07-848 2005

In your cart

Open the cart to load its items.

View cart

Menu

SketchUp desktopSketchUp

Editing a Component with Solid Tools

When you edit a component with the Solid tools, the steps are little different than the steps for editing components with the other drawing tools.

Last updated 17 July 2026

When you edit a component with the Solid tools , the steps are little different than the steps for editing components with the other drawing tools.

The following steps explain how to edit a component with the Solid tools, using the fence model as an example:

  1. Edit the component with a Solid tool In this example, the Subtract tool cuts a hole in the Picket component. In the Entity Info panel, notice that the name of the component instance changes from Picket to Difference.
SketchUp-Creating-DynamicComponents-Editing7.png
  1. To update the component definition so that all pickets reflect your changes, context-click the modified picket and select Make Component.
  2. In the Create Component dialog box, make sure the component Definition matches the original component name. In this example, that name is Picket.
  3. Click the Create button. A dialog box asks whether you want to replace the component definition.
SketchUp-Creating-DynamicComponents-Editing8.png
  1. Click Yes. All instances of your component reflect the change you made with the Solid tool or tools.
  2. (Optional) If you exploded a component to access subcomponents, you can re-create the component. For example, select all the entities in the updated fence and re-create the Fence Panel component.
SketchUp-Creating-DynamicComponents-Editing9.png

3D Printing a Model

Before you print a model on a 3D printer, you need to make sure your 3D printer can understand your model data. Here's a quick overview of how to set up your SketchUp model for 3D printing:

SketchUp desktop

Adding an Environment to a Model

Environments allow you to add 360°panoramic backgrounds and image-based lighting conditions to your SketchUp models. The Environments panel is where you can add and manipulate environments, or import High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI) files or OpenEXR files to create a new environment.

SketchUp desktop

Adding Attributes

Attributes make components dynamic by telling SketchUp what to do. You can choose from predefined attributes or create custom attributes:

SketchUp desktop

Adding Premade Components and Dynamic Components

Components in SketchUp turn geometry in a model into reusable entities. For example, most buildings have at least one door and window. Instead of modeling these common objects, you can insert a component that you have already made, or even one made by someone else.Like all geometry in SketchUp, a component is still

SketchUp desktop

Adding Text, Labels, and Dimensions to a Model

In SketchUp, you can add four types of text:

SketchUp desktop

Still need help?

Technical support from our New Zealand team is available to customers with a current Procadsys SketchUp Pro Plus or SketchUp Studio Plus subscription. Self-help articles are public.

Contact SketchUp support