updating components in warehouse

[joseph...@gmail.com]

Months ago I created a series of dynamic components but didn't follow the proper procedure, described here, for uploading them to the warehouse:

"Saving DCs and Uploading Them to 3D Warehouse"
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=2faecc718737506e4af4635b6ebb0145

They worked fine for me, since I just copy/pasted them from my local files as needed.

Now I've re-read the tutorial above and followed the un-intuitive procedure - select the component, right click to "Save As" a file (stripped of it's surrounding block and any texture applied to it!), then share that new file, which, if opened directly, shows no evidence of being a component at all!

Example:

old way, saved as plain model:

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=be256e02052a7ce8533ffc3a88188029

correct way, works as expected when accessed using the Components window (search using "dynamic lumber"):

http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=84876121a08cf405533ffc3a88188029

(odd... the last fifteen digits are the same on both models!?)

Comments:

1. When I right-click to "Save As", I get the error message "The selected component has a non-default scale. Would you like to save the component with this scale?" - No clue what that means? Or what the effect is of answering yes vs. no, since it proceeds to save the model anyway.
   
2. The texture that was applied to the whole component is stripped in this process; so apparently one must apply the texture separately to all six faces of this component? Which also means that anyone wanting to modify that texture must do the same thing.
3. The process is convoluted. To update the component in the warehouse, it has to be first opened as a component (not opened directly as a model file!), modified, then repeat the process of right-click/Save As/open/share - this preserves the internal model ID. The original file where the component was first created might as well be discarded because it's useless for updating.
4. The distinction between opening a model that has been downloaded from the warehouse vs. opening the same model as a component isn't obvious at all! Maybe there is no such thing as a casual user of Sketchup?

[joseph...@gmail.com]

P.S. The requirement to put a description in the 'Model Info/File' area, separate from but likely identical to the description used by the warehouse is a pain - easy to forget.

Also, in some of my component models, the "Claim Credit" button is disabled - why?

[bry...@google.com]

Hi Joseph

1 - The "The selected component has a non-default scale. Would you like to save the component with this scale?" warning means you have scaled the component.  You can save it as the size it was when you insert the comp from the component browser (the size of the definition) or you can save it at the scaled size.

2 - a component is basically the same as a imported skp file.  Your material was applied to a component instance,  When you save out that instance to a single file, the material applied to the component is lost.

3&4  - I agree working with DC's can be really strange since many of the attributes are attached to the component definition and you can't access those attributes unless you insert the file as a component (Opening a DC doesn't get you very far).  We had hoped to improve this workflow but lots of factors prevented us from releasing a V2 of dynamic components.  Hopefully someday DCs will get the attention they deserve as they are really useful. 

~Bryce S