Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Exploring the Components Window

In the previous exercise, you made one of the fence board components unique, and then you modified it, turning it into a fence post. By making a component unique, you're actually creating a new component. You can verify this by opening the Components window (Window → Components) and looking for two board-like components. The Components window is a little deceiving—lots of features are packed into that little box. For example, it has three tabs: Select, Edit, and Statistics. Each leads to different tools and settings (Figure 5-21). It's worth learning about these features if you want to get the most out of your components. The Components window (sometimes called the Components Browser) remembers its last view. So if you close it when you're looking at the Statistics tab, that's what you see the next time you open the Components window.

Components Window: Select Tab

To find your fence components, make sure you're on the Select tab. Click the little Navigation button next to the house icon (shown in Figure 5-21), and then choose In Model. This option shows you all the components in your SketchUp model whether they're visible or not.

Figure 5-21. Click the component Navigation button to choose a component library or to display the components in your SketchUp model. As a shortcut to the In Model components, you can click the button that looks like a house. ...