thanks Jean. lots of great advice. every time i think ive come to the end of sketchup's capability another door opens

Not sure if you got this problem solved, stumbled on this thread searching for something else... The below thread might be something you are interested in... Plugin called component array (By sdmitch)- http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=40244 He did some further modifications for the plugin to suit my post on that thread too. Alternatively put a [REQ] in the plugin directory for a variation on the component array?