# sketchup component problem



## Chris_belgium (19 Feb 2010)

Hello, been trying to draw up some sketches for my new bathroom but for some reason I'm unable to 'grab' the corners of the blue wire frame surrounding components with the move tool, to then move it to the point where I want them, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks, Chris.


----------



## Chris Knight (19 Feb 2010)

Chris you can only grab some element of the underlying geometry - a vertex,end of a line, line etc. The bounding box cannot be grabbed. The geometry you are grabbing might be hidden as in the case of a sphere or cylinder for example so to see what you are taking hold of, turn View> Hidden Geometry on.

This is normally what you'd want as you presumably want to place a component in relation to something else.

Also, a rather bigger subject, are you aware of the importance of component axes and the "insertion point"? If not, have a look at Dave R's excellent video on the subject http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/115 ... n-sketchup


----------



## Chris_belgium (19 Feb 2010)

waterhead37":1j7izc7f said:


> Chris you can only grab some element of the underlying geometry - a vertex,end of a line, line etc. The bounding box cannot be grabbed. The geometry you are grabbing might be hidden as in the case of a sphere or cylinder for example so to see what you are taking hold of, turn View> Hidden Geometry on.
> 
> This is normally what you'd want as you presumably want to place a component in relation to something else.
> 
> Also, a rather bigger subject, are you aware of the importance of component axes and the "insertion point"? If not, have a look at Dave R's excellent video on the subject http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/115 ... n-sketchup



I was working with a rounded bathtub so no corners to grab, made the mistake to think that I could 'grab' the corner of the wire frame also, had a look at that info about component axes and learned a lot from it! Now back to the drawing board  thanks for the help!


----------



## SketchUp Guru (20 Feb 2010)

Chris, thank you for the promotion. I appreciate that.

Chris, Chris gave you excellent advice regarding the grabbing of the component with the Move tool. You do have to grab some geometry in the component. The bounding box isn't grab-able. 

Using the Component axis origin as the insertion point is a perfect way to bring a component you've saved into a model. Or, if you've drawn the component in the same model but it isn't placed where you need it, you could bring a new instance in from the In Model library.

Once the component is placed in the model you can't grab it again by its insertion point. To place the component you'll want to find some logical point such as a point on the centerline that you can grab by and use inferencing to locate the component as desired.

Another strategy might be to place some temporary geometry; just two intersecting lines will do; in the component to aid in grabbing it. These lines can be deleted later when they are no longer needed.


----------

