Google SketchUp: The Missing Manual

Editing Components

As explained earlier, editing a component is different from editing a group in that the changes you make to a component change every instance of that component. You've got lots of window components in your house, so they present an opportunity to see this principle in action:

1. Right-click (or Control-click) any one of the windows in your model and then choose Edit Component.

   The window component opens for editing. The rest of the model fades. As an alternative, you can double-click a component to open it for editing.

   If you have set View → Hide Rest of Model, then all you see is a single window component. For this example, it's best if you can see the rest of the model, so change your view, at least for a moment.

2. Zoom in to a close-up view of the window component (Figure 9-21).

   You can use several handy zoom tools. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, that may be the easiest. You can also click with the Zoom (Z) tool, or drag with the Zoom Window tool.

3. With the Rectangle (R) tool, draw a small rectangle on the middle of the window's frame.

   Make the rectangle about half the height of the frame, so it can serve as a horizontal piece of sash, as shown in Figure 9-21.

4. With Push/Pull (P), pull the rectangle and then click the frame on the other side of the window.

   Notice that as you make changes to the open component, all the other components change at the same time.

   

   Figure 9-21. Maneuver ...