"exploding" a Sketchup image?

[Milo]

Just hoping someone that can help me with a sketch up question. I recently received a sketch up design of Roy Underhill's French work bench. I was wondering if there was a way to dissect, or explode this sketch up so I can see the individual pieces. It is not in layers like some other sketch up designs I have seen in the past. When I ran the sketch up through cut list it did break it down by various part names.

Thank you in advance for the help,

Milo

[TerryMcK]

You can simply hide the pieces you don't want to see by selecting by left clicking on them, when done selecting them right click and selecting hide from the pop out menu.

If the drawing has been built using items defined as components (leg, top, stretcher etc) it is very easy. If it has been built as just lines that makes it a little more difficult. In that case you can multiple select entities you want to hide by clicking then holding the left mouse button down while dragging from right to left. This is called selection by marquee. The items you select turn blue. Again just right click and you see hide on the menu. Best to use a combination of zooming in and selection to ensure you hide just what you want.

To unhide the items you go to the edit menu and you will see hide. Select unhide all and everything reappears.

I refer to the PC version of sketchup here. I don't know what the equivalent commands are on a Mac but they are probably very similar.

[CessnaPilotBarry]

If the item has been built as components, you can also drag a fresh copy of a part, from the components list to a blank area, measure it, rotate it, look at it, etc... and delete it when done.  This leaves the original item intact.

 

If I'm going to pull apart the item, before you do anything, make the entire item a single component.  I'll select the entire piece, right click, and create a component of the whole thing.  For example, "Table - Assembled"  This is easier than trying to reassemble the item part by part.  After you blow it up, just drag a new one to the page.

[Milo]

Guys, how do I tell if the piece is made up of "components"?

I worked with a pie safe once, and it had "layers", and I could make various parts disappear by unclicking the layer.

Is there a way to create layers at this point?

Thanks!

[Tom Crawford]

Open the drawing, in the Window menu click Components. You should get another small window, in that window there is a small 'house' icon, click on the little pointing down triangle and select 'In Model.'  (I'm on a MAC but I assume Windows will be almost the same.)

[Chris H]

I have wanted to do what you are saying.  

 

What I ended up doing was to select the whole project and do the ctrl+move thing to create a duplicate.  Then I just manually pulled apart the pieces, so I had two of the same image on the screen, one whole connected project, and then one with parts and measurements pulled apart to print off and use in the shop.

 

To the best of my knowledge...which is very limited...there isn't a quick way.  Though what I described above will only take a few minutes depending on how the model was built.

 

If you or the original artist didn't create "components" then, unfortunatley, it's just going to be a life lesson.  You can create the components yourself, but it takes a bit longer after the fact, then if you do it along the way when drafting it up.

 

Good Luck!

[Byrdie]

I can think of a couple ways to do it.  A simple one is to go into the view menu, down to face style and pick x-ray.  This allows you to look through parts, to see internal joinery, mortise and tenons, etc.  You can also see different parts and internal parts.

 

The first thing I would do, however, is make a copy of the file in case you mess something up - one that you don't use, an original so to speak.

 

In your copy file, go into view, down to component view, choose hide rest of model and hide similar components.  Then you can double or triple click on any element and if it ends up being the only thing you see then your model is built from components.  If you don't hide similar components, then you can see what other places are made of a duplicate piece.  Table legs or cabinet sides often are copies of one component.

 

Finally, in a copy, you can use your move tool - click on an element then use the move tool to pull it away from the rest of the model.  Undo is a great thing.

 

If you make a copy of your original, or at the very least don't save when you make changes, you can have all kinds of fun.  I do it all the time.  I love to pull out drawers, lift off tops, etc.

[jHop]

I like what Chris H recommends.  I have started to take the additional step of creating two copies of every project I design, just for this purpose.  I leave the two on the same page, but only one has been exploded so I can see components.

 

My skill set has determined the easiest way to do this is not to make copies, because I've ended up moving both sets of the component when I select one or the other of the copies.  What I end up doing is two complete originals, taking the time to put profiles, dados, etc on both.  If anybody knows of a faster way, I'd love to hear it.

[Chris H]

I like what Chris H recommends.  I have started to take the additional step of creating two copies of every project I design, just for this purpose.  I leave the two on the same page, but only one has been exploded so I can see components.

 

My skill set has determined the easiest way to do this is not to make copies, because I've ended up moving both sets of the component when I select one or the other of the copies.  What I end up doing is two complete originals, taking the time to put profiles, dados, etc on both.  If anybody knows of a faster way, I'd love to hear it.

If you wait until you are done with the project, being sure to create "Groups" for each of the parts, then select the move function, hold t he crtl key, and slide the entire project to one side or the other, it will create a duplicate of the entire project, groups and all.   Then I typically hide the original while I explode the duplicate.  I don't know if that is what you are looking for or not, but I have never had issues with both pieces moving.  If you create "Components" instead of groups, then they will move in unison, unless you are clicked inside the component.  

 

Hope that makes sense.

[Daineseboy]

Jhop
I think it would be much more effecient for you to simply make a copy of your original model. Once made, select the entire copy with a right to left Bounding Box, right click it and chose "make unique". You will now be able to do anything you want to it without affecting the original. You could then save it with a different name.