Lesson 02: Sketchup Dynamic Components Attributes List Explanation

With Sketchup Dynamic Components, the first task is to work with Attributes. Object properties, simply understand what attributes of an object you want to manipulate, for example, you want to control the size, or control position, or control rotation, material control … Or you simply want to assign a parameter so all components can share it. This lesson will give you an overview of the properties, and if you do not understand them, it is okay to ignore them. The goal of this lesson is just to remember what the Attributes of a Component are that you want to control. One thing most tutorials skip: authoring Dynamic Components (editing these attributes in the Component Attributes panel) is a SketchUp Pro feature only — the free Web version can interact with finished Dynamic Components but cannot open or edit their attribute list, so this lesson assumes SketchUp Pro 2022 or newer.

Size Attributes

Size Attributes are the most used attributes, used to determine the size of a Component. The actual attribute names you type into formulas are LenX, LenY and LenZ (length in the red, green and blue directions) — not “SizeX/SizeY/SizeZ”. SketchUp only labels them “Size” in the UI, so writing SizeX in a formula will silently fail. You should set these Size Attributes first, and the following properties will be easier.

Position Attributes

Position Attributes are position attributes, including X, Y and Z dimensions. This is the second most important attribute after the Size property.

Rotation Attribute

Set the rotation angle of the component, this property is rarely used, sometimes only used when creating a door opening. It also includes 3 dimensions called RotX, RotY, RotZ, each measured in degrees.

Behaviors Attributes

The Behaviors property is heavily used, directly affecting the Components object. 3dshouse will explain each specific attribute below with an example

• Material: Setting material for Component.
• ScaleTool: Reduce the number of anchor points of the Scale tool (Frequently used)
• Hidden: Hide the Current Component — value 1 hides it, 0 shows it (Commonly Used)
• Onclick: To use the Interact Component Feature
• Copies: Duplicate the Component

A trick most articles miss: alongside “Copies” there is a hidden, read-only variable named “Copy” (singular). Inside a formula it holds the index of each duplicate — 0 for the original, 1 for the first copy, and so on — so a formula like =Copy*30 automatically spaces every duplicate apart and turns a single component into an array (fence posts, stair treads, shelf rows) without any extra geometry.

Component Info

Component Info only shows more information in the Component Options panel, it has no impact on the Component itself, so in short you can ignore this feature. 3dshouse also only uses this feature to place links from Models to web articles. To put in the link, you also need to know a little bit of HTML code.

• Name: The display name of the Component in the Component Options window, if not set, Sketchup automatically takes the current name of the Component.
• Sumary: Summary of Component information, can use HTML code, in the example below it uses HTML code to create links to articles on the website.
• Description: Detailed description of the component, can use HTML code.
• ItemCode: Component code, used for component type in large projects.

Security note (still relevant in 2026): because Summary, Description and the ImageURL field below render real HTML in the Component Options dialog, they were the exact vector for CVE-2026-9264 — a crafted SKP file could run hidden scripts and read local files through that dialog. SketchUp patched it in the 2026.1.3 desktop update (April 2026). So keep these fields to plain links and text, and only open Dynamic Components from sources you trust on a patched SketchUp.

Form Design

The Design form is just a layout of the Component Options panel, not the Component itself, so you can ignore it; this feature does not help much. 3dshouse experts who use Dynamic Components also do not use the feature because it has no effect on the model, it only looks different.

• ImageURL: Instead of letting the software automatically create a Component Image, we can pull a GIF, JPG or PNG from a website.
• DialogWidth: Width of the Component Options Window
• DialogHeigh: The height of the Component Options Window