Thank you gentlemen.
I thought I had saved a draft response, but looking all around the page I could not find a link to it So here goes again...
Sorry I did not give the complete details at first. I have purged unused elements, I also have CleanUp plugin however that did not reduce the file size (well maybe a few kb). The newer version of this model has some very benign groups and some more text, including 3D text. Nothing that explains the 3MB file size difference.
I have done some further experimenting, turning off cast/receive shadows for the 3D text makes the model perform well. I have also noticed that using shadows in a scene where many components are visible will slow things down. So no shadows for this model
Regarding the Statistics window Rich, I could see some more groups, edges & faces in the newer version, but I went so far as to delete the changes in the newer file and save it with a new name. It is still 3MB bigger!
At this point I think I'll work with the backup. Ooops, better back it up first!

As I was working on a project, I realized that shadows were getting slow to paint on the screen and orbiting was getting choppy. Using a back up of a day or so ago, the model moves smooth as silk. The changes since the back up were only minor, but the file has grown from 6MB to 9MB. Turning off shadows does not help. Is there an skp analyzer/diagnostic tool that will allow me to look at the elements in the file?
Thanks

Hi again Jim
SU does not like rounding in .125" increments, it jumps in higher amounts (usually .5" is the min increment I get) despite zooming in to try to get more control.
How does it behave at your end?
Regards

Thanks a bunch Jim.
Sorry for the late reply, I though I was supposed to get email notification when there was a new post, I'll have to check that.
Your explanation was fine

Bump my own thread
I haven't been able to solve this last part of the puzzle, sure would appreciate a hint to help get this sucker finished.

I figured out how to constrain the scale tool to 1/8" increments.

Everything is perfect except one thing...
Scaling vertically results in strange animation behaviour. Please load attached model, scale vertically higher or lower, then click the blue fabric to see what happens.

This is the last detail I need, hope someone out there has the answer!

Solar_Shade_LC_zipper_animate2.skp

Thanks for the great tips Jim!
I have two remaining items to solve:

1. Scale Tool is set to only move X & Z axis but ALL controls are visible.
   Your version on the other hand correctly shows the visible controls.
2. Some trick to scale the model in 1/4" (for instance) increments.

Many thx!

Solar_Shade_LC_zipper_animate2.skp

I was able to find some examples in the forum that helped a lot. My fabric now "rolls up" into the cassette, and I learned that my fabric texture will only scale with the model (later I can design a dynamic fabric component that will do what I want). All the scale handles are still visible despite my settings to the contrary

I would like the model to scale in 1/4" increments, neither ROUND, NEAREST, LARGEST nor SMALLEST seem to be able to accomplish this. Any pointers?

I got rid of the Dynamic Option for choosing the colour, and opted instead to use onClick.
I believe I have structured the code properly, but SU is telling me there is an error with my formula. (file attached)

TIA

Solar_Shade_LC_zipper_animate2.skp

I created a DC of a solar shade. The only Component Option is the color of the frame. The model is sized using the scale tool. To animate the shade, I grouped the bottom rail and fabric and applied the onClick feature. I would very much appreciate some help with these items:

1. The group animates as expected, but the fabric does not "roll up" into the cassette. Is there a way to play with the LenZ of the fabric so that it appears to roll up into the cassette?

2. Although the ScaleTool attribute is set to hide most of the controls, they are all present when I scale the model.

3. The fabric scales, but shouldn't. The texture width/height should not change. IOW, the texture should repeat or tile.

4. Shortly after adding the onClick attribute, I noticed a custom attribute with numbers. Please refer to attached screen shot. Is this related to the onClick attribute, or did I have an epileptic seizure?

Thanks so much for any assistance.

Yikes, really freaks you out when your model starts to behave in weird ways. Then I found out about probs with components with duplicate names. I have many DC I need to duplicate, and each one contains about 30 groups. Currently I copy a component to a new sketchup instance and manually change all the names. Is there a utility that will look into the model code and let me do a search & replace?

While I am on the subject of names, I am perplexed at the number of places we can actually enter names. Names in Entity Info are different from names shown in the Component Attributes window (file attached). I haven't a clue what Definition Name is all about, except the SU throws crap in there and I have to rename that as well. I end up repeating the same name 3 times.

Well that's a bit embarrassing, I guess I should have checked out the available functions.
Thanks for your help!

When we print or export to jpg, we want the Component Options included in the output. I have attached a screen shot that shows a Text Label that would potentially display the Component Options. Problem is there are no DC attributes for a Text Label
The idea is that our customer sees a 3D model of the proposal with a text box confirming the options/sizes they have requested.
Is there a way to do this?

I am continuously confused by people referring to components. I have read a recent thread in this forum where the writer says that any sub-group in a DC must be a component to work properly.
In fact I ONLY create my DC with Groups and sub-groups.
Scouring the Google documentation, the only case for using a component is when you make copies of some geometry so that when one of them is modified, the others change as well. This feature is not necc. for a DC which has the Copies feature of course.
Writers in the forums talk about "component this" and "component that" but is it really necc... not in my experience. The attached DC uses only Groups.
Obviously I still have doubts , which is why I post here to see if there are any who would like to argue the point

SketchUp Version: 8
I am trying to create an Item Code thusly:
="6072"&if(PatioCover!BeamHt<=96,"08",if(PatioCover!BeamHt<=120,"10",if(PatioCover!BeamHt<=144,"12","14")))&PatioCover!PostCol
should result in 607208WH
but what I get is 60728WH
Completely illogical esp. since I have everything in quotes and esp. since the last item in the formula resolves to "WH" which would force any spreadsheet (for example) to identify the result as text.

Thanks for the reply.
I checked the list of functions and found CHOOSE, which will work.
The tables may change from time to time, it would be convenient to supply them as a separate file or better yet as a url (which may be taking things way out of my league )
I appreciate you pointing me in the right direction.

This project is an aluminum patio cover product.
The user selects their local snow load from a drop-down: 25psf, 30psf, 35psf, 40psf etc
There is a table of values...
snow loads in the columns,
roof mat'l gauge, post spacing, etc in the rows
The table values are used to make sure the user selects the right components for their area. The components could be controlled based on the table values, or another way, if the user selects the components and spacing themselves, the table values could be used to generate a pass/fail message
Can the table values be stored in the model, like a vlookup in a spreadsheet? Do I need to learn some Ruby?
Thanks