@sir said:

ok, not actually thousands of components! you have lots of instances, but with the others added you'll only have a hundred or so, maybe 200!

have you found the components window yet? this is a good way to keep track of the components in your model. you can also use it to add materials to specific components by

1. insert a new copy of the component into the model, doesnt matter where
2. add material to that new one. this will update all instances (copys) of it throughout the model
3. delete the inserted component

repeat

Thanks. Still getting my head round the nitty gritty. Thomthom's simple suggestion achieved what I wanted to do - add materials according to layer - by using the colour by layer option. But that's a great tip - my drawings is mainly organised into layers, but supposedly by this way I could have more control if needed and change individual components on the same layer. Thanks for your help.

Hang about, sometimes when you're stressed you miss things. I had a little meditation, came back to re-read your first comment, thomthom, and just needed to select layer by colour like you suggested. Thanks a million (and Chris) for your help. It's kind people like you who by sharing, make the world a better place. I didn't need any plugins after all, but as I'm falling back in love with sketchup, how do you load them? I went to the layers_materials plugin page and the link brought up a script...

@thomthom said:

If you want to transfer the layer colours to the geometry, then there's already a plugin out there. Search for " layers_materials" at http://www.sketchucation.com/extensions-index/

I'm going to try this now. Do you know if it applies the layer colours to even geometry nested as components within larger components? Thanks thomthom

@chris fullmer said:

I'll help get the ball rolling...

Do you just want a single material applied to the entire component? Like, you want all components named "doorhandle_01" to be painted silver, regardless how deep they are buried?

Also, how many DIFFERENT components are there? You say thousands, but is it 10os of copies of only 10 different components? Or is it really thousands of different components?

Do you have a sample model you could upload?

Yes. I'd like to apply a single material to a component, regardless of how deep they are buried.

Yep, there's thousands of separate components all made to create a building. I've uploaded a zipped file of just the structure. Added to this is secondary structure, claddings, windows, stairs, floors - essentially every element of the entire build (right down to silly things that I probably shouldn't have detailed, like the rubber seals in between the panes of double glazing). The plan is to do an exploded perspective along the way (I'd love it if there was a plugin for this!).

Structure.skp.zip

Wow. You were quick. I can't upload the whole file because even zipped it is 25MB. Layer by colour... tried that first but it only changed the elements of the drawings that weren't components - namely one or two (the landscaping). The other suggestions sound promising, let me look into them now...

P.S. Thanks tremendously.

I apologise for this not being quite the right thread, but you're the man for this, I think...

I have a thoroughly complex model, imported from Autocad where every individual object was a block and then those blocks nested within a block (e.g. 1st floor structure). Now in Sketchup I want to add materials to what are now components, components nested within components, groups etc. I thought I could do this from the layer window, but, of course, I'm still thinking in Autocad and Sketchup works differently, and I can not change the materials of components and nested components this way.

Is there a way to apply materials by layer to components, groups, and nested components? I'm loathed to edit thousands of components individually by double clicking on the component and then using the paint bucket tool.

Please help me thomthom!

Is it possible to add materials via the layer window to objects that are within components? I have created a really really detailed model, with the thought that I could simply add materials via the layer window, and really can't bear to go into each component to add the material one by one - there are thousands of them! Is there a simple work around by which I can select a layer, then add a material to that layer - essentially all the components on that layer and the components within components on that layer?