Thanks to Gaieus and Dave R for answering my question and the follow up re components verses groups, I have tried your suggestions and they are as you say. However for now until I get more experience with SU I am going to continue with groups, a bit more work as you say but I can edit each part quickly and when I come to dimension each part hopefully it will be simpler.

By the way Gaieus. Waistcoats are not so pointless when you live in England.

Hello everyone I tried using components while drawing my linisher. However I soon realized the component tool likes more than one object, so I am working with groups now as suggested by Jean Lemir. and find this suits my current drawing much better as each object is different this now enables me to manipulate the various objects separately without effecting other objects. But I have a further question,is it possible to create an object by name prior to actually drawing it?.Reason to save trying to separate a newly created element when making an object.

Thanks to Jean Lemire and Dave R for your clear answers. My drawing is a 4 inch wide belt linisher which i use in my hobby workshop. I manufacture the linisher from an autocad drawing I produced, but I would like to put it on SketchUp so I can use the many features it offers.I am going to try the component route first
only because as a retired engineer the word component sounds better for representing a phosphor bronze bearing than group etc.

Hello everyone
I am new here,have been working with Sketchup about one month now.Found training videos very helpful along with extensive info on the net. However having create approximately 25 percent of a drawings I had on Auotocad I am wondering if using layers for each individual component is the correct way. The drawing is reasonably complex with approximately 100 separate components I am using layers because I can turn them on and off as required and hopefully when I come to print it will allow me to output the various sections of the drawing that will be required.