you need it to mimic itself later on.When you see all of your project in the viewport at the same time, you can fairly easily control every component edition and if it's affecting other components.
If you work in projects wich for several reasons hide parts of itself you easily miss the fact that you're affecting copies of components when you're editing one of them.
Now for the "exception of not having to click once more to create it"... There are a lot of scenarios where you're, for the largest part, modelling stuff that is unique. What's the point of organizing it as a component if you'll have to make it unique everytime you copy it?
Example:
I prefer making an array of floor slab groups, and realize that I should turn every one of them into a component later on the job, rather than inadvertedly change one of them and affect them all by mistake in a state of the project where undo is no longer valid.
Converting all floors into components would be a matter of using "convert groups to components" plugin, selecting the new component that will replace them all and replace the others, wich is very fast and it'sonly a few more steps to consolidate your model.
Undoing all changes done in all floors by mistake is probably stupidly wasting time. It means you are a sloppy modeler. It means you don't know what you're doing. Or it means you're not paying attention to what you should. It might mean you've picked up the phone for answering to your client at the wrong time. There are several ways to fix it too, but all take a lot of time and work...
What if what you did change was a detail you're going to miss instead of a big floor slab? What if that affects estimates cost wich are automatically generated? You are liable for your mistake and people shouldn't do mistakes... but people are know to do it and pay for what they do... at least in architectural jobs, that happens!
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It sounds like it works for you, but I guess it comes down to what you are accustomed too and how you work.
I remember some years back challenging Dave on his component only philosophy, I have since adopted it and I find groups are inert blobs of annoyance. The number of times I come across one in other peoples work and start arraying it only to discover later it was a group and have to go back and replace them........As I say, it boils down to how you work and your lizard brain expectations of what's happening as you model. I expect components, your choose components or groups.
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@unknownuser said:
There's a plugin that converts components into groups somewhere in the Plugin Store
The Inverse Groups in Components yes by Thomthom but this one ?
You have Loose to groups by Chris Fullmer but this one ?
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