Explode all subjects in Sketchup

When an object has multiple groups or nests elements in multiple classes ,to explode the layers in the object, manually doing each layer takes a lot of time ,to explode these layers automatically and quickly use the Explode all tool .

The reason this matters: SketchUp’s native Explode command (Edit > Group/Component > Explode, or right-click > Explode) only ever unwraps one nesting level at a time — exploding a parent group simply promotes its child groups and components up by one rank instead of dissolving the whole tree. On a model with five or six levels of nesting you would have to select and explode repeatedly, drilling down rank by rank. The Explode all tool walks the entire hierarchy in a single click so every group and component collapses down to raw edges and faces at once.

Tutorial video:

Steps by steps:

• Click select object
• Click explode all tool
• The object was quickly exploded

  

Things to know before you explode everything

A few behaviors catch even experienced users off guard:

• Exploding is destructive and merges with whatever it touches. Once geometry leaves its container it heals into adjacent edges and faces in the same context — coplanar faces fuse and shared edges split. There is no “un-explode”: undo is the only way back, so save (or copy the object to a spare layer/tag) before running it on anything important.
• Multiple copies of one component all turn into independent loose geometry. Because explode breaks the link to the component definition, you permanently lose the ability to edit-once-update-all. If you only need them ungrouped temporarily, consider this carefully — there is no shortcut to re-associate the geometry afterward.
• A locked group or component silently refuses to explode. If part of the tree won’t come apart, the usual cause is a locked instance (or, occasionally, an instance still glued or holding a non-default tag) — unlock it first rather than assuming the tool failed.
• Solid status does not survive a full explode. Flattening everything to a single context is exactly what you do to bring parts to the same level for the Solid Tools, but the parent itself stops being a “solid” the moment its children dissolve, so group the pieces you still need as solids before running boolean operations.

This tool works the same way across recent SketchUp 2026 releases on both Windows and Mac. Since 2020 SketchUp ships only as a named-user subscription (no perpetual licenses), so installing extensions through the Extension Warehouse requires you to be signed in to your Trimble account.