The “Outliner”

As the drawings can be extensive, we need an outline way to view it. For this we use the “Outliner” window.

To open it, click the “Window” in the menu bar and select “Outliner” in the drop-down menu.

The “Outliner” shows us all the objects that we used in the drawing.
The only requirement is that these objects are grouped or that they are components.

If an object is drawn, and you want this included in the “Outliner” window, group it or make it a component.

To provide a name for a grouped object , right click this item, select “Object Properties” from the drop-down menu, and give it a name in the dialog box that appears.

If you do not give it a name, then the SketchUp will come up with a name by itself .
Problem is that they all have the same name.

You can imagine when there are hundreds of objects in the “Ouliner” window that are called “group”, it may take a while before you can find the right one.

So, give an appropriate name to the groups and components in your drawing.

 

The difference between a group and a component in the “Outliner” window is that the icon for a component consists of four blocks, and an icon for a group is a block.

A plus sign in front of the name of the component or group means that it consists of more than one component and / or group.

When we click on the plus sign, it unfolds the whole group.

Double-clicking a component or group in the “Outliner” window opens the object in edit mode of SketchUp.

By right clicking a component or group in the “Outliner” window, you can delete, hide or lock  this object and many more.

When this window opens it is actually interesting.
Well for example if your drawing consists of many objects, and there is an object that is comprised of various groups or components, it is easier to edit this object through the “Outliner” window than editing it in the drawing area.

Hide / Show

I just told you that we can hide a group or component in the “Outliner” window.

We can do the same action in different ways.
For hiding the groups or components.
Right-click the component or group and select “Hide” in the drop-down menu.

To show a hidden object again, we can not obviously right click.
Just click the “Edit” option in the menu bar and choose “View” in the drop-down menu.
Select “All” if you want to display all hidden objects again.
Select “Last” if you only want to show the last hidden object.

Lock

The same applies to the locking of objects.

Right-click the object and choose “Lock” in the drop-down menu.

We lock an object when we want to ensure that nothing more can be changed to the object or its position.

 

Featured Courses

• Downloading iPad Apps
• Lesson 1: Introduction to Publisher
• Lesson 65: File Formats