Organizing your model

Once a model outgrows a dozen objects, you stop finding things by orbiting around looking for them. The right-hand tray is the answer: the Outliner shows everything, Object Info names and tags the selected thing, and Tags toggles whole categories on and off.

The Outliner

The Outliner (View ▸ Model Info, ⇧⌘I / Ctrl+Shift+I) lists the document tree: every object, group (expandable), component instance, and free-standing sketch.

• Click a row to select it, Shift/⌘/Ctrl-click for multi-select.
• Double-click a row to enter that item’s editing context, exactly like double-clicking it in the viewport. The breadcrumb at the top shows your current context and steps you back out.
• The dot at the row’s right edge toggles visibility: ● shown, ○ hidden. Hiding a group hides everything inside it.
• Icons carry meaning: a cube is an object (drawn with a dashed outline if the object is leaky), a folder is a group, a hexagon is a component instance, a pen curve is a sketch.

Object Info: names and tags

Object Info (View ▸ Object Info, ⇧⌘O / Ctrl+Shift+O) shows the single selected item:

• Name: type a new one and press Enter. Clear the field to fall back to the automatic label (“Object 1”, “Group 2”, …). Sketches can’t be renamed.
• Type: Object, Group, Component, or Sketch.
• Geometry, for objects: Solid (green) or Leaky (red). Core concepts explains why this matters.
• Dimensions: the selection’s overall size — X × Y × Z in your current units — as a world, axis-aligned bounding box. A rotated part’s box is bigger than its own footprint, same as SketchUp’s; it’s the number that tells you whether the thing fits your print bed or stock, not its true local size.
• Tags: the item’s tag chips. Click + to add a tag; click a chip’s × to remove it.

With several things selected, Object Info shows the count, the selection’s combined Dimensions, and a Tags section for the whole selection: the tags that every selected item carries. + adds a tag to every selected item (it appears in the list at once) and a chip’s × removes it from all of them — each as a single undo step. A tag only some of the selection carries isn’t listed; select those items on their own to see it. Select one item to edit its name and other details.

Tags

Tags are labels for slicing a model into toggleable categories — Structure, Hardware, Reference, whatever fits your project. Unlike groups, tags don’t affect the model tree; an object can carry any number of tags no matter where it lives.

• Add a tag in Object Info with the + button. Use / to nest: typing Structure/Roof creates (or reuses) a Structure parent with a Roof child.
• The Tags panel (View ▸ Tags, ⇧⌘T / Ctrl+Shift+T) shows the resulting tree, with a count of tagged items on each row and an eye toggle that hides everything tagged at or under that path.
• Click a tag to select everything that carries it (or a tag nested under it) — the same gesture as clicking a row in the Outliner, and the quickest way to grab a whole category to move, group, or re-tag it.
• Rename a tag the way you rename a file: click the already-selected row a second time (a moment later, not a double-click), or double-click it, and its name opens for editing in place. Enter commits, Escape cancels. Only that segment changes — sub-tags and every item carrying the tag follow it, and the rename is undoable. A name that’s already in use is refused.
• Tag visibility composes with Outliner visibility — an item hidden by either stays hidden until both show it again.
• Delete a tag with the × button on its row. This removes the tag (and any sub-tags) from every item that carries it — the items themselves are never deleted, and anything that was hidden only by that tag becomes visible again. Deleting a tag is undoable.
• Tags import from SketchUp files, so a tagged SketchUp model arrives pre-organized. They’re saved in your .hew file and searchable in the command palette.

Practical conventions

• Name objects as soon as a model has more than a few — future you (and the command palette, which searches model names) will thank you.
• Prefer groups for things that move together, tags for things that show/hide together, and components for repeated parts (Groups and components).
• The watertightness badge in the status bar tells you whether something is leaky; the Outliner’s dashed icons and Object Info tell you what.