One of our readers, wrote that he is have some difficulty with a few things. His problems are ones I've been asked about before so I thought I write a little about them. His problems/questions are in italics, below.

1# I realize the component option is really useful, but I thought of drawing all the cross sections of the moldings I have in order to use the follow me tool. It won't let me do that. Any hints or tips.

Yes, components are very useful. Drawing and saving molding profiles is a great idea if you intend to use them again. Save the 2D profiles as components. There's no need to save anymore than that. Save them to a folder in the Components directory under Google/Google SketchUp 6/. You can make a new folder named Moldings if you like.If they are saved there, they'll be easily accessible through the Components browser.

To use a profile you've saved as a component, follow these steps.

• Open the Components browser and select the desired profile.
• Place the profile in the model. Rotate it as needed to place it at one end of the molding run.
• Open the component for editing by double clicking on it.
• Use Push/Pull to extrude the molding into a profile or draw a path to use with Follow Me. In order to turn the 2D profile of the molding into a 3D part of your model.

Follow Me does not work when the profile and path are separated by a component boundary.

2# All you guys have doors and furniture in exploded views. I have looked for it. Does it exist?

Tim and I create exploded views of models by moving the components away from each other much like you'd move the wooden parts away from each other after a dry fit. There is a commercially available plugin that will create an exploded view. I have it and find it difficult to use. I spoke with the developer who said he was working on a better user interface. Until then, I'll continue to do it manually. If you'd like to try it, you can get it from Smustard.com.

Important: The Explode item in the Context (right click) menu does not create exploded views. It destroys components or groups.

3# As for the components in Architecture, construction... i downloaded them off the net but I don't find there's that much items. In construction 4 trusses, couple stairs.. In architecture, ceiling fan, 3 windows... IS that it or I am looking in the wrong spot?

There are a number of component packages available from the Google site. They download as self-installing files. You need to run the EXE (Windows) or DMG (Mac) file after downloading it. There are a few components packed with SketchUp. They'll show up in folders appended with the word "sampler".

The components in these packages tend to be very light with minimal detail. They are good generic sorts of objects that may come in handy if you are trying to develop a contextual setting for a model. None of the furniture models in  these component packages are the sorts of things you'll build from.

One more note on components and groups. Think of the component or group as a wrapper around the geometry inside. It's a piece of cellophane wrapped around a sandwich holding it all together. A piece of cheese laid on top of the wrapped sandwich is not part of the sandwich. Neither is the mustard spread on the outside. To add the cheese or mustard to the sandwich, it must first be unwrapped. To add geometry or a color/texture to a component you must first open the cellophane--double click on it. Geometry won't stick to the geometry inside the component unless the component is first opened. An in the same way that you could spread mustard on the cellophane around a sandwich, you can apply a texture to a component. But the mustard wouldn't be on the bread and the texture wouldn't be on the faces of the components unless you first open them up for editing.

As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask.

Dave Richards, who is off to see what's in the fridge.